Private Equity Fund: Supporting owners in making R&D investment effective

The Equity Fund had invested in several technology companies and wanted to ensure that significant R&D resources were used effectively to create new products and solutions for customers.
This was an owner-side challenge: how to make sure that invested development resources translated into real capability, performance and customer value across portfolio companies.

The challenge was not simply to increase development activity.
The owner challenge was to understand whether the development departments were progressing in the right way, whether resources were being used effectively, and whether management had the insight needed to support better outcomes.
The relevant questions were:

• Are the R&D organizations using resources effectively?

• Are improvement recommendations accepted by management and employees?

• Are development departments progressing over time?

• Are the companies increasing their ability to deliver the desired results?

• Can owners and management trust the development capability they are investing in?

Whitebox was engaged to continuously assess and advise the development departments in the portfolio companies.
The work provided an external, structured view of development capability, improvement potential and organizational progress.
This created a stronger basis for owners and company management to understand where development performance could be improved and how improvement suggestions could be translated into practical progress.

The collaboration was described as a success for both the owners and the companies’ management and employees. The development departments responded positively to measurements and improvement suggestions, and the R&D departments progressed over the following years. One company significantly increased the number of new product launches.
For my current work, this case validates the owner-side perspective behind my advisory model.

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Owners and sponsors do not only need activity reports. They need independent insight into whether the organization has the capability, structure and direction required to turn investment into profit.

It demonstrates competences in:

• Advisory work on the owner’s side

• Assessment of development capability

• Governance of R&D improvement across multiple companies

• Translating assessment insight into management action

• Supporting better use of strategic development resources

• Building trust between owners, management and development teams