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TGVR
The Global Ventures Review
TGVR
Executive Intelligence · Market Perspective · Operational Insight
| Issue No. 03 · April 2026 |
Luciano Global Ventures Inc. |
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Editor's Note
This month I wrote about something I know well. Maybe too well. I have been on both sides of the conversation this article describes. As the operator who needed help and did not ask soon enough, and as the person who shows up when someone finally does.
The conditions are not unique to private equity. They show up in founder-led businesses, family-owned operations, and mid-market companies navigating transitions they did not see coming. The capital structure is different. The need is the same.
And if you have noticed that more executive search firms are now marketing interim and fractional placement services, that is not a coincidence. The market is telling you something.
It says they are paying attention. That is all it has ever said.
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Mark Luciano Ainsworth · Managing Partner |
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Feature
Send the Reinforcements
Why the Highest-ROI Move a Board Can Make Is the One They Keep Talking Themselves Out Of
There is a moment in the life of a company, usually somewhere between a difficult quarter and a missed forecast, where the building gets quieter.
Not calmer. Quieter. The kind of quiet that means people have stopped debating and started bracing.
Goals that felt aggressive but achievable three months ago now feel like they were written for a different company. The team is still showing up. Still grinding. But the energy has changed. They are no longer executing a plan. They are surviving one. And somewhere between the hallway conversations that got shorter and the board updates that got longer, a capable group of people who built something real starts to wonder whether anyone on the other side of the table sees what they see.
They do. The PE sponsors see the numbers softening. They are just not sure yet whether the problem is the team or the terrain. So they watch. And the team knows they are being watched. And that awareness, without clarity or support, makes everything worse.
This is not a performance problem. It is a conditions problem. And confusing the two is one of the most expensive mistakes a board or private equity investor can make.
Continue Reading →
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In Brief
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01
On the Calendar
Q1 Results Are In. Now What?
Board reviews are happening this month. Q1 performance is on the table. If results came in below plan, the conversation that matters most is not about the numbers. It is about whether the conditions that produced them have been addressed or just acknowledged. There is a difference. One leads to a Q2 adjustment. The other leads to a repeat.
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02
Worth Noting
The Average Executive Search Takes Three to Six Months. The Organization Feels Every Week.
C-suite searches take time. That is understood. What is less understood is what happens inside the building while the seat is empty. Decisions slow. Responsibilities drift. People start filling gaps they were never meant to fill. By the time the new hire walks in, the org chart they were hired into may no longer match the one that exists.
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03
What I'm Reading
The Oz Principle · Connors, Smith & Hickman
See it. Own it. Solve it. Do it. Connors, Smith, and Hickman make the case that accountability is not about blame. It is about choosing to operate above the line, where problems get solved, instead of below it, where they get explained. Worth reading any time, but especially worth reading when the conditions around you are shifting and the instinct is to wait for someone else to act first.
Get the Book →
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“The investor who says ‘we cannot afford to bring someone in’ is already spending more by standing still.”
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You Should Be Talking About...
Conversations PE, investors, and operators should be having
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Operations
Global Private Equity Report 2026: “12 Is the New 5”
Bain & Company · February 2026
Bain's annual report delivers a clear message: the math has changed. Deal value climbed 44% in 2025, but the recovery was narrow and concentrated in megadeals. Hold periods have stretched to roughly seven years, up from five to six during the prior decade. The industry is sitting on 32,000 unsold companies worth $3.8 trillion. And the new baseline for value creation is stark: where deals once required 5% annual EBITDA growth to hit target returns, today's environment demands 10-12%.
When the margin for error on EBITDA growth has more than doubled, every quarter matters. The companies that exit well in this environment will not be the ones with the best thesis at entry. They will be the ones where operational leadership stayed aligned with conditions through the entire hold period.
Read the Full Report →
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Finance
The Real Cost of a Wrong Executive Hire
Hunt Scanlon Media / Avant · November 2025
Avant's report puts hard numbers behind what most boards already suspect: a failed executive hire does not just cost a severance package. Research from Gartner and Harvard Business Review suggests the total cost can reach 10 to 15 times the executive's annual salary once you factor in lost productivity, strategic drift, and the morale damage that follows. Nearly half of newly hired executives fail within 18 months, and the primary driver is not lack of skill. It is poor cultural and contextual alignment.
The stat that stays with me is the 18-month failure rate. Nearly half. That is not a recruiting problem. That is an information problem. Boards are making permanent decisions based on interviews, references, and gut feel when what they actually need is operational context they do not yet have.
Read the Full Article →
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Leadership
Why CEO Turnover Is Rising in 2025
Harvard Business Review · November 2025 · Subscription may be required
CEO succession rates climbed to 12.5% in 2025, up from a historic low of 9.8% the year before. But the most significant finding is not the rate itself. It is where the turnover is happening. Departures among high-performing S&P 500 companies nearly matched those of underperformers, at 12% versus 14%. Boards are no longer waiting for a crisis to make a leadership change. Forced exits actually declined, suggesting these transitions are strategic, not reactive.
This one is worth sitting with. CEO transitions are no longer a signal that something went wrong. They are becoming a normal part of how well-governed companies prepare for what comes next. The question is no longer whether the transition will happen. It is whether the organization is ready when it does.
Read the Full Article →
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Perspective
Top 5 Corporate Governance Priorities for 2026
Harvard Law School Forum · April 2026
Published this month, this report names CEO succession and leadership pipeline fortification as the number one governance priority for corporate boards in 2026. The authors cite a demographic wave of long-tenured CEOs approaching transition, the increasing materiality of leadership quality to company value, and a persistent gap between the rising rate of CEO departures and the readiness of most boards to manage them.
Succession as a discipline, not a contingency. That framing matters. The boards that do this well are not the ones that scramble when a seat opens. They are the ones that have already thought about who steps in, how the transition is managed, and what the organization needs to stay steady through the change. Most boards are not there yet.
Read the Full Article →
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By the Numbers
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12%
Annual EBITDA growth now required to hit target PE returns. Five years ago it was 5%.
Bain & Co.
Feb 2026
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149
Days: average time to fill a CEO vacancy. Five months of organizational drift.
Challenger, Gray
& Christmas
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46%
of newly hired executives fail within 18 months. The primary driver is misalignment, not skill.
Gartner / HBR
via Avant
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71%
of PE-backed companies replace their CEO during the hold period. The transition is coming.
Heidrick &
Struggles
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If this was worth your time, forward it to someone who should be reading it. Forward this issue →
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Mark Luciano Ainsworth