Five take-aways from Real Deals Value Creation Conference

RealDeals Value Creation Conference added a second day this year to focus on organizational effectiveness and talent as a key driver of value creation.

The key take-aways at this conference can be summarized in five areas:

1) In an era of higher interest rates, more focus will need to be on driving operational improvement in  the underlying performance of the portfolio companies to generate an adequate risk adjusted return.

2) Cultivating an ecosystem of trusted external partners for pre- and post-deal services is an essential element of the value creation tool box.

3) Talent and strong leadership is essential for weathering the current market turbulence and generating reasonable returns.

4) There is a polarization of valuations and success in the market. The few targets that can demonstrate margin stability in the current cycle are still fetching high valuations. But for all others, there is a wide gap between seller and buyer expectations.

5) The Talent Operating Partner role is changing and broadening as deal teams are asking for support beyond talent sourcing. Increasingly, Talent Partners are being asked to support organizational, cultural and HR-function transformation.