Chief People Officer Perspective: An Inside View of Talent’s Role in Value Creation

Authored By Julie Catalano

In Bespoke’s Private Equity Talent Benchmark Report, we discuss the rise of the Chief People Officer (CPO) role as a key industry trend.

Private equity firms invest in companies with the goal of increasing their value and generating a return on investment for their investors. However, the success of these investments relies heavily on the talent within the portfolio companies.

In fact, talent is considered the chief method and lever of value creation in private equity investments.

This is where the role of the CPO comes into play. As I celebrate my first year with Bespoke Partners as the company’s first CPO, I’m reflecting on how our internal human capital agenda has been a critical strategic lever to drive our own profitable growth.

Private equity firms can best achieve raising the talent thesis to drive value creation through human capital strategy implementation, led by the CPO.

While not all-inclusive, here are four human capital priorities that became Bespoke’s “Talent North Star” over the past 12 months:

1. Develop a strong human capital strategy

We developed a strong human capital strategy that tightly aligned with our overall business strategy and growth goals.

This involved understanding our unique talent needs, how talent would be leveraged to create value, identifying gaps in the current workforce, and creating a plan to attract, retain and develop top talent. I call this “staying on the talent offensive.”

2. Develop leadership capabilities

Leadership is critical to the success of any organization, and this is especially true in private equity backed firms.

Strong leaders drive growth, inspire teams, and make tough decisions that lead to success. We identified and developed leadership capabilities through the launch of Bespoke University, creating leadership development programs, coaching, and mentoring programs, as well as best-in-class talent management systems that attend to talent identification and succession planning approaches.

3. Drive performance and operational excellence

We stood up a new functional reporting structure and operating model for our client-facing roles, and in doing so, we bolstered our high-performing culture.

This included setting clear expectations, measuring performance, providing feedback and coaching, and offering rewards and recognition for high performers. At Bespoke, our goal is to normalize a culture where feedback is evergreen and a part of us getting better together every day.

4. Nurture a positive culture

Finally, but most importantly, we worked together to nurture our positive culture.

Knowing that our values drive our culture, we assembled a cross-functional team to reimagine the values that will help us in this next chapter of Bespoke’s journey.

This includes creating a supportive and inclusive work environment, promoting employee engagement and well-being, and ensuring that the company values and mission are reflected in all aspects of the business.

It is important to highlight that none of this would have been achieved if it were not for the support of our CEO, founder, private equity sponsors and board of directors.

They believe in the power of talent as the lever for value creation and the CPO’s role as a key resource to drive profitable growth in private equity backed firms.

Through developing a strong human capital strategy, developing leadership capabilities, driving performance and operational excellence, and nurturing a positive culture, the CPO can help portfolio companies achieve their investment thesis and generate an outsized return on investment for investors.

Learn more about our views on human capital talent by clicking here.

You can find out more about our team and our culture here.

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