WHAT WE DO

Having paid record-high prices for recent acquisitions and with exit conditions likely to be less favorable than those at entry, private equity firms need a radically different formula to earn attractive returns. They are replacing passive stewardship with a hands-on approach to building value in their portfolio companies.

ExpertActions is a leader in supporting an activist approach to ownership. We often find that the work we do immediately post-close has the biggest impact, and our numbers tell the story: The mean return of all investments during the first year where ExpertActions has been retained is top invested capital.

• Blueprint: Defines the business's full potential and creates a program to capture it–complete with specific initiatives, detailed action plans, assignment of accountability for results and a dashboard of metrics to track operational and financial performance;
• Focused initiatives: Identify highest priorities first, such as new product introductions, salesforce productivity and integration of add-on acquisitions; and
• Management workshops: Provide a structured, interactive forum for sponsors and managers to develop a value-creation plan.

ExpertActions draws on a full range of industry and functional expertise acquired over years as advisers to large and small companies around the world. We bring those capabilities to bear helping activist owners and their portfolio company management teams conduct a rigorous assessment of where their business has the best opportunities to increase its value. This effort identifies the most promising near-term initiatives and longer-term strategic opportunities, establishes time lines with milestones and calibrates the resources needed to meet them.

Throughout, it is our objective to help owner-activists accomplish one overarching goal: To help strong management teams increase the company's value under their ownership more than they could have achieved if bought by the next highest bidder. We share our clients' ambitions. We work to understand their reality and deliver results. And we align our incentives with our clients' objectives, so they know we're in it together.

• Boosting salesforce effectiveness of a PE-owned portfolio company: Private equity investors doubled their return after ExpertActions helped stem the tide of employee and customer defections from a portfolio company.
• Broader market plus tighter sales strategy equals big PE success: With ExpertActions advising, a newly-acquired specialty chemicals company prioritized growth opportunities and honed its go-to-market strategy, generating impressive earnings growth in a short period of time.
• Restoring polish to a faded home furnishings company: Industry-wide slow growth threatened our client's home furnishings portfolio company.
• Finding profit potential in a struggling portfolio company: Our full-potential approach helped our client boost profit potential by divesting assets and reducing purchasing costs