Scalability Unleashed: How Intranets Drive Growth in Private Equity Ventures
Like many other businesses, private equity firms are dealing with challenges from unpredictable markets, global issues, and rising prices. With M&A activities moving at a slower pace, private equity firms may find it challenging to sell assets and pursue new deals. Yet, there’s an opportunity for firms to bolster investor confidence through strategic and savvy maneuvers.
For any private equity firm, success means elevating the performance of invested companies by enhancing business operations and culture. Standardizing business practices is crucial for achieving these goals and that is why advocating the adoption of a scalable modern intranet solution to portfolio companies can contribute to success.
How a Modern Intranet Can Fuel Growth in a Private Equity Firm’s Portfolio Companies
Blending a newly acquired company can be complex because it involves achieving synergy across various aspects like operations, culture, financial portfolios, and ensuring compliance. Yet, at the heart of it all, the most critical element is communicating the “why” with clarity. For successful integration, it is crucial to communicate how the acquisition will contribute to something larger in ways that would resonate with employees. Here’s how private equity intranet implementation can help in this process:
1. Change Management
Acquisitions often mean a shift in leadership, processes, and the company’s overall direction. The fear of the unknown can lead to resistance as employees may be concerned about their roles, job security, and the company’s future. EY research shows that major deals trigger a talent drain, with 47% of employees leaving within a year and a staggering 75% leaving within three years. Adequate and clear communication during the transition process can have a positive impact.
A robust scalable intranet platform can be a go-to digital space to communicate changes effectively while nurturing the human element of integration. The leadership team of a portfolio company can use the intranet to communicate vision, the integration plan, explain compensation philosophy, including factors considered for salary, bonus, and equity distribution. Encourage everyone to ask questions and thoughts through discussion forums, surveys, polls, and FAQs, ensuring that everyone stays informed and involved in the process.
Here’s how a Forbes-listed consulting firm used the intranet to communicate the changes effectively, address employee concerns, and ensure a smooth M&A transition.
2. Culture Alignment
According to McKinsey, nearly 95 percent of executives consider cultural fit vital for successful integration. Portfolio companies can use an intranet to bridge the culture gap by creating dedicated sections on the intranet to showcase company history, values, traditions, and feature employee stories on the intranet, showcasing personal experiences and perspectives on company culture promoting cross-cultural understanding.
Another effective way to address the culture gap is by encouraging informal employee interactions on the intranet’s discussion forums. Informal interactions can be valuable icebreakers, helping employees get to know colleagues. Also, employees can effortlessly access colleague information through a modern intranet’s directories and familiarize themselves with team structures.
3. Internal Communication and Collaboration
A modern intranet breaks down silos and improves communication among employees across departments and geographical locations. Using a scalable intranet, portfolio companies could share company news, and streamline the distribution of process documents. With an intranet, portfolio companies can ensure that every member of geographically dispersed teams remains well-informed and aligned with organizational strategy, fostering a cohesive and collaborative work environment. Additionally, a modern intranet’s accessibility on mobile phones empowers teams to stay connected and informed even while on the move, promoting flexibility and responsiveness.
4. Knowledge Management
With an intranet, teams can benefit from collective insights and avoid reinventing the wheel. Portfolio companies can create document repositories for specific departments or projects, enabling knowledge sharing, brainstorming, and problem-solving. With granular permissions, encryption options, auditing capabilities, and integration with Azure AD, a SharePoint-based modern intranet is perfect for protecting confidential data and ensuring compliance with regulations.
5. Integration Capabilities
Portfolio companies can save employees’ time by displaying all the information they need to get work done in a single pane. A modern intranet supports connecting tools like CRM, Slack, Microsoft Teams, and other third-party project management apps to create a customized dashboard that provides a holistic view of important information, enabling employees to make informed decisions quickly. API integrations ensure seamless data exchange between applications, eliminating the need for manual data entry and reducing errors, boosting operational effectiveness.
6. Employee Engagement
Employee engagement is a critical factor in organizational success, leading to increased productivity, profitability, and customer satisfaction. Many factors contribute to employee engagement, but some of the most important include meaningful work, opportunities for growth, rewards and recognition, work-life balance and strong leadership.
Modern Intranets can be used to showcase employee stories, highlighting their accomplishments, promoting a sense of pride and belonging among employees. Additionally, scalable intranets can be used to share event calendars, provide access to resources on physical and mental health, demonstrating the portfolio company’s commitment to employee well-being. See how a quick-service restaurant chain used an intranet to engage employees and improve retention.
PeopleOne – A Modern Intranet Platform for Private Equities
As your private equity portfolio expands, you’re not just acquiring assets, you’re welcoming diverse teams, cultures, and workstyles. Navigating this human integration is crucial, and that’s where PeopleOne steps in. Our modern intranet, built on the powerful foundation of SharePoint, empowers you to bridge cultural divides, unify diverse practices, scale effortlessly and boost agility, fueling your firm’s continued success. Try PeopleOne today!
