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Article  |  10/04/2019  |  Rishi Jain & J.T. Cecchini

Private Equity Moneyball

Private Equity Moneyball: Spring Training Metrics for Postseason Glory

By, Rishi Jain, Managing Director & Head of Western Region & J.T. Cecchini, Director, Accordion 

“There is an epidemic failure in the game to understand what is really happening.”

This article was published in PE Hub in October 2019.

That’s the beginning of fictional-character Peter Brand’s now-famous speech to A’s GM Billy Beane in the movie Moneyball, which depicts the birth of the sabermetric era of baseball (based on Michael Lewis’ book of the same name). With the MLB playoffs in full swing, we take a look at how Beane’s identification of ‘winning’ metrics and his application of analytics to baseball strategy and player personnel decisions fundamentally transformed the game. In moving toward an analytics-based approach to value creation, the private equity industry has followed a similar trajectory–though one that hasn’t been as transformative.

What’s the difference? Speed. Beane didn’t wait until mid-season to start leveraging analytics. He understood that for the metrics to matter, they needed to inform decisions…now.

Speed is a concept that PE hasn’t fully embraced. Or rather, it’s a concept partners have embraced but were unaware they could seize. In the typical PE playbook, advanced analytics aren’t developed until 2-3 years into an investment when large-scale system upgrades and implementations become fruitful. However, sponsors needn’t wait that long—today’s next generation business intelligence (BI) applications are cost-effective, simple to implement, and deliver immediate and impactful analytics. Sponsors can – and should – immediately leverage these BI applications to move at Moneyball-speed to validate/adjust their value creation strategies.

Don’t End Spring Training Without Analytics

Let’s set some context: The traditional PE playbook has an initial 90-day plan focused on table-stakes work streams (transaction accounting, day-1 balance sheet, treasury management, etc.). Call this the spring training of the PE investment lifecycle. This spring training is followed by a medium-term systems assessment and, finally, a roadmap to create the analytics to support value creation. This roadmap often calls for new systems (e.g. ERP upgrade, CRM implementation or CPM adoption) and can take years to implement. Once in place, the desired analytics and KPIs are the final outputs.

Until then, the existing reporting is considered good enough. The problem is, it’s not. You need metrics – and you need them before the regular season starts…. But how?

Moving from Paper Scorecards to Sabermetrics

New PE acquisitions, particularly those under first-time institutional ownership, often lack robust KPIs and analytical insights. Like paper-based scorecards in baseball, the existing reporting is fragmented, ad hoc, and often obscures what is actually driving performance. As a result, any new analytics required by the sponsor will take significant resources and will be delivered via time-intensive, manual, and error-prone processes. Not a fair ask of an already-stretched finance team.

The immediate solution comes not from an expensive system-of-record upgrade but rather a next-gen BI application. Today’s BI tools have advanced data integration capabilities and can incorporate fragmented, diverse data sets. They can generate a variety of automated analytics and facilitate real-time root-cause analysis. And it no longer takes an army of IT consultants to implement a BI solution, making it a cost-effective investment.

It’s key to put this BI solution in place before the season starts. Here, companies can follow a 6-step Spring Training Analytics Playbook:

  1. Review the Existing Reporting: Understand the people, process, and technology driving the current reporting.
  2. Develop the Required Reporting: Identify the operational and finance-related metrics that are required to drive value creation and are aligned with the investment thesis.
  3. Get the Data: Upload raw data feeds and cleanse where needed.
  4. Build a Data Model: Integrate the uploaded data sets into a relational model.
  5. Transform Data into Metrics: Craft the financial and operational outputs, KPIs, and trends. A single Data Model can power both high-level board reporting and detailed operational dashboards.
  6. Create Value (like Signing Scott Hattiberg): Utilize new KPIs (e.g. on-base percentage) to make an immediate impact to your portfolio company – and leverage root cause analyses to improve the metrics going forward (tell Mr. Hattiberg to lay off the high cheese!).

Starting with analytics means early identification/validation of your value creation plan. It means quick access to automated metrics without burdening management. It means the creation of dynamic outputs, which facilitate drill-down analyses to reveal underlying issues. It means repositioning Finance as a provider of strategic insights.

Starting the season with analytics means ending with post-season glory. This is PE Moneyball.

About the Authors

Rishi Jain
Rishi Jain
Managing Director & Head of Western Region

Rishi is a Managing Director and Head of Accordion’s Western Region. He has more than two decades of experience supporting management teams and leading finance and operations initiatives across various industries.   Read more

J.T. Cecchini
J.T. Cecchini
Director

J.T. is a Director with nearly two decades of experience in corporate and operational finance, M&A, and corporate development. J.T. has partnered with dozens of companies and CFOs regarding company positioning, forecasting, transaction preparation, KPIs, and inorganic growth strategies.  Read more