The LPGP Connect Operating Partners Summit in Miami brought together operating and investment partners at leading funds, top advisors and consultants, industry experts, and C-level executives. The attendees discussed how they deliver value creation strategies, create top-line growth, and drive EBITDA improvement in their portfolios. After attending this year's event, we see that value creation in private equity (PE) is shifting from initiative-driven to system-driven.
With the current market being characterized by longer holds, slower exits, and higher scrutiny, PE firms are no longer rewarded for simply having a strong plan. Instead, they are rewarded for applying operating systems that convert strategy into measurable commercial outcomes. Here are five core topics we identified for PE firms seeking to achieve operational excellence in today’s market.
Pricing as an operating system: Moving beyond one-off pricing initiatives
In 2026, growth remains a priority, with many teams feeling the pressure to deliver on pricing or go-to-market (GTM) strategies. The discussions around pricing challenged the misconception that pricing and GTM effectiveness should be treated as one-off initiatives. The real value for operators lies in approaching pricing as an operating system that works in tandem with segmentation, sales strategy, and enforcement.
Although teams can standardize price lists, there’s a good chance they haven’t answered this question: “Which customers are we choosing to win and why?” Without this piece of the pricing puzzle, a firm’s strategy can fall flat. Teams either discount to protect volume they shouldn’t or raise price without a coherent value narrative, which results in unanticipated churn.
Many firms frame pricing as value creation and sales as value realization. This separation explains why pricing work often underdelivers. Firms that outperform their peers ensure that pricing and sales operate parallel to one another.
Before redesigning price lists or adjusting discount structures, firms should be more strategic when selecting customers and segments they want to win. Moreover, firms must ensure they align enablement, incentives, and governance accordingly. Buyers won’t pay for “pricing strategy,” but they will pay for proven price realization that can be replicated.
AI in private equity is shifting from novelty to capability
Unsurprisingly, AI was a recurring topic as adoption accelerates across industries. It’s easy to fall for the hype around “AI in pricing,” but the real measurable impacts are tied to pragmatic use cases and areas where AI generates pricing lift:
Refining segmentation
Discount discipline
Churn and retention flags
Recommendations for sales enablement
Unless buyers see end-to-end adoption and achieve KPIs, they will discount any “AI-powered” messaging. The real question becomes whether AI translates into EBITDA or if mundane constraints make it a write-off. As AI models continue to commoditize, the true differentiator lies in the data layer and operating workflows that create actionable insights.
As one conference attendee pointed out, every CIM we see from a banker is accompanied by its own AI section. However, most of those companies lack a firm understanding of how to deploy AI effectively.
The best implementations look less like “AI deployment” and more like maturity programs that start small. Firms should prioritize making their proprietary data AI-ready and ensure they have the required architecture in place to support adoption at scale. Then they can tackle repeatable tasks such as contracts, RFPs, call center augmentation, and retention flags. Once this operational baseline is established, firms can consider experimenting with more transformational use cases that impact how the business allocates labor and makes decisions.
Operating discipline is building measurable commercial execution
LPGP reinforced a shift that’s been building quietly in the industry. Now more than ever, PE returns are more reliant on operating discipline. The current market has eroded tolerance for financial creativity.
What’s replacing it is an operating cadence that replicates strategy, particularly commercial execution. The reality is that many commercial strategies fail because firms lack a mechanism to execute them consistently. There’s a call for clarity regarding how firms operate, consisting of:
Leading indicators that start early in the funnel
CRM hygiene that creates structured pipelines
Pricing governance that prevents discount leakage
Frontline manager rigor that reduces dependence on individual talent
Operating discipline leads to predictability, and investors value a system that consistently produces outcomes amid volatility, management changes, and growth complexity.
Efficiency vs. resilience in PE portfolios
Another challenge for PE firms is how to properly sequence efficiency and resilience. Adopting a “cut to reinvest” mindset means moving beyond blunt cost reduction. Over reliance on cost cutting can create brittle organizations that operate on an outdated playbook. They struggle to absorb shock and pursue new growth opportunities.
The most convincing framework we heard at LPGP is a reinvestment loop. Essentially, firms take out cost with intent and redeploy a meaningful portion into capabilities that raise the organization’s ceiling. By improving data foundations and cross-functional coordination, PE firms turn a one-time margin expansion into compounding performance.
Resilience is vital for enhancing leadership bandwidth and operational predictability and enables companies to adjust to eventual disruptions. Even during periods of demand spikes, customer concentration shifts, or the departure of a key leader, resilience enables a company to keep executing.
The operating partner mandate is evolving
For operating partners, it’s no longer sufficient to be a helpful functional expert. In today’s PE landscape, they must challenge deal teams and resist work that looks productive but won’t translate into EBITDA or exit readiness. The expectation is to drive outcomes across the portfolio and in ways that scale. That requires two things that are uncomfortable in PE.
The first is saying “no” to a portco’s investment or management team. This is especially difficult when there is pressure on the operating partner to support a deal or value creation plan that is not operationally sound. The second is building credibility through differential success.
Firms are saying “no” to work that won’t scale and “yes” to repeatable playbooks that compound across a firm’s portfolio. The operators making the biggest impact don’t try to do everything. Instead, they select a few actions that really improve the business, focus on those, measure the results, and prove they worked. Operating partners build long-term credibility by delivering measurable results that consistently drive durable bottom line expansion.
What this means for value creation leaders
Across sessions, the mandate was straightforward--build for the exit at least two years before you need it. Whether the lever is pricing, AI, or talent, initiatives only “count” when they become a repeatable operating rhythm; you can defend diligence with clear ownership, adoption, and results. Otherwise, your value creation efforts may go unnoticed at your exit multiple.
Curious to see how your value creation maturity ranks amongst your peers?
