Bob Zukis

This post hits extremely close to home. As a Veteran of almost 24 years, it was hard to talk about my service to others without feeling guilty. In my military career, the Silent Professional was held in high regard. Those that spoke of their accomplishments were often frowned upon. I accomplished nothing on my own. Everything I did was alongside my Brothers in Arms. As I transitioned, I was extremely cautious about utilizing my service to gain notoriety or highlight any of my military career. I am extremely proud to work at @Cold Bore Capital, a place that celebrates Veterans and recognizes their worth for the body of work they have built, not their past "accomplishments" in service. Veterans have an immense amount to offer, and you don't have to pimp your last career to get there. I lived by three mantras in Service. Be Hard Be Humble Be a Student of the Game. Nothing wrong with starting over and learning a new craft. It can be hard, but better to be humble and start over than to stay comfy and think you have it all figured out. When we stop growing, we stop living. Ego is not your Amigo. #VeteransInBusiness #LeadershipLessons #HumbleLeadership #TransitioningVeterans #VeteranPride #GrowthMindset #Resilience #MilitaryToBusiness #LeadershipJourney #ColdBoreCapital #VeteranSupport

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Lots of PE groups profess to port-co's the importance of solidifying a differentiated strategy. But also important to eat your own cooking. What is your FIRM's differentiated strategy? And how differentiated is it? Enjoyed the discussion with Nick Bradley on The Scale Up Podcast! #PrivateEquity #Talent

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While there is extensive analysis available on how boards of established companies should operate, especially those in the public interest or publicly traded shares, there is very little guidance on how to make venture boards work effectively. Based on our experience across board roles, board advisory work and mentoring chairs and NEDs, we outline in this article five considerations for venture businesses to make their boards more effective https://lnkd.in/eXDHTwpg #boardeffectiveness #neds #boardsofdirectors

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The US is experiencing a substantial increase in power demand for the first time in decades associated with developments in digital infrastructure, near-shoring of manufacturing, and electrification. In his 2025 Infrastructure Outlook, @Raj Agrawal discusses the convergence of two of our major investing thematics, the #energytransition and digitalization. Investments in renewables and other sources of clean energy are critical to fueling tomorrow's economy. https://go.kkr.com/3V3HAAZ

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It was a great pleasure attending the Operating Partner Forum in London this week and engaging in thought-provoking discussions with industry peers, sharing best practises and learning how they are tackling some of the headwinds we are facing. The event covered a range of topics, but high on the agenda was the digital strategy and how to leverage AI as a driver of value creation. Here are my top three takeaways: #1 AI is coming, but getting the fundamentals right matters more: While AI has great potential and we will see significant product enhancements and productivity boosts opportunities in the near future, the real value today comes from getting the basics right. Strong processes, controls, an effective operating model, and robust data structures and systems are crucial for success. #2 Data maturity and organizational readiness: It's essential to assess and improve your organization's data maturity to ensure readiness for advanced analytics and AI implementation. This is a journey not a sprint. #3 Clear ownership of the digital agenda: Clearly distinguish between IT roles (infrastructure, architecture, cybersecurity) and data analytics roles lead by business and addressing business needs. This separation helps ensure we are addressing effectively real business needs and driving the digital strategy forward. #operatingpartnersforumeurope #operatingpartner #valuecreation #privateequity #carveout #transformation #parlementiacapital https://lnkd.in/ee_s_Gdb

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Four Ways for CMOs to Succeed in PE-Backed Firms. In PE-backed companies, speed is of the essence. Capital must generate returns quickly, and any delay can impact overall performance. This urgency requires CMOs to deliver rapid results under significant pressure. CMOs are expected to make swift talent decisions and implement strategies almost immediately to maintain momentum. My role is to partner with PE and VC-backed companies, supporting their marketing functions at all levels, from CMOs to junior members, to maximise ROI and operational efficiency. 1️⃣ Build a Strong Relationship with the Board 🌟 Understand the expectations and priorities of the board.  🌟 Establish regular, structured communication to keep the board informed. 🌟 Leverage the board’s expertise and network to drive strategic initiatives. 2️⃣ Assemble an A-Team Quickly 🌟 Assess your current team and identify gaps in talent.  🌟 Make swift decisions to build a team that aligns with the company’s goals and investment thesis.  🌟 Promote diversity to enhance decision-making and innovation. 3️⃣ Develop a Robust 100-Day Plan 🌟 Create a feasible plan with realistic, bankable projections.  🌟 Identify strategic priorities and set clear, achievable goals for the team.  🌟 Ensure comprehensive reporting tools are in place to monitor progress and adjust strategies as needed. 4️⃣ Leverage PE Resources 🌟 Identify and integrate key resources from the PE fund, such as functional experts and senior advisers in their network.  🌟 Participate in networking events and forums to gain insights and share best practices.  🌟 Use available resources to drive continuous improvement and innovation. Being a CMO in a PE-backed firm requires a unique blend of strategic acumen, operational excellence, and the ability to thrive under pressure. By understanding the distinct challenges and opportunities of this role, CMOs can lead their teams to deliver results and drive significant value for their companies and investors. If you have any questions, or want to discuss how I can support you, book in an introductory call here: https://bit.ly/3VB2SoR    #PE #CMO #Marketing #MarketingAdvisor

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"A man without ethics is a wild beast loosed upon this world." Shining the light on the dark side of corporate governance. Companies that suffer from nepotism, old networks, favoritism, and a "we use each other" mentality. Understand your rights and options as a stakeholder if you get stuck in a "grab first, ethics later." situation. This post is also added to the "Entrepreneurship Collection," with the link available in the comments. "In a civilized world, law floats on a sea of ethics." In corporate governance, the interplay between regulatory frameworks and ethical responsibilities often finds itself strained by the actions of certain "legalized lawless operators." These entities or individuals operate within the legal's technical boundaries yet engage in ethically questionable or socially harmful practices. The existence of legalized lawless operators highlights a crucial dichotomy between legality and ethics in corporate behavior. While legality pertains to adherence to the letter of the law, ethics concerns the broader spectrum of moral principles and societal expectations. This dichotomy becomes particularly pronounced in areas where regulations or contracts are outdated, insufficient, or deliberately designed with loopholes that can be exploited. Learn and share your experiences in the comments. Alph Keogh Jeff Broz BS, RT(R)(CT)(MR) Don Fowler Morris Panner Achaiah P M Sudhir Bahl Ashim Purohit Ashok Kakkar Rohan Prabhu Vivek Mehrotra Manikandan Bala Kumar Satyam Manusha Chereddy Vijayarajan Alagumalai https://lnkd.in/evKTvrU7

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Are you planning to attend IMPACT®2024? If so, stop by the KKR booth and add our fireside chat to your agenda. My colleague, Alisa Wood, will share how KKR is unlocking value through innovative private equity strategies, including employee ownership and differentiated approaches to value creation. It will be a great discussion with valuable takeaways you won’t want to miss!

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Generating value from AI requires: - A clear centralised strategy focused on value generating use cases combined with experimentation, allowing teams to explore applications and enable innovation and responsiveness to changing needs - Re-architecting enterprise technology stacks to support AI - Integrating AI across operational systems - Improving integration and workflow systems - Enhancing data analytics and machine learning systems - Integrating AI into software development processes - Implementing robust governance and risk management for AI solutions - Re-architecting roles and developing skills Jonathan Flynn #AI #EnterpriseAI #TechInnovation #AIIntegration #DataAnalytics #MachineLearning #AIWorkflow #AIDevelopment #AIGovernance #TechStrategy Hoggett Bowers

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Best Investors & "The Art of Execution" Book & Study by Lee Freeman-Shor: https://buff.ly/3wRjMXU A study of 1,866 investments made by 45 of the world’s top investors over 7 years - with key Insights translated for PE Execution over ideas: - In PE, the success of an investment is heavily reliant on execution, not just the quality of the initial investment thesis - it is key to focus on operational improvements and capital-efficient commercial growth to drive value Adaptability: Be prepared to adapt strategies based on the performance of portfolio companies and market conditions - flexibility can lead to better outcomes when initial assumptions do not always hold true Operational & GTM Excellence: - In PE, operational & GTM improvements and strong management practices can significantly enhance the value of portfolio companies Active Management: Take an active (& collaborative) role as a partner to your portfolio companies and support your management teams in implementing best practices, providing strategic direction (e.g. GTM), all key to driving value Leveraging Expertise Effectively: - Utilize the expertise and experience not just of the investment team but also the PE operating partners to support portfolio Long-Term Focus: Maintain a long-term perspective on value creation - while short-term monthly or quarterly performance is important, the ultimate goal is to build sustainable, long-term value (which takes patience) in portfolio companies Performance Monitoring (using the right metrics): Monitor the performance of portfolio companies against the right benchmarks (for example, some of the elusive GTM benchmarks) - this allows for the right adjustments to strategies Risk Management: - Manage risks proactively by identifying potential issues early and developing mitigation strategies. This includes both financial risks and operational & GTM risks within portfolio companies Money Management: - Effective allocation of capital and management of portfolio companies are crucial Exit Strategies: - Plan and execute exit strategies meticulously to maximize returns. This includes preparing portfolio companies for sale or public offering and timing exits to optimize value realization --------- #pe #privateequity #business

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#AI adoption and implementation has become a major priority for companies, but the value is hard to find. In fact, only 26% have developed capabilities to move from proof of concept. BCG’s new report examines what leaders are doing to drive real value from AI and how individual sectors are performing, and provides a playbook for companies can change their own AI trajectories. Read it here: https://on.bcg.com/4eWHu5N

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Bain Capital Ventures was formed over 20 years ago with the launch of BCV’s $250M fund in 2001. Over the course of the last two decades, we are fortunate to have backed many household names: LinkedIn, SolarWinds, SurveyMonkey, Rapid7, Dynatrace, Docusign and SendGrid. Today, we are launching a reimagined BCV brand that you can see here: https://lnkd.in/gugpnPuG The core mission of Bain Capital Ventures has not changed: fund disruptive B2B technology founders at the earliest stages and bring the power and weight of our operating experience, domain depth and Bain Capital networks to help accelerate these ventures from inception to scale. Why, after 23 years, should we show up differently? What’s changed? It’s never too early for BCV. - We have built a team of investors in SF and NYC who are ex-founders and startup execs who have lived through the 0-1 journey.  - We're doubling down on incubations. We launched BCV Labs, an AI-focused incubation space in Palo Alto, with startups like Prophet Security and Contextual AI. - We've also been incubating tech-enabled services startups out of our office in NYC, with a thesis that AI makes historically bad markets good. Now is the time to build AI for legacy industries waiting to be disrupted. - We have formed BCV Fellows which is a group of early-career prospective founders that are tapping into the Bain Capital networks to get exposed to unsolved problems in industry. Bain Capital offers firmwide depth in a broad range of industries… including manufacturing, logistics and healthcare. - Bain Capital’s network provides access to large verticals and companies that represent some of the largest AI disruption opportunities. - These verticals complement areas of historical strength for BCV including Fintech, Commerce, Cyber and AI Infrastructure. We build with you. - We've expanded our platform team to include talent, marketing, and customer development, with experts hailing from companies like Stripe, Airbnb and MuleSoft. Bain Capital Ventures was formed during the rubble of the dot-com collapse. But we are launching the new BCV brand today, at the dawn of the AI revolution. The largest industries of the world will be reinvented in the next 20 years and a new set of household names in software, financial services, healthcare, commerce, manufacturing and logistics will emerge. There has never been a more exciting time to be a founder. We are here and ready to build with you! - Ajay Agarwal and Christina Melas-Kyriazi

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I highly recommend this to board directors. There are a lot of experts preaching a range of board oversight standards with AI and some have said to ramp up Quantum acumen. There is also use experimentations exploding which is creating pilot purgatory. The challenge will only increase. Steady attention and adaptation is the new normal for navigating this exciting era of AGI tools and business system design and operations.

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Thoughtful Monday read from Kellogg Insight -- We're all familiar with the concept of the gender pay gap at this point since the 1990s. However, new research from Nicola Bianci, assistant professor of strategy at Kellogg suggests that the relationship between men's and women's average #wages did indeed change in past four decades. The average man in the U.S. used to make 80% more than the average woman in 1976, and past over four decades, that gap has fallen to a 33%. Interestingly, there was no stark drop but rather a steady decline that has remained active for the long-term. So what's going on here? Some theorize that #older workers are retiring and newer workers are taking their place, relinquishing some higher paid positions. The reason why the 33% remains stagnant though, is because there's still a disproportionate amount of women in more "traditionally feminine" job positions rather than "male" careers. What do you think about this? Do you have any personal theories about the way the pay gap minimized and then #stagnated?

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Like other venture building groups, at 9point8 Collective we have our own methods of evaluating and screening for great leaders. Empathy is pretty high on the list, but maybe not for the reasons you might think. - Successful companies deliver for their customers. As a leader, it is hard to understand your customers -- who will almost certainly have an entirely different reality and worldview than you -- without empathy. When was the last time you saw a product launch and thought "wow I don't really get it but I can see how THEY would love it." It happens a lot. - Successful companies have loyal and capable employees. What drives a capable employee to eschew potentially more lucrative offers elsewhere? For most, it starts with being heard, appreciated, and valued. Again, empathy goes a long way here. - Empathy breeds humility. If someone fundamentally does not appreciate the perspective of others, how likely are they to truly test their own assumptions and seek out new perspectives? Hubris creates blind spots and blind spots create inefficiencies, then limitations, then weaknesses. Empathy is not the end all be all, but it's a simple and effective mechanism to learn, course-correct, and build momentum. #venturebuilding

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The emerging #privateequity #CFO is a vital linchpin, balancing the financial acumen, operational resilience, and strategic foresight poised to unlock new dimensions of success in an ever-changing landscape. #valuecreation https://ow.ly/wNch50RpffF

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One of the things we see quite often at Grit Capital Partners, is a newly minted CEO. We see a big difference in the transition to CEO based upon the historical lane the CEO is coming from. There are different new muscles if you are coming from Product, Engineering, Finance, etc. In this article, we go deep on the CRO to CEO transition, which includes some thoughts from Rosie O'Meara, a particularly fine example of someone who has made the transition quite well. What were your biggest transition moments? https://lnkd.in/eEB-K2ZU

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In his classic business book “Good to Great,” Jim Collins analyzes 11 companies that had separated themselves from their competitors and become industry leaders. Companies that had made the transition from “good” to “great” had, based on Collins’ research, done so by consciously defining and pursuing that outcome in the form of a “big hairy audacious goal” or “BHAG.”   Collins defines a BHAG as “a powerful way to stimulate progress.” But to do so, it must be “clear and compelling” - he gives the example of John F. Kennedy’s goal of landing men on the moon by the end of the 1960s - which requires “both building for the long term AND exuding a relentless sense of urgency.” To be effective, a BHAG has to be the right amount of difficulty. According to Collins, it “should fall well outside the comfort zone” and, while there should be a basis for believing it can be achieved, it “should require heroic effort and perhaps even a little luck.” I have come to believe that the BHAG concept can apply on a personal level as well, leading an individual on their own “good to great” journey. In particular, I think the BHAG idea can be a perfect vehicle for improving fitness. As it does for a company, I believe a personal BHAG can have an energizing, focusing effect through the invariable ups and downs while chasing a challenging and exciting goal. Of course, the goal must be “audacious,” which means that it has to be in that band between what is almost certainly achievable with focused effort and what is truly out of reach. Other than a brief experiment with jogging during my first year of law school, I did not take up the sport until I was 48. It then took me a year to go from the 10K to the half marathon, and another year to take on my first full marathon. I was never fast, but having once told a friend that I was as likely to walk on the moon as I was to run a marathon, it was satisfying to realize that I could go farther than I had ever thought possible. It wasn’t until I was in my mid-50’s, with a handful of marathons and two Olympic distance triathlons under my belt, that I decided to see if I could really push myself. That was when I decided to create an ambitious, three-year program that would have me take on a 56-mile ultramarathon, a half-Ironman triathlon, and finally a full Ironman. If I could be successful, I envisioned transforming myself from an ordinary middle-aged runner into someone who had successfully tackled some of the world’s most challenging extreme endurance events.  There were surprises, setbacks, and successes along the way - and through it I found the BHAG-inspired transformation I was seeking. The journey continues. #thursdaythoughts #thoughtleadership #leadershipdevelopment

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A very insightful and worthwhile read written by my talented NSP partner, Lisa Blosser, on how to best support Founders and CEOs at the Early Stage through coaching. Thanks Lisa! https://lnkd.in/gu5iU5Zm

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