Do you have less than 1.5 hours to understand the principles and best practices of developing a private equity investment strategy? Do you want to make informed decisions as a leader?

This quick guide is for leaders who are pressed for time and need to know the contours of the right approach to make informed decisions, ask the right questions, understand how to analyze the problem and how to provide guidance and input to their teams.

We lay out the business case to encourage target companies to agree to the deal and lead indicators for when a potential target acquisition should be approached. The investment thesis is a guide serving four stakeholders.

First, it describes the thinking of the principals who are proposing the investment strategy. In other words, why do they believe this investment strategy will work, and how it will work.

Second, it is used within the private equity firm to question the strategy. The more unique the strategy, relative to what competitors are pursuing, the more discussions are needed.

Third, it becomes the critical document to raise investment funding and help investors understand the risk tolerance and risk appetite of the fund, as well as their potential exit timelines.

Fourth, it is also often used to educate and encourage potential acquisition targets to agree to the deal.

Over the past 10 years on StrategyTraining.com and FIRMSconsulting.com, you have seen us help numerous clients solve complex business problems: developing a big data strategy, a corporate strategy, a digital & IT strategy, a pandemic & disaster strategy, a luxury brands strategy, a turnaround & transformation strategy, and more—all based on the combined best practices of the author and the ex-McKinsey, BCG et al., partners who produce all the strategy training programs on StrategyTraining.com.

Our quick guides distill the steps, actions, processes and considerations that go into developing a unique investment thesis to drive a private equity strategy. You will understand the logic behind the investment thesis, potential pitfalls and how we use it to filter potential acquisitions.

You will understand the output that comes from all the hypotheses, decision trees, and prioritizing tools we teach across all our programs, summarizing the best practices from ex-McKinsey, BCG et al. partners to help you solve mankind’s most pressing problems.

While we can’t guarantee the results for each reader, those who have read our books and members who use our online training programs on StrategyTraining.com/apps and SLIDES report:

• Greater recognition

• More leadership roles

• Greater contribution

• Quicker onboarding

• Deeper understanding of the issues

• Strategy perspective of the issues

• Deeper insights

• Rapid promotions

• Sense of purpose

• Clarity of thought

If you find this quick guide helpful, you may also benefit from The Private Equity Strategy Journal. The Private Equity Strategy Journal and The Private Equity Strategy Quick Guide are complementary. They both contain useful and different information to explain the problem. The quick guide is for leaders who want to understand the problem to guide their teams. The Journal is for those who want to do the work to solve the problem.