PRIORITISING YOUR VALUE CREATION LEVERS: GROWTH, PROCUREMENT, AI, AND M&A

A successful value-creation plan isn’t about doing everything — it’s about focusing on the right things at the right time. This session explores how to structure and prioritise for a balanced plan, ensuring leadership attention flows to the levers that actually move equity value during the hold period.

 

• A practical five-pillar VCP: growth, procurement, AI, integration, and cash-funded M&A 
• How to prioritise between long-term bets and high-impact, near-term wins 
• Governance that creates focus: ownership, sequencing, and the role of the transformation office 
• How to measure value-attribution across growth, synergy, AI impact, and M&A 

PRE-ACQUISITION: IDENTIFYING VALUE CREATION OPPORTUNITIES THROUGH COMPREHENSIVE COMMERCIAL AND OPERATIONAL DUE DILIGENCE

More often than before, operating partners are being brought into the due diligence process in order to build a robust commercial and operational due diligence to unlock hidden value before an acquisition. Join this session to hear from experienced operating partners on how they have approached the due diligence process in evaluating the company’s commercial performance, operational readiness, and integration fit to ensure smarter investments and faster post-deal value realisation.

• Uncover value drivers and risk factors early through operational and commercial due diligence 
• Explore methodologies for evaluating market positioning, customer base health, and revenue sustainability 
• Understand how to assess operational maturity, scalability, and integration readiness to inform post-deal planning. 
• Gain practical insights where due diligence led to successful value creation or helped avoid value traps. 
• Where can operating partners get involved in due diligence? 
• What are the perspectives from the Portco executives? 

WILL AI EAT SAAS FOR BREAKFAST? AND HOW DOES IT MATTER FOR VALUE CREATION? 

Following several high-profile industry developments, SaaS’s dominance in the enterprise productivity space is increasingly being challenged by large language models and agentic AI capabilities. For private equity investors, this debate goes far beyond hype. It raises critical questions about portfolio resilience, pricing models, defensibility, and where the next wave of technology value will be created. In this session, value creation leaders will challenge some of the prevailing narratives around AI and SaaS and explore what this shift could mean for operators and investors.

• Will AI agents replace the Saas model? 
• Is the SaaS “seat-based” model breaking? How to increase the gross margins as companies shift from SaaS to AI based models? G Are companies shifting the “Buy” vs “Build” strategies? 
• How will AI-enhanced products adapt through new pricing, contracting and commercialisation models? 
• Where will the next generation of defensible software companies emerge?