ACG M&A East 2022 Event Recap

Our team had the chance to attend and sponsor ACG M&A East 2022 in Philadelphia on October 17th and 18th. At the conference, our founder & CEO, Sean Mooney, had the opportunity to be one of seven speakers to speak on the topic of “Trends and Best Practices in Value Creation”.

In Sean’s presentation, he shared the most recent data in our Value Creation Index and the functional trends we have been seeing within that- specifically within HR, technology, and sales & marketing. The main points he shared from our data were:

• PE firms and their portcos are focusing on data & analytics to help them become more agile and change with the times.
• Organizations that traditionally had outside sales are now transitioning to inside sales due to the digital boom.
• Marketing functions are becoming more crucial than ever.
• PE firms are bringing in wartime generals in place of peacetime ministers for the new now.

In addition to Sean’s talk, we were able to listen to insights from Dave Helgerson of Hamilton Lane, Dan Kessler of Energage, Justin Kulla of TZP Group, Keith Scandone of O3, Christopher Simmons of LLR Partners, and Laura Queen of 29Bison. The main topics of their discussions were ESG, DEI, talent & culture, and digitization & customer experience. We have shared our key takeaways below:

ESG

• The ESG mandate from LPs is growing.
• The 3 key factors to ESG are framework, investment process, and organizational guide.
• Implementing ESG can be a competitive advantage that allows you to unlock opportunities that no one else sees.

DEI

• DEI is an ongoing journey, not a destination.
• DEI is all about problem-solving.

Talent & culture

• Capturing the voices of employees is soon to be the biggest trend in diligence – unhappy employees without a voice can become the biggest issue post-close.
• Implementing frameworks to assess and drive culture initiatives is critical.

Digitization & customer experience

• Customer experience is a journey, not a funnel.
• Putting your customers at the center of your business model is a constant that will never change.

We greatly enjoyed learning from these thought leaders and connecting with both familiar as well as new faces at ACG M&A East 2022. If you are in need of third-party resources for your ESG, DEI, talent, or digitization needs, give us a shout and we will be happy to quickly hop-to.