Who makes the lion's share of profits?

Having just spent time at Ivey Business School, it reminded me of my MBA days and how we all dreamed we would change the world...or at least change a business. One of the reasons I was driven to go to business school was because early on in my career, I met two Ivey MBAs who were finding tanking businesses, raising some private money from wealthy Bay Street lawyers or traders, and using the cash to get the banks off the flagging businesses' backs.
I hung on every word as these two men described how their work added jobs to businesses, revived business owners and breathed new life into products and processes. I could see their excitement and I wanted to do the same sort of work.
I was intrigued by the difference a cash injection of equity would make. Once the business owner and team  were no longer answering calls from the bank, they could get the business back to the challenge of finding and serving clients - paying clients. As the energy flowed back to marketing and service delivery, it would be like a massive log jam freeing up, suddenly returning the river to a confident flow. So many companies need that financial reprieve to gather themselves and get the business back to doing what it excels at doing--and I don't care who you are, no CEO enjoys looking for capital when the business is struggling. There's no worse confidence drainer.
Back to those 2 MBA guys I admired--it was their ethics of seeing the business owner move up the business to a new level or re-finding their edge. This joy is working as a team clearly was their magic sauce to their success. When I visit private equity firms today, I want to see that same secret sauce as they talk about current portfolio companies. I want to hear their pleasure in working as a team to take a company to a new level. It is easier to find Private Equity who can ramp up processes, but the culture and attitude is rarer.
McKinsey & Co studied the financial success of private equity firms and discovered that in fact, only the top 20% of private equity funds make the lion's share of profits. True to their style of quality research, Sacha Gaie at McKinsey dug deeper and came up with a range of activities the good Private Equity firms practiced and it did come down to strategy and other team work. The study did not have a specific measure for team work or ethics or pure good spirits in dealing with each other, but if that could be quantified, it would explain a great deal of who succeeds and who gets to go home broke.
My two Ivey MBA heroes went on to be top of the industry which is now known as private equity. I always held them up as my guide to how to work with others. I went to business school to learn more of their skils and I find it ironic that without seeking it on purpose, I am in that fantastic industry called private equity hopefully helping business owners and CEOs reach their dreams.