Leading A PE-Backed Company In 2026

Higher rates, increasing multiple contraction, LP pressure for distributions, the sheer backlog of PE-backed companies waiting to exit and buyers having more choices. Add to the mix an uncertain economy, and things get really sticky. Welcome to running a private equity backed company in 2026.

At our 2026 PE-Backed Leadership Summit, held September 10 in New York City, CEOs and CFOs of PE-backed companies gathered to get a pulse on the current state of the industry and share tactics for navigating it. In a word: it’s tricky. “You can’t necessarily implement all the value creation blueprint, particularly in an uncertain economy in under five years. That takes longer: six, seven, eight,” said Paul Aversano, managing director and global practice leader at Alvarez and Marsal.

“More than 33,000 portcos remain unsold at this point, which says buyers have lots and lots of options. This is more than twice the number just six years ago,” Ted Bililies, global head of transformative leadership practice and managing director at AlixPartners. “So exit readiness then doesn’t become a one-week sprint or a one-year sprint. Exit readiness really becomes an operational discipline that ends when the deal closes, quite frankly.”

Since the old PE return mechanics are less reliable, operational value creation matters that much more. “Buyers are underwriting the future, not the past. Organic revenue is necessary, but it’s not sufficient, so they’re really looking for ways in which you’re going to expand and grow,” said Bililies.

Some takeaways:

Clean the slate. Dan Glaser, operating partner at CD&R and former president and CEO of Marsh McLennan, advised CEOs to throw out the status quo. “If you started with a clean slate, would you structure yourself this way? Would you go to the market this way? Would you have these divisions together?” he said. “The whole purpose of running a company is to create things and destroy things. It’s not to sustain them.”

The next thesis. Nigel Travis, senior advisor at Blackstone and chair of Abercrombie, Servpro, Tropical Smoothie and Jersey Mikes, said that the first thing he considers during a potential acquisition is the growth story. CEOs need to consider the next buyer’s thesis right from the start “When someone else buys it, what will they do with it?” That’s your plan of action today.

Focus on your moat. It is not just about a good product; it’s the big picture. “You need to have several layers in there,” said Gabriel Anaya, CFO of medical device manufacturer Irrimax. “For me, it will be the product itself, clinical adaptation, IP, brand awareness, customer relationships, supply change. When you [have] all those together, that’s when it’s going be something really hard to replicate.”

Pricing is crucial. In an inflationary environment, business leaders are understandably hesitant to alienate their customers, but “it’s not about being a hawk out there,” argues Suzanne Yoon, founder and managing partner at PE investment firm Kinzie Partners. “It’s about figuring out how can you leverage your advantages to bring a win-win to the customers and improve your own economics.”

Building the right team. According to research from AlixPartners, private equity investors say leadership is the number one value-creating lever in a portco. Yet, a majority lack significant confidence they’ve got the right people. “If you’re not talking about your talent with your board and with your sponsors on a regular basis, you really need to be. [It is a] critical lever,” said Bililies.

Find “unreasonable people.” “At the end, you don’t have a team of friends. You don’t need to have a team of rivals, but what you do need is a team of people who are driven for performance,” said Glaser. “Usually highly intelligent, highly motivated, highly insecure and agitated. Unreasonable people get better results than reasonable people.”

Aversano, for one, thinks the midterm elections may bring some relief, or at least slightly more direction to the political and economic climate. “There may be a handbrake on some of what’s gone on,” he said, “that may be just enough so that people, whatever the expectations will be, at least there will be some defined expectations.”