What is the role of meetings in private equity value creation?

An often overlooked yet fundamental part of value creation in private equity following a merger or acquisition is meetings.

While capital structures and commercial strategies usually take the limelight, board and executive meetings are a critical enabler of post-deal value creation, and yet they rarely get the deliberate attention that they deserve.

Every step after a deal closes depends on alignment in goals, decision-making, and strategic execution. This alignment and decision-making happen best when formal meetings are optimised.  

This article explains why board and executive meetings are the operating system for post-deal success, and provides practical tips to help investors and newly-acquired companies to optimise formal meetings for success. 

We'll cover: ​​​​​

• Why private equity value creation depends less on spreadsheets and more on how meetings are run

• How a simple meeting rhythm can accelerate integration and decision-making

• One vital step that's often overlooked in post-merger environments

Why meetings affect private equity value creation (more than you might think) 

Once a deal is signed, the hard work begins. 

A newly-created board gets to work delivering. Operational plans come to life. New reporting expectations emerge. Investors want to see traction, fast. Leadership teams need to balance daily execution with a new layer of oversight and strategic intent.

As Kearney puts it, “The first 100 days after a private equity firm takes ownership of a company are critical to long-term value creation as they set the tone and pace of expected change.” In these pivotal moments, meetings carry more weight than most organisations realise. 

They’re the moments when executives and leaders define strategy, exercise governance, assess progress, and agree on next steps. They’re the forum where misalignment is either corrected early or allowed to grow unchecked.

If meetings aren’t optimised, the risks escalate:

• Integration slows as teams wrestle with unclear priorities
• Decision-making is delayed 
• Accountability weakens 
• Confidence erodes between both the board, management, and investors. 

The costs of poorly-managed board meetings might not show up directly on the P&L, but they definitely show up indirectly, in lost time, frayed trust, and missed momentum. And in high-stakes private equity cycles, time is the strongest currency. 

By contrast, well-managed post-deal meetings bring clarity, confidence, and control, all of which are central to private equity value creation. They set the tone and create rhythm, and give vital direction to portfolio company leaders and private equity principals.

5 ways meetings support private equity value creation

When structured with precision and purpose, formal meetings act as the scaffolding for value creation. They shape decisions, maintain momentum, and bring strategic clarity to fast-moving post-deal environments. And they help overcome  the challenges of post-merger integration . 

These five dimensions illustrate how high-functioning meetings underpin success: 

1. Accelerating strategic alignment 

Post-deal execution falters most often when expectations are mismatched. Formal meetings provide the structured setting to close those gaps.

When investors and management gather around a shared agenda, strategic direction becomes tangible, and operational plans gain traction. These sessions ensure that leadership understands investor intent, while investors stay attuned to operational reality. In doing so, meetings transform alignment from assumption into agreement, and from agreement into action.

2. Maintaining control over integration 

Integration doesn’t fail in theory, it fails in silence. Meetings give shape and cadence to the integration process, allowing boards and executives to interrogate progress, test assumptions, and raise concerns early.

Whether addressing culture clashes, system incompatibilities, or delivery delays, integration succeeds when issues surface at the right altitude and at the right time. Regular oversight through meetings ensures that integration efforts stay tightly linked to the broader value thesis.

3. Establishing a rhythm for governance and reporting

Private equity thrives on momentum, but only when it’s anchored. Formal meetings create that anchor by establishing a reliable rhythm for decision-making, reporting, and course correction.

This rhythm serves both as a governance mechanism and as an executive performance loop, giving investors consistent visibility while helping leaders stay focussed on strategic priorities. With cadence comes discipline, and with discipline, performance scales.

4. Accelerating the speed and precision of decision-making

In a post-deal environment, indecision is expensive. Formal meetings should not be information-heavy briefings; they should be decisive forums. When agendas are structured around key decisions, and when supporting materials are timely and concise, meetings become high-leverage moments.

Clarity around what decisions need to be made, by whom, and by when drives faster execution and limits drift. The result is a more agile organisation, better equipped to respond to opportunity and risk alike.

5. Creating structured visibility for investors

For investors overseeing a portfolio of companies, success depends on pattern recognition. By standardising how meetings are run across holdings - agenda formats, reporting expectations, and decision-tracking - investors unlock a clear line of sight into what’s working and what’s not.

This structured visibility allows for strategic cross-pollination, targeted interventions, and better resource allocation. High-performing meetings at the portfolio level become a competitive advantage, enabling investors to act not just reactively, but proactively, across their assets.

The cumulative effect of better meetings is greater velocity, clarity, and control.

Enhance private equity value creation through meetings today

Redesigning how meetings work is not about adding more process. It’s about enabling better focus. It’s about creating clarity when expectations are high and time is short. A well-structured meeting can become a stabilising force in a period that is often marked by change, pressure, and ambiguity.

To support both investors and leaders of newly-acquired companies, we’ve written The post-deal guide to value-creating meetings. It explains how to optimise board and executive meetings for post-deal success. Whether you’re in the early days of post-merger integration or are managing multiple portfolio companies, it gives you practical steps to maintain clarity, confidence, and control through meetings.

How meeting technology supports private equity value creation

For years, board and executive meetings have relied upon a familiar mix of calendar invites, email threads, printed packs, and spreadsheets. In a post-deal environment, that setup is no longer enough.

Private equity value creation today demands more. As McKinsey notes, “Buyout managers now need to focus on operational value creation strategies for revenue growth, as well as margin expansion to offset compression of multiples and to deliver desired returns to investors.”

This shift places new demands on post-deal meetings. These meetings are where execution is coordinated and momentum is built. Speed, structure, and security are essential,and when the flow of decisions becomes a competitive factor, investors recognise that governance technology is not a nice-to-have. It’s a force multiplier.

Solutions like Sherpany empower boards and executive teams to enhance meeting preparation, optimise in-meeting engagement and focus, and move discussions into concrete outcomes, seamlessly. 

With Sherpany, documents are centralised, and collaboration is focused in a single solution throughout the meeting lifecycle. Agendas are streamlined, structured, and timeboxed, and legacy discussions, votes, and actions are readily surfaceable to avoid duplicate discussions, foster accountability, and maintain alignment. 

This means that meetings carry forward into follow-ups, executive workflows, and business reviews.

Private equity value creation hinges on optimised meetings. Start today.

Every deal begins with a clear plan for private equity value creation. But it’s what happens after the deal closes that determines how much of that value is realised, and how quickly.

Meetings play a far greater role in that journey than most teams realise. They shape alignment, surface risks, guide integration, and drive accountability. When meetings are designed with purpose, supported by the right structure and cadence, they become a core operating system for success.

If optimising meetings isn’t already a priority for your board, it should be. Book a free consultation today to discover how Sherpany can support your board’s post-deal journey.