The Exit Playbook: The human key to exits
Private equity leaders discuss why managing human capital is the decisive factor in executing successful exits. The conversation covers continuous re-underwriting of management incentives, the disciplined expansion of the 'circle of trust,' strategies for mitigating executive deal exhaustion, retaining tier-two leaders, communicating with customers, and performing reverse diligence on prospective buyers.
- Mike Hollander points out that involving management too early pulls operational leaders away from their primary responsibilities and into deal obsession. Read →
- Deal fatigue during an exit process concentrates on the CEO and CFO, creating operating blind spots that can crater earnings. Read →
- Senior executives have deal equity and board visibility, but divisional heads, product leads, and commercial directors carry actual operational continuity during a sale. Read →
- Headline valuation numbers often mask operational mismatches that wreck executive incentives and damage a sponsor's reputation on future exits. Read →
- Private equity sponsors routinely treat management incentive plans as static documents signed at acquisition, ignoring how executive risk tolerance and personal circumstances drift across a multi-year hold. Read →