The 100-day plan is one of private equity’s most durable tools: a new owner, a new or confirmed leadership team, and a short list of priorities to be delivered in the first hundred days. Most sponsors now write it during diligence, and most CEO changes are planned at the time of the deal. In our view, the weak point is less when the plan starts than what it covers: the leadership section is often a list of names rather than a test of whether each seat fits the plan being underwritten, and it stops at day 100.
The leadership decision usually comes early
Spencer Stuart’s 2019 study of 236 CEO changes in European PE-backed companies with revenue above €150 million, between 2009 and 2018, found that nearly half came in the first year of ownership. It also cites AlixPartners research suggesting that having the wrong CEO in place after year one is a major reason deals underperform. The first year is where the leadership calls carry most weight.
Assess the team against the plan, seat by seat
The useful output of a management assessment is not a verdict on individuals. It is a view of whether the team matches the plan the sponsor is underwriting, where the gaps are, and which seats may need to change in the first year. That view then shapes the 100-day plan rather than being discovered by it.
Treat interim leadership as a deliberate option
The skills needed to stabilise a business through a change of ownership are not always the skills needed to scale it over the hold. Where a seat needs to change early, an experienced interim can hold it while the permanent search runs, and give the permanent hire a stable starting point rather than a crisis. Spencer Stuart found that 39% of failed first CEO changes involved a compromise candidate, appointed under time pressure to bridge the ownership change. Many sponsors already make that trade knowingly. Naming the role as interim from the start makes the bridge explicit, keeps the permanent search running, and avoids a second unplanned change later.
Agree what success looks like before day one
Spencer Stuart attributes almost a third of failed first CEO changes to the hiring process or the support given afterwards, including how well the new chief executive works with the new owner. Pace, priorities, KPIs and the exit horizon are easier to agree before a new leader starts than to renegotiate in month four, and the outcome is worth writing down as a short document the board can return to through the hold.
Extend the window to six months
The first hundred days rarely show whether a transition has worked. A six-month review gives a fairer test of the leadership calls: are the people in each seat delivering against the plan, and is any seat now a risk to the next eighteen months of the hold?
In venture, the window is the runway
After a growth round the leadership question is usually not who leaves but who joins. The plan that came with the round, whether international expansion, a move upmarket or a path to profitability, depends on a handful of hires such as a CFO, a CRO or a COO, and the runway to the next raise sets the deadline. Those seats are worth agreeing between the founder and the new lead investor before the money lands, because a key hire that slips by six months comes straight off that runway.
A sponsor with a deal approaching signing can test this in an afternoon. Write down which leadership seats the plan depends on, who will be in each on day one, and which of those you expect to look different by month six. If that list cannot be written before completion, the 100-day plan will be writing it for you.
HMN Capital. Executive search and interim management for PE, venture and growth-backed businesses.
HMN Capital also offers a dedicated Seven-Day Leadership Assessment, a seven-day leadership diagnostic that gives PE sponsors and boards an evidence-based view of management team risk across eight critical dimensions, before it affects value or timelines.
Working with a PE or VC-backed business and looking to strengthen your leadership team? Find out how HMN Capital can help or get in touch directly.
Revised 23 October 2026.
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