Colm Lanigan: From great to excellent

My experience as both a limited partner and an operator has led me to believe that the most effective way to build successful companies is through a focus on return on invested capital and growth. That requires alignment, which starts very early in the diligence process by looking at the five-to-ten-year plan that the management team wants to execute on.

Management teams want partners who can provide the necessary resources to build the business and help think through challenges. Our ability to call on the resources of the entire firm makes our support especially powerful. We are laser-focused on executing value-creation plans, working closely with management to drive operational improvements and strategic growth initiatives. It’s a partnership, rather than a command-and-control approach – management teams don't want you running the business.

When people think of private equity, they tend to think of investors coming into struggling companies and restructuring them. Our approach is different. We are looking for companies that have consistently demonstrated strong earnings and are led by industry-defining CEOs with proven track records of execution. Our approach involves identifying growth opportunities that others might overlook and focusing our value creation plans on maximizing high-ROIC opportunities. In my experience, the majority of returns in private equity come from growth.