Trends, direction, results — read in depth.
Analysis on the business-direction market and on what creates value. Continuously updated, on current trends.
The exit drought has made the operating partner the most important person in private equity
With distributions in a multi-year drought and DPI now the metric limited partners care about most, buyout returns can no longer come from leverage or multiple expansion. They have to be manufactured inside the company - which is why operational value creation, and the operating partner who leads it, has moved from the edge of a fund to its centre.
Value creation in the '12 is the new 5' era: the mid-market needs an operating partner, not another cost programme
With cheap leverage and multiple expansion gone, buyout returns now depend on operational alpha. For funds that cannot staff a Capstone-style team, an embedded operating partner is the decisive value-creation lever.
The operating partner playbook: AI-driven value creation on portfolio companies in 2026
In 2026 operational value creation has replaced financial engineering as the dominant driver of returns, and the operating partner is the figure who delivers it inside the portfolio company. More than half of mid-market private-equity portfolio companies now run active AI initiatives, and competition for operating talent that can integrate AI, accelerate commercial performance, fix pricing and harden the supply chain is escalating. We set out the playbook that turns a thesis into value proven by the numbers: the 100-day plan and AI-on-margin, from entry to exit.
Board-level AI governance: the oversight that separates value from accumulated risk
Almost every company uses AI, yet almost no board governs it: across 3,048 listed companies only 8% disclose board-level oversight of AI and just 16% have a director with AI expertise (ISS STOXX, 2026). The gap is not technical, it is a gap of governance. Here is the oversight framework that turns AI from diffuse risk into governed value.
Capital allocation: the discipline that separates the boards that create value
Every year a board makes one decision that weighs more than all the others: where the capital goes. Repeated over time, it is the choice that separates the boards that create value from those that erode it.
Family offices in Switzerland and Ticino: structure, governance and the continuity of wealth
Ticino offers stability, confidentiality and a natural bridge to Europe. But in the great wealth transfer, geography is not enough: what decides whether a fortune lasts is governance and a prepared succession. Here is the framework.
SMEs and the mid-market: where senior direction creates value
In the mid-market the constraint is not capital: it is direction and structure. In Italy management consulting is moving from about 8.1 to 9.9 billion euro, with the SME segment growing fastest and asking for outcomes, not reports. A map of the five fronts where senior guidance creates or erodes value in owner-led companies, and how the fractional model makes it accessible.
Value creation for funds: the operational direction that protects and multiplies a portfolio company's value
For a decade private equity made returns on leverage and the entry multiple. That season is over: in 2026 operational value creation has replaced financial engineering as the primary driver of returns. The return is made after the closing, in execution on the portfolio company. We define operational value creation, the operating partner and the 100-day plan, and the playbook that turns an investment thesis into value proven with numbers.
AI in the enterprise: from theory to results, with method
Companies do not lack AI: they lack the method to take it from pilot to production. A framework built on a measurable objective, a redesigned process and governance to close the gap and turn AI into margin, decisions and time.
Fractional & interim: why it has become how companies grow
Fractional is not a stopgap: it is a structural shift in how managerial capability is bought. Global market above USD 5.7bn, demand up 46% year-on-year, 72% of CEOs ready to increase it. A decision logic, the four phases where it truly matters, and how to structure the mandate so value stays in the company.
Governance and the generational handover: the gap that puts family value at risk
In the largest wealth transfer in history, what decides whether a fortune lasts is not returns but governance. 86% of family offices have no succession plan for their decision-makers: here is the framework to close the gap.
Internationalisation toward the Middle East: opportunity and structure for Italian companies
The Middle East is the growth frontier for many Italian companies. But the opportunity is captured with structure, not improvisation: a three-move decision framework — market-entry strategy, corporate structure, cross-jurisdiction governance — so that distance never becomes loss of control.