Private Equity Is Evolving — Leadership Development Is the New Frontier

Private Equity Is Evolving — Leadership Development Is the New Frontier

For more than a decade, private equity’s edge has come from operational improvements — optimising supply chains, procurement, and analytics. But today, a new lever is emerging: leadership and culture as drivers of sustainable value creation.

At Kholo, we’ve seen this shift firsthand.

The Shift in Private Equity’s Playbook

• Sun Capital built advantage through procurement and logistics. We worked with one of its portfolio companies in Kenya, supporting farm operations and supply chain optimisation — seeing how operations strategy drives impact on the ground.
• Hg Capital leaned into AI and analytics to boost customer conversion. We partnered with a SaaS portfolio company to harmonise customer data, unlocking deeper commercial insight.

These operational wins remain important. But increasingly, the real differentiator is shifting from processes to people.

Why Leadership Development Is the Missing Link

At a recent Barton Partnership webinar, leaders including Colin Price, Ted Bililies (AlixPartners), James Ryding, and Tracey Abbott discussed how PE firms are already using AI to:

• Map team chemistry
• Predict attrition based on manager dynamics
• Identify future leaders faster

Yet, one gap remains: leadership development.

Only 29% of Fortune 500 executives feel prepared to grow their next generation of leaders. For mid-cap firms aiming to boost EBITDA, the next advantage won’t just come from cost-cutting or automation. It will come from cultivating leaders who can adapt and scale culture.

Culture as the Next Advantage for Value Creation

Sustainable growth depends on adaptive, high-trust organisations. That means embedding psychological safety, regenerative leadership, and systems literacy into the fabric of teams.

Firms that do this will outperform not just through efficiencies, but by unlocking human potential at scale.

Kholo’s Approach: Leadership Development in Private Equity

At Kholo, we help firms embed these capabilities from the inside out. Our approach integrates:

• Strategy and structure to align operations with growth goals.
• Systems thinking to keep organisations responsive to external change.
• Leadership development to grow the people who drive results.

Because while processes deliver efficiencies, it’s people and culture that sustain value creation.

Conclusion: Private Equity’s Human Frontier

Private equity is evolving. The firms that thrive in the next decade will be those that see leadership and culture not as soft factors, but as strategic assets.

At Kholo, we help leaders in Lisbon, London, and globally prepare for this new frontier. Book a call with Kholo.

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