May Issue
Welcome to my newsletter. Consider this a collection of insights and ideas from myself and the team at CEO.works.
RECAP: CEO.works | Europe Webinar
I am grateful for the opportunity to discuss such an important topic with my esteemed colleague, Hein J.M. Knaapen, earlier this month. Those of you who attended this webinar will remember that we delved into the escalating trend of failed transformations led by CEOs and the challenges embedded in the pursuit of sustainable value creation. As someone who has spent much of my career working closely with CEOs and orchestrating organizational transformations, I shared some hard-earned insights and candid experiences.
Our lively discussion touched on pressing issues that CEOs need to consider if they want to create sustainable value. This included understanding why numerous transformations are falling short of their value ambitions, discerning what truly counts for value creation instead of what doesn't, and strategizing to match roles and talent to these endeavors effectively.
Our aim was to stimulate fresh thinking for CEOs and CHROs driven to generate sustainable value for their organizations. We offered personal observations and specialist knowledge that might help them chart the shortest course to sustainable value creation.
For those of you who were unable to join us for the live webinar on May 2, you can catch the replay. If you found our conversation valuable, you certainly won't want to miss Hein's next webinar on June 20. So, do follow Hein for more information about his next session.
The Conundrum of Unanticipated Value
In Hein's webinar, I recall quoting the wisdom of one Mike Tyson, who is well known for saying, "Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth."
In transformations, we have to be aware of the dynamic that when we build an investment thesis, or we have a strategy that we want to deploy, when that strategy meets the reality of the organization we have, as opposed to the one we wish we had, that's the punch in the mouth.
Similarly, one could apply the same wisdom to unanticipated value delivery in Private Equity, which is precisely why I found Bill Allen's next article in his Talent to Value™ in PE series insightful. Here's an excerpt:
Disruptive change has people nowadays looking to companies to save their lives—if not the world. In the last couple of years, that has generated a rich and diverse set of fresh business opportunities for private equity (PE) firms in crucial areas of society like healthcare and technology. Even before these new opportunities began emerging, the number of potential value events PE firms were managing across their portfolios had exploded. That makes it imperative that the firms’ leaders become much more efficient at mobilizing value delivery in each and every asset in their portfolios.
Can we capture this newly emerging, totally unanticipated value we see right in front of us—while we accelerate delivery of the value we have already underwritten in our deal theses?
One PE executive came to me with this question recently. His American-based firm was looking at the possibility of creating a fully integrated, inter-state health insurer and services provider for seniors. The idea was to roll up health insurers at the core, then leverage three adjacent networks to create an all-in-one “seniors health ecosystem”. The resulting enterprise would be a multichannel combination of three healthcare-related B2C networks (insurance, services, retail) and a data-based B2B operation.
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Investment thesis estimated revenues could potentially double the size of the firm in five years. I suggested we start by nailing down the main chunks of work to be done to access the value latent in this “health ecosystem” agenda. In discussions with the firm’s leadership team, we settled on:
The roles immediately adjacent to the work to be done in each of these five areas would be absolutely critical to success—as would be the platform. It had to seamlessly connect customers/patients, providers, retailers, and insurers. It had to give network partners access to the tools for growth—from plan documents and marketing to onboarding, certification, and support. It had to abide by privacy regulations and properly collect and bundle anonymized data from across the platform for reuse/resale to interested corporate and scientific parties. The size of this opportunity, the technology investment, and the work to be done were not insignificant.
You can find the full article here.
Diamond Sports Foundation News
Finally, as a Diamond Sports Foundation (DSF) founder, I'm eager to tell you about our mission and current projects:
Our primary objective at DSF is to boost the involvement of youth in sports and bridge the gap between young athletes and college baseball. We believe that every athlete deserves an opportunity to shine!
In our quest to materialize this vision, we've joined forces with MVP International to stage an Experiential Event spread over several days in Washington, DC. We're placing a spotlight on recruitment and exposure, with over 30 college coaches expected to attend. These coaches won't be mere spectators—they'll have direct, on-field access to the players. In addition, there will be evening events to foster deeper relationships and a sightseeing tour to appreciate the beauty and heritage of our nation's capital.
Excitingly, we're offering the chance to sponsor a player's participation in this three-day event. You can learn more and take part in this opportunity here: https://igfn.us/form/UyXu2w
If you're a brand seeking a more significant sponsorship opportunity, please don't hesitate to get in touch. We're ready to collaborate and create impactful opportunities for our youth and their future in sports.
I hope you are enjoying my newsletter. Feel free to leave me your feedback in the comments section below.
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Seasoned HR Leader specialized in Talent, Org Development and Transformation
1yThanks for sharing Sandy. It also makes me think how CEO's (and CHRO's) surround themselves with people who also anticipate the changes and disruptions and not only manage the predictable.