How to run a PE Fund

You rarely find good books written by principals of the PE world. I am racking my head to think about the last time I read something like this and I am failing to do so. Do you know of any good books written by PE founders or top executives who can give an inner view of how strategies were formed, how they recovered from disaster, how they executed their strategies, and how they worked with investors or wider, etc. etc.? I can't.

This is why this book should be read by every PE (and arguably VC) fund manager as well. Especially PE funds in Emerging Markets. I find it tragic that these funds aren’t ambitious enough and scratch around like chickens in the dust when you could be a falcon soaring the skies. The author did it. And no, you can't have my copy, this isn’t going anywhere. I met up with my mate Chris to have a cuppa and after doing the ritual abuse and taking the mickey, we settled down for a nice natter and he shoved this book under my nose. To be honest, I thought this was one of those boring hagiographic corporate biographies which are ghostwritten and are broadly meh, who cares? Anyway, I put it aside and focused on the important things (no, not Chris, but the tiny slice of Death by Chocolate Cake which for some strange reason occupied my attention).

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Whilst trundling around SailGP, I remembered the book I had chucked on top of the desk and looked up the biography of the author on Wiki. What a man. Mohammed Alardhi, Airforce Pilot, the Youngest head of the Omani Airforce, set up an investment company and then the Executive Chairman of Investcorp . And then devoured the book during the flight from Abu Dhabi to Ahmedabad. Few important things

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1. Be willing to ask questions. We don’t ask questions enough. Don’t be afraid to ask questions.
2. I am in a privileged position where I don’t have to give a toss about corporate politics. But politics do happen in corporate land and you should be cognizant about it. It is like normal politics, you may not be interested in it but politics is interested in it. Face up to it, do the meetings you hate, suck it up sunshine and meet/interact with people you don’t like and like.
3. Constant Learning is vital for every manager and leader. If you go to sleep without having learnt something new – you have wasted your day.
4. Mohammed talks about how the Gulf has been the source of capital for a long time. Not just now, and it's vital for firms to have a presence in the gulf and develop relationships with the big pools of liquidity
5. Capital Raising is bloody tough but has to be done. This is what separates men from the boys, especially now that cheap money has gone
6. Big ambitions are vital, you have to have a big dream.
7. Loved the fact he sent Gillian Tett’s book, The Silo Effect to all members of his firm. I wonder how many people read it but still, kudos to him to try to break down silos. Big worry of mine.
8. To recover from a disaster – you have to shock the system, question the status quo, don’t penalise risk-taking, and make everyone an owner via an employee stock ownership scheme
9. I loved how much he spent his time working on the right governance on the Board of Directors and the International Advisory Board. Very few CEOs or Board Members get it and that’s why most companies are average. But this is amazing.
10. Differences in institutional investors and family offices investing. Very important to learn this.

It Is a great book for anyone who is in PE/VC, wants to be in PE/VC, or supports PE/VC and it is vital for every fund board member to read this. Comes highly recommended.