“Active Approach” to Managing and Developing Team: How do you think about your current team - make additions and cuts, and plan for the team who can match your growth plan? The standard approach is to add and trim reactively. Instead, take an “active” approach to people management. If it’s not working, let’s give notice and attempt for improvement, and if not, quickly cut. If we need a key player, find and add now.

Hiring a Co-Head, a New Partner, a New VP/Principal: The most beneficial / dangerous decision you can make is who you hire. Whether it’s a new co-head for you, a new partner under you, or a strong midlevel person you hope can grow into a strong partner — the people you hire make or break your culture and productivity. You’re actually assembling a “family” of like-minded people with differing ways of seeing the world. You must firmly understand your own psychological profile, strengths and blind spots, as well as those of all of your team members in order to do this well.

Business Selection: “Pick your clients like you’d pick your friends.” The biggest clients aren’t always the best. How do you consciously build a book of business? How do you say no to certain prestigious clients who surface level may seem like a no brainer.

Business Development: Whether you run the firm or an industry vertical, you’re running a small business. How can you maximize the enterprise value of your business over time? How can you build a resilient team with a consistent, repeatable process?

Asset Deployment Pacing: Multiples rise and fall with markets; your investment strategy searches for investments which fit a certain mold. How do you keep an appropriate pace of deployment despite all the noise? After all, LPs hired you to put their money to work. Nothing is more damning than choppy deployment when you go to raise your next fund.

Fund Raising Considerations: Who do you want to raise money from, why? How should your funding mix change over time? What do you need to do today to get in front of your future needs. How does the market understand your brand, strategy and track record… is repositioning needed to fuel the growth of your enterprise?

Whole Business Reconsideration: What’s the current model, what could we shutter / what could we open to drive enterprise value. What made sense years ago might not be the optimal strategy today. It takes a lot to be willing to consider this. I help you create a strawman that makes commercial sense, and then we bring it to key stakeholders

Managing a Board of Directors: Who will help your firm / strategy grow? Sometimes you don’t get to choose your board - how do you handle tricky members? Even though you run something, you still have to “manage up.”

Messaging LPs, Key Investors / Owners: How do you understand what your clients need? How can you make sure your clients are being heard so that you can count on them when you go to raise money the next time

Telling Your Story: How do you take your philosophy and communicate in a commercial fashion?

Negotiating/Restructuring with JV Partners: Often it is attractive to enter an investment with a partner. Over time, the partnership runs its course. Perhaps you want to inject capital and the partner cannot fund their pro rata share. Perhaps you want out? While the lawyers will take you down one unproductive rabbit hole, this is a game of chess and deep understanding of the other person’s psychological needs.

Managing Portfolio Company CEOs: The CEOs of the companies you buy not only drive your MOICs/IRRs, they can also make your life easy or hellish. Whether they are great, or border on difficult, we discuss optimal strategies for managing these key relationships.