In this episode of The Private Equity Podcast, Alex Rawlings is joined by Thomas Igeme, Managing Partner at TL Partners, to explore one of the biggest challenges facing private equity firms: understanding whether performance issues are caused by the leader, the operating system around them, or both.
Thomas shares lessons from his time in organisational development, BCG, LinkedIn, ServiceNow and Turn River Capital, where he led the portfolio talent function. He explains why private equity firms can be too quick to replace executives before properly diagnosing the underlying problem and how a clearer value creation thesis can dramatically improve talent decisions.
The conversation covers how AI can reduce the reporting burden on management teams, and why trust can be made observable and measurable through authenticity, logic and empathy.
Key Takeaways
Diagnose the system before automatically replacing the person.
Break the value creation thesis into 3–5 critical moves.
Track leading indicators—not just EBITDA and other lagging metrics.
Use a weekly cadence to identify drift and course-correct early.
Give executives clear expectations and a defined timeframe, such as 100 days, to demonstrate progress.
Shift talent discussions towards the work that actually needs to happen.
Make management teams part of the diagnosis and development process.
Understand the risk profile of a leadership team rather than pretending to predict the future.
Use failed outcomes as valuable information when making future executive hiring decisions.
Build trust through authenticity, logic and empathy.
Timestamps
00:00 – Introduction to Thomas Igeme and TL Partners 00:27 – Thomas's journey through organisational development and private equity 01:22 – The mistake of testing the most expensive hypothesis first 02:07 – Why diagnosing the system matters before replacing the leader 03:25 – Identifying whether the problem is the leader, system, or both 04:24 – Understanding the real problem before searching for talent 05:19 – Why longer hold periods are changing the talent equation 06:40 – Turn River's “Faster Lapse” operating philosophy 07:06 – Using leading indicators to predict performance 07:57 – Course-correcting the value creation thesis in real time 08:28 – The reporting tax and how AI can help 09:20 – Why weekly reviews can outperform monthly operating rhythms 09:49 – Breaking the value creation thesis into critical moves 11:16 – A practical weekly framework any PE firm can adopt 11:44 – Moving from talent conversations to strategy and work conversations 13:04 – The 100-day experiment for executive performance 14:26 – Measuring investment progress beyond EBITDA 15:23 – Three questions for assessing whether an investment is on track 16:12 – Measuring strategic clarity, execution and coordination 16:57 – Assessing management team risk 17:52 – Evaluating executive capability against the value creation thesis 18:51 – Why development can be the cheapest way to close capability gaps 19:46 – Deciding whether an executive can scale 20:14 – Using a 100-day timeframe to test the hypothesis 21:40 – Why companies often move too slowly on talent decisions 22:37 – Starting the 100-day process from day one 23:34 – Francis Frei, Anne Morriss and the three elements of trust 24:27 – Making “fuzzy” people issues observable and measurable 25:21 – How to connect with Thomas and closing thoughts
Raw Selection partners with Private Equity firms and their portfolio companies to secure exceptional executive talent. We focus on de-risking executive recruitment through meticulous search and selection processes, ensuring top-tier performance and long-term success.
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