Private equity value creation plans are built around clear commercial ambitions. Grow revenue. Enter new markets. Launch new products. Increase customer value. Improve margin. Build a stronger, more resilient business.

But none of those ambitions happen because they appear in a value creation plan.

They have to be delivered.

Increasingly, the ability to execute them depends on technology, data, digital capability, AI and cyber resilience. These are no longer separate technology conversations happening somewhere beneath the value creation plan. They are part of the infrastructure, capability and operating model that determine whether the plan can actually be delivered.

That is why technology is now part of the EBITDA conversation.

Not because every technology investment can be neatly translated into an immediate EBITDA number. It cannot. But because the ability to grow revenue, improve margin and build resilience increasingly depends on having the right technology strategy and the ability to execute it.

The question for investors and CEOs is becoming less about what the business spends on technology and more about whether technology can support where the business needs to go next.

The first 100 days set the ambition, not the finish line

The first 100 days after a deal matter. They establish expectations and begin to create the culture of the next phase of ownership.

Pace matters. Quality matters. Ambition matters.

This is the opportunity to establish how decisions will be made, what good execution looks like and how quickly the organisation expects to move. It is also the point at which the technology strategy needs to align clearly with the commercial direction of the business.

That does not mean attempting to transform everything in 100 days.

Smaller and mid-market businesses can often pivot faster than large enterprises, but meaningful technology and business change still takes time. Platforms cannot always be replaced overnight. Data does not suddenly become clean and useful. Operating models take time to change and people need to adopt new ways of working.

The first 100 days should therefore create intent and direction.

What capabilities will the business need to achieve its growth plans? Where is technology currently constraining performance? Which investments will enable growth or improve margin? Where is technical or data debt creating risk? What needs to change now and what should be deliberately sequenced over the hold period?

Getting those decisions right creates momentum.

But value creation is not won in the first 100 days alone. It is delivered from day 101 to day 1,001 and, ultimately, through to exit and beyond.

Set it up right and the business has a much stronger chance of winning.

The operating model connects technology to EBITDA

The strongest technology strategies do not begin with a list of systems.

They begin with the business.

If the value creation plan requires international expansion, the question is whether the operating model, platforms and data can support it. If growth depends on acquisitions, the business needs to understand how quickly new companies can be integrated. If margin improvement depends on simplification, leaders need visibility of where fragmented processes, duplicated systems and manual work are consuming time and money.

Technology becomes commercially valuable when it changes how the business operates.

That could mean creating capacity without increasing headcount at the same rate as revenue. It could mean giving sales teams better information about customers, improving conversion or increasing customer value. It might mean reducing the cost and complexity of integrating acquisitions or creating better management information so leaders can make faster decisions.

It can also mean resilience.

Growth built on fragile platforms, poor data, uncontrolled cyber risk or key-person dependencies is not resilient growth. These issues may sit below the surface while a business performs well, but they can quickly become constraints as the organisation scales.

This is why technology needs to sit inside the value creation conversation rather than alongside it.

A technology strategy should be able to explain how investment and change support the commercial priorities of the business. It should connect the decisions being made today with the revenue, margin and resilience outcomes the organisation is trying to achieve tomorrow.

Technology is the means. Business value is the end.

AI needs to move from productivity to targeted value creation

AI makes this conversation even more important.

The first wave of AI adoption has largely focused on individual productivity. People use AI to write documents, analyse information, prepare proposals, respond to emails and accelerate everyday tasks.

That matters, but the competitive advantage is already narrowing.

Everyone has access to similar tools. Most organisations are experimenting with them and many employees are already using AI whether there is a formal strategy in place or not.

The bigger opportunity is what happens next.

AI becomes strategically interesting when it moves deeper into the operating model and begins to improve specific processes.

Where can AI automate work that currently takes too long? Where can it make a process faster, more accurate or more consistent? Where can it improve a commercial decision, accelerate delivery or remove a constraint that prevents the business from scaling?

The opportunity is not simply to “use more AI”.

It is to identify targeted areas where AI and automation can materially change an outcome.

That requires more than buying technology. It requires understanding the process, the data, the people involved and the commercial result the business wants to achieve. It also requires leadership and governance so that speed does not create unnecessary risk.

For PE-backed businesses, that creates an important shift in the AI conversation. The question becomes less about whether the portfolio company has adopted AI and more about where AI can create measurable value during the hold period.

That is a much more useful conversation.

Exit readiness starts long before the exit

The technology conversation also changes as a business approaches exit.

Historically, much of the focus around valuation has understandably been on existing financial performance. Those numbers still matter enormously, but the next investor is also buying potential.

A successful hold period may have delivered strong growth and created significant value for existing shareholders. At some point, those investors want to realise that value.

The next investor then asks a different question.

What happens next?

Is there another phase of growth available? Can the business scale further? Can it enter new markets, integrate more acquisitions or launch new propositions? Can margin continue to improve? Is the organisation resilient enough to support another period of ambitious growth?

Technology, data and digital capability all influence the answers.

A business approaching exit with ageing platforms, significant technical debt, fragmented data or a technology strategy that effectively stops at the transaction may create questions for the next investor. The same applies when growth has outpaced the operating model and substantial investment is required simply to maintain performance.

By contrast, a business with a clear, credible and continuing technology strategy can demonstrate something different.

It can show how its capabilities support the next stage of the journey.

That does not mean every technology programme needs to be completed before exit. In many cases, it should not be. Technology strategy is rolling because businesses, markets and technology continue to change.

What matters is that the strategy makes sense beyond the current ownership period.

The next investor should be able to see what has been achieved, what is in flight and what comes next. They should understand the investment required and, critically, the commercial opportunity that investment enables.

Technology belongs in the value creation plan

Technology does not create value simply because money is spent on it.

Neither does AI.

Value comes from connecting technology investment and execution directly to what the business is trying to achieve.

For private equity investors and portfolio CEOs, that means bringing technology into the commercial conversation earlier and keeping it there throughout the hold period.

The first 100 days create the direction and ambition. The operating model turns strategy into execution. AI creates new opportunities to automate and improve targeted processes. Exit readiness ensures the business is positioned not only for today’s performance but for tomorrow’s potential.

The value creation plan sets out the ambition.

Technology, data, digital and AI increasingly help determine whether that ambition can be delivered.

Because value creation is not something to talk about.

It has to be done.

At Relentica, our Private Equity Enablement and Strategy & Advisory work helps investors and leadership teams connect technology decisions to commercial ambition – from value creation planning and execution through to exit readiness.

If technology is going to influence the value of the business, it needs to be part of the value creation conversation from the start.