Private equity has built one of the most disciplined leadership sourcing systems in business. Yet the criteria at its center do not determine success. The industry has been answering the wrong question. It has asked whether someone looks like the CEOs who were hired before. It has not asked whether those traits make success more likely.
The data shows those are different questions. The difference is where the next competitive advantage will emerge. The firms that recognize this gap and redesign how they evaluate
leadership accordingly will be the ones that convert insight into performance.