PE Play #1: Get Business Development right

Organic growth - "Coin of the realm"

In most markets where private equity investors play, an increase in growth rate is more powerful - Enterprise Value wise - than a similar increase in the rate of profitability.  As one very successful PE investor put it to me - "EBITDA may come and EBITDA may go - but growth is the coin of the realm".  That is NOT to say that investors will tolerate losses.  But, there is a high degree of willingness to sacrifice short term profitability to fuel extraordinary growth.  That is because they know that the cost of winning new business is significantly lower than the cost of growth through further acquisition - and that future acquirors will pay a higher premium for business that has demonstrated the ability to deliver "organic" (i.e. not through M&A activities) growth.

What used to work just isn't enough...

It is remarkable how many small to mid sized businesses managed to succeed with "ad hoc" business development and sales processes.  Then, one day the business "plateaus" and the growth trend slows to a crawl.
Why? There are actually many reasons, but most of them are related to the need to start winning larger contracts (because the small ones just don't "move the needle" anymore) and/or the need to expand into adjacent markets (i.e. new clients) where the firm does not have brand recognition or mitigating deep personal relationships.
When this happens, the business needs to reach a higher level of what we might call "BD Process Maturity" in order to break through into a new period of high growth. 
Are your BD processes robust enough to deliver enhanced enterprise value?  If not, you are not managing your equity as a rational PE investor would.