Private equity sponsors typically use Maestro to create, implement, and measure the progress of value creation plans across their portfolios. With increased frequency, PE-backed companies have also begun to use Maestro to meet a wide variety of internal needs, from OKR tracking to reporting and more. Let’s examine the unique and distinct ways executives at three different portfolio companies are using Maestro to enhance internal processes and strategic execution: 

INW: Bringing New Levels of Accountability into Strategic And Value Creation Plan Execution

In her role as Chief Strategy Officer for Innovations in Nutrition + Wellness (INW), a Mubadala portfolio company specializing in dietary supplements, sports nutrition, and personal care products, Fernanda Ravazzolo is one of the executive team members responsible for setting and implementing a strategy for growth, cost reduction, cash management, and ensuring it is executed as designed. Planning and analysis are a big part of the job, as well as tracking progress to identify where adjustments need to be made. 

As the main champion of Maestro in the company, she has come to rely heavily on the platform for strategic planning, reporting on each of the company’s various workstreams, and in her preparation for board meetings. By replacing multiple and disparate Excel spreadsheets, many pieces of paper, and whiteboard scribbles, Maestro has delivered a new level of efficiency, productivity, and effectiveness by bringing all the critical data into one environment.

Having only recently implemented Maestro, Fernanda spent the first few weeks acclimating to the platform and determining the KPIs to track. After only a few months, INW is now making the most of Maestro’s functionality and using it during meetings with stakeholders, helping to bring a new level of accountability into the execution of the strategic and value creation plan. 

“Companies set a strategy and revisit it every 12, 24, or 36 months, but not every day. Maestro gives me the ability to see how execution and the numbers are going in recent months or the past quarter. It helps capture lessons learned, identifying where we need to make sure momentum continues, and flagging what’s not working and needs to be addressed, all in a very easy and visual way.”

Linnworks: Tracking Cross-Functional OKRs and Progress Against Tasks

As Head of Business Management & Transformation at Linnworks, an e-commerce inventory and order management software company backed by Marlin Equity Partners, Hannah Truelove oversees large cross-functional projects including integrations of acquisitions and new product releases. In early 2024, Hannah and the company’s executive team deployed Maestro to better track OKRs for the company’s functional teams and more easily gauge the progress of tasks.  

“As an OKR tracking tool, Maestro is fantastic,” said Truelove. “I like how you can see the initiatives, key results, and KPIs all on one page. It allows you to review OKRs more easily during leadership calls and see a snapshot of progress, rather than having to go around the room and get those detailed updates, which makes for a really boring meeting.”

Linnworks had historically managed OKRs on spreadsheets. They tried using Asana but found it difficult to track KPIs and progress against key results across multiple cross-functional teams and objectives. The company’s executive team and its private equity sponsor, Marlin, had used Maestro during the early days of the platform and turned back to it following the introduction of new features ideal for OKR tracking.  

In the coming months, Hannah expects to expand her use of Maestro by building out new dashboards and exploring some of the many integrations Maestro offers with the tools and solutions already used by various teams across the business. 

A More Structured and Formalized Approach to Tracking and Reporting

When a private equity sponsor with more than $20 billion in AUM was seeking to implement a more structured, focused, and consolidated approach to tracking and reporting for a large infrastructure services company in their portfolio, they turned to Maestro. 

Company executives responsible for the company’s broader strategic growth initiatives as well as digital innovation projects, gathering feedback from the company’s expansive field operations, and deploying software applications to improve efficiencies, had been using Excel and Microsoft to manage projects and generate progress reports. 

Maestro has helped the company successfully consolidate the various business units that had been operating and reporting separately, giving strategic growth leaders the ability to see KPIs related to revenue, employee count, sales pipeline, and more in one place. 

Maestro has also simplified reporting, as meetings now involve opening the interface, sharing screens, and reviewing numbers on the dashboard. With the barriers that previously existed between businesses now removed, executives have quick and immediate access to performance data from across the entire business.