Next week, I will be attending the PEI Operating Partners Forum in San Francisco, along with several hundred Private Equity Operating Partners and others in the PE value creation ecosystem. It promises to be an informative event full of great networking, rekindled relationships, and informative content.

During the afternoon of June 7, I will be moderating a panel session on an important value creation topic, “Keys of GTM, sales and marketing strategies from diligence to exit.” I'll be joined in the session by a group of experienced Operating Partners – Zorian Rotenberg, from Charlesbank Capital Partners, Prerak Vohra from Goldman Sachs, Elizabeth Dresdale from Incline Equity Partners, and Sam Jones from KKR Capstone.

I had a chance to meet with the panelists last week, and we came up with the following list of “thought starters” to guide our conversation.

• Assessing go-to-market capabilities during the Diligence process
• The role of go-to-market initiatives in the priority list regarding onboarding the investment and the Value Creation Plan
• Common commercial resource gaps inside new investments
• Common technology gaps and the importance of technology transformation in the Value Creation Plan
• The importance of upgrading marketing and sales talent inside the portcos
• When and how to leverage consultants, interim and fractional executives to accelerate transformation and drive performance
• The impact of current economic conditions the approach to value creation
• The importance of reporting and data management in transformation and value creation
• Aligning sales and marketing efforts with the overall business strategy
• Helping commercial teams step out of their day-to-day to plan and execute more strategically
• The impact of add-on acquisitions on brand, reputation, value proposition and commercial teams
• Assessing progress and positioning for the next transaction

What would you add/takeaway from the list?

Are you going to the conference? We would love to see you at our session and catch up while in San Francisco or after.