You picked the leadership team yourself. That is exactly why you are often the last to notice that it no longer fits the next phase.
That is not a criticism, it comes with the role. Anyone who brought a team on board with conviction sees it differently from someone who experiences it from the outside.
Look at what is happening in portfolios right now and you see the same pattern again and again. The team supported the deal and delivered solidly. Then, suddenly, it is expected to drive buy-and-build and prepare the exit. All of a sudden, integration and pace matter more than stability. That is a different job, and not everyone who did the first one well can also do the second.
In the reporting, you only see it once the lemon has already been squeezed dry. A value creation problem is often a leadership problem long before it shows up in the numbers.
Of course, nobody likes to question their own decision while the plan is still more or less holding. But let’s be honest: the good choice you made back then does not protect you from the necessary decision today.
Ask the question early and you still have time for a clean solution. Wait, and you end up filling the role under pressure.
That is why the team question belongs at every phase transition in the investment case. Not at the first bad quarterly figures.
