The Private Equity Playbook: Management’s Guide to Working with Private Equity

by Adam Coffey

Private equity firms are on the rise and rapidly changing the game. Today more than 5,500 P.E. firms own tens of thousands of companies, so it is essential for CEOs and senior management executives to understand exactly how private equity firms operate. This invaluable resource can help you devise a winning P.E. game plan for your own company that offers you greater freedom and financial success. CEO Adam Coffey has almost twenty years of experience building businesses for private equity companies. In this authoritative yet approachable handbook, he covers: - The history and landscape of private equity- Ground rules for finding the right firm to partner with- Techniques for navigating the new governance- Strategies for continued growth in the private equity space- And more.The Private Equity Playbook provides all the coaching you'll need to compete and win on this new playing field.

Genres: Business, Finance, Nonfiction, Audiobook, Startup, Economics, Management

184 pages, Paperback

Published February 18, 2019

Reviews

[Zandi · Rating 2 out of 5]

If you’re already working in Private Equity (“PE”) don’t read this book. There’s nothing new to learn here. If you’re a business owner of a mid-market company and are looking to cash out some chips or raise capital for your business (and have an appreciation for drawn out sports metaphors), maybe this could be worth your while. Maybe. The first half of the book unpacks, in layman’s terms, what PE is (personally, I think few hours of desktop research can yield the same result, unless you’re someone who prefers consuming information in a more compact and consolidated fashion).

The second part of the book reads like slides from a Strategy 101 university course. I thought the chapter dedicated to explaining the concept of EBITDA was quite patronising. I mean, you’re writing to business owners and you’re assuming they have no idea what EBITDA is?! But then again, what’s a book about PE if it’s not going to rigorously cover a commonly used valuation metric like EBITDA.

The personal anecdotes, while I understand the role they played as case studies, sounded a bit conceited. Especially because the author used “I” vs “we” pronouns. Maybe I’m just being emotional.

Overall, this can be a one stop shop information guide for people who are curious about PE as a concept and have time to kill. Bonus: it doubles up as a “How to build wealth alongside Private Equity players” guide.

[Amanda Abbud Alfano · Rating 4 out of 5]

Coffey did an excellent job in providing knowledge, while making it feel like a story rather than a textbook. enjoyable and loved the baseball references throughout!

[Chase Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve been looking for a book to hand friends or new executives interested in PE - this is readable in an afternoon and paints a thoughtful but brief summary of the PE world and it’s lingo.

[Lydia Lo · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was excellent - super easy to follow and interesting. Learned about the strategies for value creation and gave me a new perspective on business, career paths, and working in / alongside PE.

[Haley Hodde · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a lunch with your friend’s dad who has been in the PE world for a while and is thrilled to be passing on a high-level, sports-metaphor heavy overview of his world. An easy read and a good starting place to understand this industry.

[Guilherme Dantas · Rating 4 out of 5]

O livro é bem básico. Mas é legal que foca na perspectiva do mgmt e do empreendedor. O fato de ser bem direto ao ponto e com escrita leve torna a leitura fluida.

[Connor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book tends to follow the “tell them what you’re going to tell them, tell them, tell them what you told them” method so even at 175 pages it probably could have been boiled down to 100 pages without losing any substance. Probably accurate to describe it as the 101 version of the playbook, but otherwise a good read with some insights into the PE industry.

[Ehsan Choudhry · Rating 3 out of 5]

An ok, non-number-crunching, basic overview of raising finances through private equity. Some useful tips. But would need something more detailed as a follow-up book though.

[Regan Hultquist · Rating 2 out of 5]

This is a solid, clearly written overview of how private equity works from the perspective of management — emphasis on management. If you're new to the world of PE or a company leader preparing for your first encounter with a private equity firm, this book will likely be a helpful and reassuring guide.

Coffey delivers on what he promises: a straightforward, practical "playbook" for navigating partnerships with PE firms. His tone is approachable, the structure is logical, and the advice is sound. He doesn’t introduce unnecessary jargon or complexity, which is part of what makes the book accessible to its target audience.

That said, this is definitely a beginner’s book. I’m not a private equity expert by any means, but I do work with PE firms as a consultant, and much of the content here was already familiar. I was personally hoping for a bit more nuance or behind-the-scenes insight — something deeper than what you might pick up from a few podcasts or white papers. But to be fair, I’m not the core audience Coffey is writing for, so I can’t really fault the book for not giving me what I wasn’t promised.

If you’re in management and want to better understand what to expect from a PE partnership (or how to prepare for one) this is a good place to start. Coffey knows his stuff and presents it in a way that’s easy to absorb.

[Ludovico Benazzo · Rating 4 out of 5]

At first read this book may seem predictable and to a certain extent too generic, particularly if you studied finance and you are familiar with acronyms like IRR and EBITDA. Probably this is reason why I kept it on hold for several month in my reading shelf… if you take the time though to go through it, you realize that the intent of the author was to create a complete, easy-to-ready, accessible toolkit for all entrepreneurs and/or managers (the Joshes and the Roses of the world, you will understand while reading…), who have always been fascinated by the private equity sector, but never had the courage of asking stupid questions to the people working in it. This book, with its comprehensive and practical approach to the topic, gives answers to all these questions and, when completed, you may realize that there are opportunities out there that you never considered. At that point probably you will go back to this book and get some additional tips to play Josh or Rose. Enjoy the book, enjoy your journey!

[Rafa Garcia Dominguez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Es un libro muy práctico y sencillo de entender que explica muy bien el porque los fondos de private equity cada vez están más presentes en el mercado y que implica para una empresa, los fundadores y trabajadores de esta trabajar bajo la gestión de un private equity.

El libro muestra:
- como funciona un private equity, que métricas miden su gestión, como diferenciar los tipos de fondo por tamaño y tipo de gestión...
- que supone estar bajo la gestión de un PE y que tiene que saber tanto el management como los fundadores antes de decidir con quien asociarse + porque cada vez es más común que los fundadores quieran reinvertir con el fondo para mejorar el retorno
- la metrica clave es el EBITDA
- palancas de creación de valor de un PE

[Javier HG · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. No es gran cosa. Sí, habla del private equity, de sus objetivos y de cómo opera, pero todo de una forma muy básica. Se limita a describir el “qué” sin entrar de verdad en el “cómo”.

Por ejemplo: menciona que se consigue un alto porcentaje de deuda para adquirir una compañía. Perfecto… pero ¿cómo lo consigue? ¿Qué mecanismos, qué negociaciones, qué estructuras de financiación emplea? Eso no lo cuenta.

Si buscas una introducción superficial y sin tecnicismos, puede servirte. Si lo que quieres es entender en detalle cómo se hace private equity en la práctica, este libro se queda muy corto.

[Hien · Rating 5 out of 5]

Highly recommended for anyone who owns a business

I like the way Adam narrated the story with Josh and Rose. The whole book is very coherent and easy to understand, there are many paragraphs that you can quote and save for rereading later. I highly recommend this book for anyone who own business and is looking for a financial strategy for their business. Beside, the book also gives a very closed look at private equity world which effectively drove the growth in term of speed and scale of many businesses.

[Kay · Rating 3 out of 5]

It's short, I probably could have gotten through it much faster if I just really sat down to read it. A bit of a repetitive book on Private Equity that leaves me feeling as though I know barely more than I came into it with. It doesn't help the author defines some terms like "IRR" early on and then doesn't revisit it, if you're like me and can't remember acronyms immediately it becomes annoying to be flipping around or googling every time one of those terms comes back up.

[Anandh Sundar · Rating 5 out of 5]

Short and brief book without verbiage which delivers what it promised. Some insightful topics include EBITDA focus, working with consultants, accepting governance and profiting from liquidity events, as also writing from the owner perspective AND professional CEO perspective. Good 'Cliff Reads' version would have liked more case studies though

[Chelesa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief overview of the key PE process and concepts - great as an introduction and a convenient way to pick up some baseball lingo. One could also read it as an objective evaluation of what different stakeholders' roles are supposed to be (ideally) in the PE context, from an entrepreneur's perspective, which is a completely different viewpoint from that of an investment banker or PE professional.

[Paul Yousef · Rating 5 out of 5]

Solid Book

Prior to reading this book I didn’t understand a thing about the business and operational framework of PE. Adam explains the game, the players and the strategy. He discusses all angles and how you as the CEO/Founder can benefit by partnering with PE to build long term relationships and generational wealth.

[Alex Glover · Rating 3 out of 5]

Quick overview of the PE industry and some general ideas and best practices. Not a lot of depth to the book. I wouldn't call this a playbook, as it doesn't have a lot of specific techniques. The suggestions are more broad business tactics - increase your margin through efficiency, increase organic growth, hire consultants. This book is more of a primer, not a playbook.

[Nosa Igbinedion · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed reading this. Page-turner for sure. I love how Adam (the author) breaks down the various concepts in PE. If you're looking to learn about PE, I highly recommend this. I'm starting a PE firm and this was helpful in learning some of the things to look out for and put in place. Great read.

[xx · Rating 4 out of 5]

not sure how useful it actually is for an entrepreneur or senior management, but it's a fast read with no filler and provides a good overview for those with no knowledge of private equity - should, however, definitely be required reading for any entry-level finance, or finance-tangential, professional to understand the bigger picture before being mirred down in the weeds

[Ella Rier · Rating 2 out of 5]

Every time I opened this book I laughed because it felt like a bit. 200 pages later, I can confidently say that I sort of understand the concept of the idea of private equity (I’m lying). It was actually a pretty easy read and a helpful introduction but like all of this is made up and money isn’t real

[? · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well Explained

This book did a great job explaining choices executives and entrepreneurs have in growing their wealth through private equity as an option. The author made a complicated viewpoint very simple.

[Jordan Evans · Rating 5 out of 5]

Must read! Want to know how to scale or exit your business?

Adam provides an easy to understand map of private equity and the pros/cons of working with PE. There are few resources that help understand where private equity fits with a business owner. This is a much needed book!

[farooq kalim · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brief and insightful read on the world of PE

Great read. Clarified a lot of questions and debunked some myths as well. If you’re looking for a possible career change into the world of PE this would be a great starting to point.

[Nick Nigrelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth view of Private Equity and how it functions. More so cursory information, however, lays out the foundation of it, the growing interest in it, and the opportunities that working in the field can provide.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Completely Changed My View

Adam does a terrific job of explaining the various players and their interests. His views on aligning interests and the value of buy and build strategies are particularly helpful.

[Farid Labib · Rating 4 out of 5]

Quite an easy read to follow and understand. The author does a good job of simplifying concepts and is clearly an expert in the field. My only dissatisfaction is that there are no advanced techniques or concepts, it deals more with dealmaking and how to optimize principal-agent connections.

[Yulia · Rating 3 out of 5]

Compact and simplified overview of what PE is and how it works. Don’t look for real insights here, but that also seems not to be the purpose of the book. Just easy 2 hours read to get a basic picture.

[Ed Barton · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent

I’ve spent most of my career as an exec in PE backed businesses and this book is spot on. It should be required reading for anyone considering working with PE. It’s short, informative, accurate and full of practical advice for founders and executives. Great read.

[Max · Rating 4 out of 5]

Easy to understand

This book have me the 411 on understanding P.E. The author provides personal stories on what business decisions he made and why which I enjoyed. It was a good book for beginners.