Jadey for Private Equity

An investment thesis describes how the value of a portfolio company should develop. Its implementation is distributed across the leadership team, business functions and numerous individual decisions. The private equity firm assesses progress through reports and metrics. Knowledge of how outcomes arise and what prevents improvement is spread across many parts of the company.

These differences in information and sometimes divergent objectives are part of the principal–agent problem. A business function can meet its own targets while a broader value creation opportunity remains untapped. Additional coordination and oversight consume capacity; the reasons behind a performance gap often remain unclear at first.

Jadey connects an assessment of how work is actually done with a redesigned organisation for its execution. Services describe required outcomes, responsibilities and decision rights. A Service Agent leads each commission, organises the required contributions and checks that they are usable. Even when it delegates further, it remains accountable for its own outcome.

For the investor, this creates a concrete assessment question: which services currently constrain the portfolio company's development, and how can their costs, quality and capacity be changed?

The following illustrative scenario shows how a European sales organisation could develop. The implementation described is a target state.

A portfolio company with an international sales organisation uses Microsoft Dynamics in most countries. Together with the company's leadership, the private equity firm wants to generate more business from new customers with the existing sales resources.

The value creation hypothesis to be tested is that more reliable handling of suitable opportunities and faster preparation of decision-ready quotations could generate an additional earnings contribution. Assessing this requires a clear understanding of the causes, implementation effort and financial impact.

Understand where sales opportunities are left unattended

Steward examines the agreed sales area with employees, using approved CRM data, correspondence and quotation documents. It checks which opportunities can be pursued, what information is missing and where responsibilities or next steps remain unclear.

One case makes the problem tangible: a prospect has confirmed a requirement, but the quotation is waiting for technical information and a reliable delivery assessment. Sales has passed on the questions. There is no clear accountability for bringing the contributions together into a usable basis for a quotation.

Steward cross-checks the perspectives of those involved against the actual course of the case. The verified findings inform a proposal for future service delivery. The company's leadership decides which services to introduce and what authority to give them.

Lead the sales opportunity to an evidenced outcome

In the proposed service organisation, a Service Agent takes the lead on the sales opportunity. It obtains missing information from approved sources, commissions the required specialist contributions and follows up open commitments.

The quotation brings together customer requirements, technical suitability, delivery capability and commercial terms. The responsible Service Agents verify their contributions and the resulting quotation. Conflicting or incomplete information is resolved before a commitment is made to the customer.

The sales team conducts personal customer conversations and makes the decisions reserved for it. Within their mandates, the agents organise preparation, written communication and subsequent processing. They follow up responses and lead the opportunity to an evidenced outcome: a confirmed order handover, a documented reason for losing the opportunity or an agreed course of further action.

This gives the value creation hypothesis an operational mechanism: more suitable opportunities can be handled with clear accountability for outcomes. Any additional business impact is assessed using the results actually achieved.

Make the financial contribution visible

The assessment compares the starting situation with subsequent outcomes from comparable cases. In the scenario, Atlas makes the documented service organisation and available operational outcomes accessible. Those responsible in the company assess the financial impact together with Finance.

Specific questions are decisive:

• How long does it take to move from confirmed customer requirements to a usable quotation?
• How many qualified sales opportunities are taken through to an evidenced outcome?
• How do conversion rates and the earnings contribution develop for comparable opportunities?
• What costs arise from using Service Agents for each service delivered?
• What financial contribution remains after accounting for the full cost and effort of implementation, operation and change?

Freed capacity gains financial value when it is used to deliver additional profitable work or leads to cost reductions that are actually realised. The financial assessment also takes account of changes in demand, prices and customer mix.

Additional order intake, realised earnings contribution and sustained EBITDA impact are each assessed using the relevant company data. The assessment includes one-off implementation effort and cost, recurring costs and the time needed for the impact to develop.

The sales case illustrates one possible starting point. The same approach can apply to other suitable business services: a clearly defined service, a financially relevant need for change and a verifiable starting situation.

An engagement can begin in any phase. Traceable assumptions, clearly assigned responsibility and continuous assessment of the impact connect the phases.

If the redesigned quotation handling proves viable, its service descriptions, outcome checks and implementation experience can become useful for other portfolio companies. Each company has its own products, systems, responsibilities and decision rules. Execution is adapted accordingly.

The potential benefit of scale is assessed in the next deployment: how much implementation time and effort can actually be reduced? Which capabilities are reusable? Is the agreed service quality maintained?

In buy-and-build, this can establish common service standards while allowing execution to fit each company. Company data and confidential deal information remain within their agreed access boundaries. Suitable methods, service architectures and approved findings are transferred.

During the holding period, the portfolio company should be able to develop its performance. Responsible Service Agents investigate deviations, implement justified improvements within their authority and assess their impact. Proven capabilities become available for other suitable tasks.

At exit, sustained outcomes and the ability to maintain them matter. A buyer should be able to understand which changes have been implemented, which recurring costs arise and what the operation requires. Documented services, responsibilities, outcome histories and clarified usage rights support this assessment.

The economic substance of the value creation approach lies in improved performance and its integration into the company.