Collaboration and partnership are at the core of VisionEdgeOne’s beliefs and in this article, Founder Boe Pahari maps out the infrastructure of VisionWorld – the groups and individuals essential to VisionEdgeOne.

At VisionEdgeOne, we see our stakeholders as part of One community – an ecosystem of investors, portfolio companies, experts and thought leaders with a shared vision of Imagine Tomorrow… As a collective, we are value accretive through diverse thinking, collaboration and knowledge sharing.

Our objective is to cultivate ideas and bring them to life. We adopt a mindset that fosters innovation and performance, using our network of experts to drive real, fundamental value, be that between portfolio companies cross-fertilizing best practice or between clients and the team discussing investment opportunities. Transparency, curiosity and knowledge sharing creates value for all stakeholders, particularly for our clients, the communities we serve through our portfolio companies, and, where possible, broader society. At VE1, we share an ambition to grow together with our stakeholders and as such our approach to clients and portfolio companies is based on clear long-term objectives driven by our core values. Our long-term commitment and progressive mindset is underpinned by an ambition to go beyond the ordinary.

Client Partnership
Clients remain at the forefront of our collective consideration. Client Partnership is a key VE1 value not only in theory but also in practice – it is the very foundation of our business. Through alignment and Epic Collaboration, we strive for excellence in our service and partnership.

VisionDirect
A key pillar of our Client Partnership is the provision of a dedicated co-investment programme, developed with our clients’ competitive advantage and strategic goals at the forefront of our minds. Introducing: VisionDirect. VE1 provides a highly experienced deal origination team and a dedicated programme lead, acting as an essential conduit between clients and ourselves. This offers clients a service akin to an outsourced origination/sourcing function, or an extension of our clients’ in-house function. Thus, the tailored provision of co-investment opportunities differentiates our investment approach and value add to clients. VisionDirect is centred around the principle of ensuring that participants in the programme will see every origination opportunity that the VE1e team identifies as actionable. We endeavour to understand our clients’ processes intimately, so that deal execution is as seamless and integrated as possible.

VisionEdgeOne Team
Our team is the nucleus of VisionWorld. While governance and accountability are essential to our business, we believe in promoting a culture of VisionEdgeOne Citizenship, whereby members of our team are aligned and share in our culture of collaboration and client first mentality. Our team members are expected to take responsibility to work in the best interest of our clients, our business, and our colleagues, always Bringing the Best Version of Ourselves.

These concepts extend to how we interact with our team, clients, and portfolio companies. We host periodic investor days and site visits to better understand portfolio assets, and create forums for our clients and our portfolio companies to interact, share insights, and spark inspiration.

VisionTrust
VisionTrust (VT) is VE1’s charitable foundation. VT will allow us to give back to our international community. It seeks to benefit non-profit areas aligned with VE1’s vision of a sustainable future delivering increased quality of life for all.

Through committing to this Trust, VE1 fully aligns its business with positive outcomes for society. VT enhances VE1’s ESG impact by supporting environmental and social causes which are not investable but which have the potential to create immense value for stakeholders.

VT has two components:

 Financial: VE1 will allocate funds from its annual profits to make a number of donations to causes, considering contribution size and timing on a case by case   basis.

Non-financial: Each member of the VE1 team makes a commitment to dedicate time to VT, bringing their expertise to identify relevant charitable purposes. VE1 corporate citizenship activities may include community initiatives aligned with VT. VE1 will champion support of VT in its portfolio companies, encouraging involvement from management teams and other employees.

When we Imagine Tomorrow…we envision a better world. Each team member will commit time and dedicate resources to this foundation.

Portfolio Companies

Our portfolio companies are another bedrock of VisionWorld. These assets will benefit from our experienced team with longstanding cross-sector track records within asset management and value creation. We strive to inspire management teams with elements of our key values to integrate into their respective cultures, unlocking further upside. Through active engagement, open dialogue, and transparency, we invite cross-fertilisation of best practice and the creation of a new industry standard.

Asset management is a fundamental pillar to our investment approach and our goal is to enhance value creation through collaboration and knowledge sharing between the VE1 team and the senior management teams of our portfolio companies. An additional layer of value creation comes into effect as we promote collaboration and synergies across and between our portfolio of companies.

Alignment is of paramount importance – we prioritise clear and unambiguous goals aligning the interests of each constituent of the value chain, including our team and our clients’ long-term objectives. In conjunction with value creation and improved ESG metrics, we intend for portfolio companies, at exit, to emerge more inspired and well prepared for tomorrow. To support this goal, amongst other initiatives, we have created VisionLab.

VisionLab
The concept of VisionLab represents academic, industry, and subject matter experts whose knowledge VisionEgeOne seeks in order to stimulate Curious Thinking in Pursuit of Excellence, further extend our Epic Collaboration, and at once challenge and inform our investment strategy, sourcing, and asset management.

In combining experience across our team, portfolio companies and clients, we identify particular themes, trends, and ideas that we seek to explore in greater depth. This provides us with the opportunity to share specialist knowledge with our clients and portfolio companies.

In this light, VisionLab harnesses cross-disciplinary expertise, elevates our thought leadership, and generates tailored value creation initiatives for our portfolio companies. However, in a broader sense, this think tank function is about looking outside of ourselves and inviting inspiration. It propels us to challenge the existing, provoke the status quo, and deliver robust ideas for the future.