Private equity-backed companies are ubiquitous and economically significant. Consequently, the corporate governance of these companies matters to all of us, and – not surprisingly – is coming under increasing scrutiny. Simon Witney, a practicing private equity lawyer, positions private equity portfolio companies within existing academic theory and examines the laws that apply to them in the UK. He analyses the actual governance frameworks that are put in place and identifies problems created by the legal rules – as well as the market's solutions to them. This book not only explains why these governance mechanisms are established, but also what they are expected to achieve. Witney suggests that private equity owners have both the incentives and the capability to focus on responsible investment practices. Good governance, he argues, is a critical success factor for the private equity industry.
Private equity firms have long been at the center of public debates on the impact of the financial sector on Main Street companies. Are these firms financial innovators that save failing businesses or financial predators that bankrupt otherwise healthy companies and destroy jobs? The first comprehensive examination of this topic, Private Equity at Work provides a detailed yet accessible guide to this controversial business model. Economist Eileen Appelbaum and Professor Rosemary Batt carefully evaluate the evidence—including original case studies and interviews, legal documents, bankruptcy proceedings, media coverage, and existing academic scholarship—to demonstrate the effects of private equity on American businesses and workers. They document that while private equity firms have had positive effects on the operations and growth of small and mid-sized companies and in turning around failing companies, the interventions of private equity more often than not lead to significant negative consequences for many businesses and workers. Prior research on private equity has focused almost exclusively on the financial performance of private equity funds and the returns to their investors. Private Equity at Work provides a new roadmap to the largely hidden internal operations of these firms, showing how their business strategies disproportionately benefit the partners in private equity firms at the expense of other stakeholders and taxpayers. In the 1980s, leveraged buyouts by private equity firms saw high returns and were widely considered the solution to corporate wastefulness and mismanagement. And since 2000, nearly 11,500 companies—representing almost 8 million employees—have been purchased by private equity firms. As their role in the economy has increased, they have come under fire from labor unions and community advocates who argue that the proliferation of leveraged buyouts destroys jobs, causes wages to stagnate, saddles otherwise healthy companies with debt, and leads to subsidies from taxpayers. Appelbaum and Batt show that private equity firms’ financial strategies are designed to extract maximum value from the companies they buy and sell, often to the detriment of those companies and their employees and suppliers. Their risky decisions include buying companies and extracting dividends by loading them with high levels of debt and selling assets. These actions often lead to financial distress and a disproportionate focus on cost-cutting, outsourcing, and wage and benefit losses for workers, especially if they are unionized. Because the law views private equity firms as investors rather than employers, private equity owners are not held accountable for their actions in ways that public corporations are. And their actions are not transparent because private equity owned companies are not regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Thus, any debts or costs of bankruptcy incurred fall on businesses owned by private equity and their workers, not the private equity firms that govern them. For employees this often means loss of jobs, health and pension benefits, and retirement income. Appelbaum and Batt conclude with a set of policy recommendations intended to curb the negative effects of private equity while preserving its constructive role in the economy. These include policies to improve transparency and accountability, as well as changes that would reduce the excessive use of financial engineering strategies by firms. A groundbreaking analysis of a hotly contested business model, Private Equity at Work provides an unprecedented analysis of the little-understood inner workings of private equity and of the effects of leveraged buyouts on American companies and workers. This important new work will be a valuable resource for scholars, policymakers, and the informed public alike.
The decisions of private equity firms affect the development of industries and national economies, yet little is known about how these decisions are made. Mark Broere uses proprietary survey data from 136 private equity firms (venture capital and buyout) located in the US, Canada, and Europe to explore determinants and rules of their decision-making. The results exhibit new facts about their objectives, success measures, decision criteria, exit decision power and rules. A discussion in light of existing financial theory highlights, e.g. the role of reputation, and potential pitfalls in the decision-making of practitioners. The author suggests that private equity firms might improve their performance by a more careful choice of decision rules and criteria and by a more consistent application of these across varying decision types.
Private equity firms are snapping up brand-name companies and assembling portfolios that make them immense global conglomerates. They're often able to maximize investor value far more successfully than traditional public companies. How do PE firms become such powerhouses? Learn how, in Lessons from Private Equity Any Company Can Use. Bain chairman Orit Gadiesh and partner Hugh MacArthur use the concise, actionable format of a memo to lay out the five disciplines that PE firms use to attain their edge: · Invest with a thesis using a specific, appropriate 3-5-year goal · Create a blueprint for change--a road map for initiatives that will generate the most value for your company within that time frame · Measure only what matters--such as cash, key market intelligence, and critical operating data · Hire, motivate, and retain hungry managers--people who think like owners · Make equity sweat--by making cash scarce, and forcing managers to redeploy underperforming capital in productive directions This is the PE formulate for unleashing a company's true potential.
Current strategy thinking focuses on what to do, not how to motivate employees, suppliers and business partners to do it. Whether working with employees or with external suppliers, companies are increasingly stumbling with implementing strategy. But why is this happening? And how can we address it? Collaboration Strategy argues that motivating people and companies is fundamental to business success. In the activities that matter most in today's economy – design, development, marketing, sales, projects – it is hard to define just what you want done. Setting up business activities to get the results you want becomes a strategic challenge. In industries from pharmaceuticals to fashion, software to stock exchanges, new ways of working with partners that break down traditional company boundaries and establish new roles and relationships have enabled businesses to grow rapidly and achieve superior profits. At the heart of this book, Felix Barber and Michael Goold have combined their considerable expertise to present a complete and original 'collaboration framework' based on their findings over a seven year period in which they interviewed over 200 businesses. The framework explains how to set up to get the results you want for a range of different activities and industries. They present the 10 requirements needed for profitable collaboration, and use real-life scenarios to apply their framework and analysis, offering a menu of tactics to address the most common problems in setting up collaboration with partners. Essentially, you must design a basis for working together, or 'collaboration,' with your employees and suppliers that will get them to do what you want.
When the economy was booming and dot-coms were flying high, venture capitalists were admired as impresarios of innovation. Then the market tanked, start-ups fizzled, and those same deal-makers were rebuked as predators out for a quick score. So which portrayal is accurate? Where is this much-hyped industry heading? And what will it mean for the future of innovation in the global economy? In this definitive book, industry experts Paul Gompers and Josh Lerner provide the first cool-headed explanation of the venture capital industry and the role it plays in our economy. They underscore that, regardless of the economic conditions, innovation is incredibly difficult to finance, take to market, and translate into value. While venture capital has evolved to address these problems-the industry has fueled innovation, economic growth, and wealth creation for decades-features of the venture industry have left it vulnerable to boom-and-bust cycles. In the near future, say the authors, the industry must transform dramatically, with important implications for industry players and the entrepreneurs and organizations they serve. Drawing from compelling research and industry "war stories," Gompers and Lerner present a series of practical frameworks for understanding the relationships among venture capital, innovation, and entrepreneurial success. They demystify how the venture capital world operates, and outline the opportunities and obstacles faced by all players in this evolving arena. They explore: · The problems entrepreneurs encounter in securing financing, and how the venture capital model can help innovators to resolve them · How venture capitalists can effectively pursue promising opportunities while building a sustainable franchise · How corporations, nonprofits, and government institutions can harness the power-and avoid the pitfalls-of the venture capital model when applying it in their own sectors Whether the industry is enjoying an incredible growth spurt or weathering an economic slowdown, readers will find this book an immensely practical guide to leveraging the venture capital model to turn innovation into value. Paul A. Gompersis a Professor of Business Administration and a Director of Research at Harvard Business School.Josh Lerneris a Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School. Both authors live in the Boston area.
The term private equity typically includes investments in venture capital or growth investment, as well as late stage, mezzanine, turnaround (distressed), and buyout investments. It typically refers to the asset class of equity securities in companies that are not publicly traded on a stock exchange. However, private equity funds do in fact make investments in publicly held companies, and some private equity funds are even publicly listed. Chapters in this book cover both private and public company investments, as well as private and publicly listed private equity funds. This Handbook provides a comprehensive picture of the issues surrounding the structure, governance, and performance of private equity. It comprises contributions from 41 authors based in 14 different countries. The book is organized into seven parts, the first of which covers the topics pertaining to the structure of private equity funds. Part II deals with the performance and governance of leveraged buyouts. Part III analyzes club deals in private equity, otherwise referred to as syndicated investments with multiple investors per investees. Part IV provides analyses of the real effects of private equity. Part V considers the financial effects of private equity. Part VI provides analyzes of listed private equity. Finally, Part VII provides international perspectives on private equity.
This work analyzes the role of private equity firms (SCIs) in forming strategic alliances in the French private equity market. The subject is important because the formation of alliances and, more generally, the networking of SMEs, could be an alternative to the lack of medium-sized companies in France. For French SCIs, which are increasingly in a competitive situation, assistance in forming alliances for their holdings may represent a new activity and be a source of competitive advantage. The work is positioned transversally, touching the areas of corporate governance, entrepreneurial finance and strategy.
Innovation... personal fulfillment... and limitless potential to help people-and prosper. These are the rewards for physicians who become entrepreneurs and blaze their own trails in business to provide medical products and services-all while creating a balanced personal life that's fulfilling and adventurous. Unfortunately, many physicians and medical professionals believe that they're not good business people. And they're afraid to step out of the traditional comfort zones of working in hospitals and other institutional settings-where bureaucracies can limit creativity, prosperity, and impact. Now Dr. Francisco Arredondo, MD, MPH, is on a mission to show medical professionals how to excel above and beyond traditional constraints-by becoming entrepreneurs. In MedikalPreneur: The Official Guidebook for Physicians' Success in Business, Dr. Arredondo shares his experience and expertise to guide health care professionals into the unlimited and fulfilling possibilities in business. He did it very successfully, and now he wants to teach YOU how to become a successful medical entrepreneur. Written in easy-to-understand language, this book showcases Dr. Arredondo's story while providing solid nuts-and-bolts information about business plans, accounting, marketing, teamwork, human resources, designing a transformative patient experience, and more. Dr. Arredondo coined the term "MedikalPreneur" to describe physicians like himself who master the art of entrepreneurship in ways that transform the lives of countless patients with innovative products and services. He is a true MedikalPreneur, having built a fertility center that expanded into a network of entrepreneurial ventures with more than 80 team members. Dr. Arredondo emphasizes that MedikalPreneurs can enjoy financial success and freedom for family time, world travel, and philanthropy. As the medical profession undergoes major shifts resulting from the coronavirus pandemic and other factors, MedikalPreneur: The Official Guidebook for Physicians' Success in Business by Dr. Francisco Arredondo highlights a path toward exciting new opportunities for health care professionals to shift their mindsets and embark on missions to help people and achieve success.
