Thought Leadership
Perspectives on growth strategy, transaction advisory, board governance, and the operating realities that strategy frameworks usually leave out.
Most companies do not have a strategy problem — they have an execution-discipline problem. KPMG's 2025 analysis of more than 3,000 acquisitions found that 57 percent of acquirers destroy shareholder value post-close. McKinsey finds that nearly 70 percent of deals fail to achieve projected revenue synergies. The common thread is not deal quality. It is the working system — or the absence of one — around the strategy.
In this piece, we walk through the three failure patterns we see most consistently — vague ownership and accountability, milestones that drift quietly, and a refresh loop that never gets scheduled — and how the GrowthSpaces® methodology is built to prevent each one. We also examine what these patterns mean specifically in the context of M&A integration, where the cost of execution failure is measured in destroyed shareholder value.
Most companies do not have a strategy problem — they have an execution-discipline problem. KPMG's 2025 analysis found that 57 percent of acquirers destroy shareholder value post-close. McKinsey finds nearly 70 percent of deals fail to achieve projected synergies. The common thread is not deal quality. It is the working system around the strategy.
PE firms back the Jockey, not just the horse. Drawing on board service across PE-backed portfolios and research from Bain, McKinsey, and Egon Zehnder, this piece examines what sponsors actually look for — and why the most effective operating board directors function as catalysts for the CEO, not a layer of oversight above them.
Ninety percent of integration plans look the same on paper. The ten percent that survive contact with the acquired company share a small set of structural choices most acquirers underweight. We walk through what they are, drawing on direct experience leading two Schneider Electric integrations and several PE-backed platform builds.
A CEO vacancy in a PE-backed company is not a pause in the investment thesis — it is a defining test of it. Drawing on Collins' Good to Great, Bossidy's execution framework, and 30 years of operating experience, this piece examines what PE firms actually need in an interim CEO, and how GrowthSpaces® Interim Management Solutions matches the right executive to the right assignment.
Lower middle-market PE firms face a structural tension: value creation demands operating-partner depth that most firms cannot afford to maintain internally. We examine eight specific capabilities — from Lean operations and pricing architecture to the mirror board — that GrowthSpaces® deploys alongside the operating partner to close that gap without undermining their authority.
The same qualities that make owner-operators exceptional — personal relationships, complete command of the details — are precisely what makes institutional buyers cautious. We outline the 18-to-24-month preparation framework that closes the gap: building bench strength, normalizing financials, and building the organizational depth that commands a premium — whether the goal is growth capital or a divestiture.
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