Higher interest rates, higher entry multiples and lower exit multiples have seen more scrutiny from LPs and GPs on operational value creation to maintain target returns. With the need to grow and retain value in portfolios, for longer, heightened focus on building effective portfolio operations teams and frameworks has continued at pace.

How to Build and Foster long-term PE & PortCo Partnerships

As a vendor solely focused on advancing value creation in PE, we’ve witnessed the rise of the portfolio operations team first-hand in recent years. And we’re not alone in recognizing the impact of this – according to McKinsey & Company’s 2025 global report, the average operating group size across funds of all sizes has more than doubled in the past three years alone.

This growing focus on portfolio operations, regardless of AUM, underscores the need for proven processes, templates and frameworks across the industry, governed by real-world best practice.  

Finally, Real-World Value Creation Best Practice

It’s why – perhaps unsurprisingly – one of the most common questions we hear from PE firms, regardless of size, strategy or value creation maturity is “what is everyone else doing?”

And it’s why we’re excited to launch the Operational Value Creation: Bridging Theory and Practice Series. With a firsthand view of how this new era of operational focus is evolving, we’re distilling insights from the 50,000+ value creation initiatives we’ve helped enable to date to help uncover actionable strategies to help firms navigate this new landscape.

The first in this series is now available: Best Practice Guide: Supporting Smooth Transitions to More Collaborative Value Creation Management.

It outlines actionable best practices for fostering a successful value creation collaboration between PE stakeholders and portfolio companies (PortCos), from ensuring VCP alignment, overcoming common reporting and governance challenges to building an agile culture that delivers.

Building Successful PE Partnerships, For the Long-term.

A successful long-term partnership in PE requires a seamless transition from acquisition to value creation collaboration as early as possible. The new best practice guide delves into the five most common challenges PE sponsors face when looking to foster and enhance a relationship of operational excellence with their PortCos:

1. Aligning stakeholders on Value Creation goals & execution

2. Adapting to new performance metrics, reporting and KPIs

3. Building an agile culture and digital transformation 

4. Ensuring efficient communication and accountability

5. Enabling a data-driven approach.

We know that every firm, and every operating team make-up, is different in terms of its technical resources and approach to implementing structure and process. The degree to which you adopt different value creation frameworks and methodologies, and at what pace, will depend on a number of factors, including your strategy, size, investment-type and starting point.

Regardless of where you are on your value creation journey, bridging theory and practice is designed to offer real-world insight that you can use to fuel your operations.

We’ll be publishing snippets and best practice from the first guide in the series here on the blog over the coming weeks, but in the meantime, you can download the guide in full, here.