Five Opportunities that will Unlock Value in 2026 

By Alice MannIn Value Creation PlanPosted

2025 was a year of sweeping change – economically, technologically, and organizationally. And yet, in my conversations with leaders across the PE industry – despite the pace and breadth of these changes – the greatest challenge remains  aligning on the strategy, leadership roles, and structure required to capitalize on these changes in a way that unlocks value. 

Organizations seem to be getting stuck in locking in on the growth levers and organization transformation changes that will allow the enterprise to scale both growth and culture. As we step into 2026, I see five areas that will determine if sponsors and management teams actually deliver on the value creation plan or miss the opportunities ahead. 

1) For PE firms, AI is both a strategy and an operating model question 

PE firms have been assessing AI’s power to transform different industries, and functions to inform what they invest and divest. But AI innovation ishappening on the ground level in firms that are using AI to redesign how value creation happens inside portfolio companies. This is a huge opportunity to leverage org design and human capital strategies to accelerate growth through an integrated AI and human organization design and workforce.  

AI is forcing a different level of clarity on where value lives in a business — and therefore what capabilities, roles, and workflows need to be built and redesigned. That’s why the most productive AI conversations I hear move to action quickly and focus on: 

  • Which decisions can be automated, augmented, or accelerated?  
  • Which roles and teams need to evolve — and what does that mean for accountability?  
  • What does integrating AI into specific functions mean for staffing models, spans and layers, let alone governance forums and operating cadence?  
  • How can AI enable critical aspects of performance reviews and efficiently allow this annual exercise to accelerate value and growth for the workforce and the firm? 

AI has become the lever that exposes structural weaknesses and rewards firms willing to approach transformation at the systems level. This will accelerate in 2026 requiring strategy, operating model, and change management expertise; it doesn’t happen organically. 

2) Board governance is still underleveraged — and it’s slowing management team execution  

Board governance is one of the most critical levers in getting alignment with the management team so they can get the most important decisions right in your portfolio companies. Overly informal governance leads to slower decisions, noisier escalation, and meetings that produce activity instead of outcomes.  

In our operating model work, board governance sits at the top of the system because it sets the rules of the game for everyone else: what the board owns, what it delegates, and what people and processes are key to decision-making 

The most effective boards and sponsors I see do the basics exceptionally well. Specifically, these boards: 

  • Set expectations and align with the CEO early, before bad habits become routine  
  • Use a scorecard with SMART goals for performance so there are no surprises, and performance is visible and discussable with objective measures.  
  • Don’t wait for underperformance to talk about performance.  
  • Have the important and difficult conversations on the agenda, so the full board is driving informed decisions – and the real conversations happen in the boardroom — not just in side bars before or after the meeting).  

This approach is not about “more governance” but rather about effective governance that creates a shared playbook for value creation and keeps board time efficiently focused on the investments and bets that move enterprise value.  

3) Portfolio operations is evolving from “resource” to “standardized capability” 

More firms are investing in portfolio operations, and the shift I’m seeing is meaningful.  

Historically, firms often added an operating partner or human capital leader as a generalist resource — engaged when needed but not consistently embedded in the core portfolio rhythm where value-creation decisions actually get made.  

What’s changing now is a move toward empowered portfolio operations leaders who are being asked to improve how the firm engages with its portfolio companies – turning support from episodic help into a repeatable value creation capability.  

Portfolio value creation is a horizonal process. If engagement models vary deal-to-deal, you get uneven performance outcomes across the portfolio — and you lose the compounding effect of “how we do things here.”  

What I’m seeing the best firms do heading into 2026:  

  • Clarify what the portfolio operations most strategic capabilities are, and what they are not.  
  • Standardize the moments that matter early in the hold period, including leadership transitions, M&A integration, operating model redesign, and pre-exit readiness.  
  • Create simple, consistent interfaces between deal teams, ops teams, and management — so support is not personality-driven.  

4) Leadership talent is more available – choosing well is the hard part  

One of the more interesting dynamics that characterize c-level searches this year is that in a constrained job market in which employers have more options for talent than they expected and are consistently choosing between multiple strong candidates.  

While this sounds like a good problem to have, it creates a new failure mode: selecting based on narrative, familiarity, or halo effect — instead of fit for the value creation plan.  

The firms and boards that consistently get this right invest in getting it right using:  

  • Clear scorecards tied to the value creation plan (not generic competencies).  
  • Structured interview calibration tools with consistent questions that assess judgment, operating experience, and change leadership under PE time horizons.  
  • Leadership assessment that reduces noise and increases predictive signal.  

In a hold period, “pretty good” leadership choices are expensive. The goal is not simply to hire a strong individual leader – it’s to put the right leaders in the right seats at the right time and place to drive the organization’s value creation plan.  

5) Managing a multigenerational workforce is a performance opportunity 

Finally, managing a multigenerational workforce, which includes Gen Z, is no longer a future of work conversation. Gen Z has fully entered the workforce, and managers are essentially needing to navigate a workforce that could very well span 4 generations – this is an operational and people challenge that touches productivity, retention, frontline leadership load, and the credibility of change efforts. What I’m hearing most often is not “Gen Z is different.” It’s this:  

  • Managers are carrying ambiguity they were never trained to hold.  
  • Teams have misaligned expectations about feedback, growth, boundaries, and pace.  
  • Organizations want agility — but their day-to-day norms and incentives still reward legacy behaviors.  

The best-performing teams treat this as a design problem: clarify expectations and roles, make performance real and outcomes-based, build management skills, and create a culture that can absorb change without breaking trust.  

Looking ahead to 2026: 

In the end, I don’t think 2025 was defined by any single challenge. It was defined by the growing gap between what leaders intend to do – and what their organizations are actually built to do. As I reflect on the year, these themes resonate as they characterize where the system either drives value creation or hinders it.  

What I’m carrying into 2026 is not a checklist — it’s a conviction: performance is designed. 

It’s designed in the decisions you make around your human capital, the capability you scale across your portfolio, and the behaviors you scale and sustain through change. 

The firms that recognize the organization as a system won’t just navigate 2026 – they’ll shape it – and we can’t wait to support you in reimagining what’spossible! 

DUPLiDATE SAMPLE Five Opportunities that will Unlock Value in 2026 

By Melissa CIn Value Creation PlanPosted

2025 was a year of sweeping change – economically, technologically, and organizationally. And yet, in my conversations with leaders across the PE industry – despite the pace and breadth of these changes – the greatest challenge remains  aligning on the strategy, leadership roles, and structure required to capitalize on these changes in a way that unlocks value. 

Organizations seem to be getting stuck in locking in on the growth levers and organization transformation changes that will allow the enterprise to scale both growth and culture. As we step into 2026, I see five areas that will determine if sponsors and management teams actually deliver on the value creation plan or miss the opportunities ahead. 

1) For PE firms, AI is both a strategy and an operating model question 

PE firms have been assessing AI’s power to transform different industries, and functions to inform what they invest and divest. But AI innovation ishappening on the ground level in firms that are using AI to redesign how value creation happens inside portfolio companies. This is a huge opportunity to leverage org design and human capital strategies to accelerate growth through an integrated AI and human organization design and workforce.  

AI is forcing a different level of clarity on where value lives in a business — and therefore what capabilities, roles, and workflows need to be built and redesigned. That’s why the most productive AI conversations I hear move to action quickly and focus on: 

  • Which decisions can be automated, augmented, or accelerated?  
  • Which roles and teams need to evolve — and what does that mean for accountability?  
  • What does integrating AI into specific functions mean for staffing models, spans and layers, let alone governance forums and operating cadence?  
  • How can AI enable critical aspects of performance reviews and efficiently allow this annual exercise to accelerate value and growth for the workforce and the firm? 

AI has become the lever that exposes structural weaknesses and rewards firms willing to approach transformation at the systems level. This will accelerate in 2026 requiring strategy, operating model, and change management expertise; it doesn’t happen organically. 

2) Board governance is still underleveraged — and it’s slowing management team execution  

Board governance is one of the most critical levers in getting alignment with the management team so they can get the most important decisions right in your portfolio companies. Overly informal governance leads to slower decisions, noisier escalation, and meetings that produce activity instead of outcomes.  

In our operating model work, board governance sits at the top of the system because it sets the rules of the game for everyone else: what the board owns, what it delegates, and what people and processes are key to decision-making 

The most effective boards and sponsors I see do the basics exceptionally well. Specifically, these boards: 

  • Set expectations and align with the CEO early, before bad habits become routine  
  • Use a scorecard with SMART goals for performance so there are no surprises, and performance is visible and discussable with objective measures.  
  • Don’t wait for underperformance to talk about performance.  
  • Have the important and difficult conversations on the agenda, so the full board is driving informed decisions – and the real conversations happen in the boardroom — not just in side bars before or after the meeting).  

This approach is not about “more governance” but rather about effective governance that creates a shared playbook for value creation and keeps board time efficiently focused on the investments and bets that move enterprise value.  

3) Portfolio operations is evolving from “resource” to “standardized capability” 

More firms are investing in portfolio operations, and the shift I’m seeing is meaningful.  

Historically, firms often added an operating partner or human capital leader as a generalist resource — engaged when needed but not consistently embedded in the core portfolio rhythm where value-creation decisions actually get made.  

What’s changing now is a move toward empowered portfolio operations leaders who are being asked to improve how the firm engages with its portfolio companies – turning support from episodic help into a repeatable value creation capability.  

Portfolio value creation is a horizonal process. If engagement models vary deal-to-deal, you get uneven performance outcomes across the portfolio — and you lose the compounding effect of “how we do things here.”  

What I’m seeing the best firms do heading into 2026:  

  • Clarify what the portfolio operations most strategic capabilities are, and what they are not.  
  • Standardize the moments that matter early in the hold period, including leadership transitions, M&A integration, operating model redesign, and pre-exit readiness.  
  • Create simple, consistent interfaces between deal teams, ops teams, and management — so support is not personality-driven.  

4) Leadership talent is more available – choosing well is the hard part  

One of the more interesting dynamics that characterize c-level searches this year is that in a constrained job market in which employers have more options for talent than they expected and are consistently choosing between multiple strong candidates.  

While this sounds like a good problem to have, it creates a new failure mode: selecting based on narrative, familiarity, or halo effect — instead of fit for the value creation plan.  

The firms and boards that consistently get this right invest in getting it right using:  

  • Clear scorecards tied to the value creation plan (not generic competencies).  
  • Structured interview calibration tools with consistent questions that assess judgment, operating experience, and change leadership under PE time horizons.  
  • Leadership assessment that reduces noise and increases predictive signal.  

In a hold period, “pretty good” leadership choices are expensive. The goal is not simply to hire a strong individual leader – it’s to put the right leaders in the right seats at the right time and place to drive the organization’s value creation plan.  

5) Managing a multigenerational workforce is a performance opportunity 

Finally, managing a multigenerational workforce, which includes Gen Z, is no longer a future of work conversation. Gen Z has fully entered the workforce, and managers are essentially needing to navigate a workforce that could very well span 4 generations – this is an operational and people challenge that touches productivity, retention, frontline leadership load, and the credibility of change efforts. What I’m hearing most often is not “Gen Z is different.” It’s this:  

  • Managers are carrying ambiguity they were never trained to hold.  
  • Teams have misaligned expectations about feedback, growth, boundaries, and pace.  
  • Organizations want agility — but their day-to-day norms and incentives still reward legacy behaviors.  

The best-performing teams treat this as a design problem: clarify expectations and roles, make performance real and outcomes-based, build management skills, and create a culture that can absorb change without breaking trust.  

Looking ahead to 2026: 

In the end, I don’t think 2025 was defined by any single challenge. It was defined by the growing gap between what leaders intend to do – and what their organizations are actually built to do. As I reflect on the year, these themes resonate as they characterize where the system either drives value creation or hinders it.  

What I’m carrying into 2026 is not a checklist — it’s a conviction: performance is designed. 

It’s designed in the decisions you make around your human capital, the capability you scale across your portfolio, and the behaviors you scale and sustain through change. 

The firms that recognize the organization as a system won’t just navigate 2026 – they’ll shape it – and we can’t wait to support you in reimagining what’spossible!