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Karen Hayward
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Recent Posts
Revenue Growth is 54% of Exit Value. Is Yours Exit-Ready?
Revenue Growth is 54% of Exit Value. Is Yours Exit-Ready?
Part 2 of our exit readiness series. If you missed Part 1, start here: The Exit Readiness Gap: What PE Buyers See That You Don't.
According to Gain's The Private Equity Value Creation Report: 2025, revenue growth is the largest driver of PE value creation, contributing on average 54% of the total. Margin expansion accounts for 14%. Multiple expansion adds another 32%, but here's what that number obscures: multiple expansion is itself largely driven by revenue growth. Fast-growing companies typically command 30 to 50% higher exit multiples than slower-growing peers. Growth doesn't just add value directly. It amplifies every other value driver in the equation.
Don’t Delay Your Digital Diagnosis
Feb 2, 2021, 4:38:33 PM — For B2B companies, COVID-19 has only accelerated the trends towards online sales, which means it’s time to perform a comprehensive review of their digital strategy, and that includes taking a good, hard look at what the competition is doing. Last year, McKinsey & Co. published a survey on B2B buyer preference, reporting that every phase of the buyer’s journey is migrating online, and in particular, self-service options. In the research phase alone, over the last three years, there was an 85% jump in preference to conduct it online. That might not be so shocking, but during that same time, buyers preference for online resources for the evaluation phase leapt by 238%.
PEI Operating Partner Forum 2018 – Insights from a Fractional CMO and Managing Partner
Oct 30, 2018, 2:22:11 PM — Key top line growth themes include digital marketing, sales/marketing alignment and talent acquisition. This month, I had the opportunity to attend my second Private Equity International’s Operating Partner Forum in New York City. It is the largest gathering in the US of Operating Partners who come together to share learnings and discuss PE portfolio operational assessment and value addition. With acknowledgement that there is upwards of $1 Trillion in uninvested capital making deals more competitive, prices are higher and great outcomes will be more heavily reliant on top line revenue momentum. Discussion this year focused on the need to continue to drive operational excellence with a cost cutting focus AND be innovative in driving top line revenue. The 2017 forum panels were more focused on the opportunities to leverage go to market plans by investing in sales and sales productivity with discussions about helping portfolio companies with playbooks to accelerate top line revenue growth. Many panelists continue to acknowledge that their first hires were VP Sales leaders.