These Wall Street pros are busier than ever. See their top efficiency secrets — from fake calendar blocks to saying ‘no’

M&A and IPOs may be stalled, but one group of Wall Street executives has never been busier.

Last year, private fund resales hit an all-time high of $160 billion. Industry insiders predict volume in the so-called secondaries market to grow even more this year as private equity firms continue to hold back on making distributions to investors, as the yearslong slump in M&A and IPO shows little sign of waning. The industry’s growth means leaders of secondaries teams are juggling more responsibilities than ever, including running much larger teams and spending more time evaluating deals. Business Insider asked 14 industry power players who have helped grow this industry to its current heights for their top workplace efficiency tips.One power player said he has imposed a limit on the number of slides that can be included in a presentation at team meetings. Another recalled a trick he learned from JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon, and yet another admitted to adding fake meetings to his calendar to gain time to think bigger picture. We’ve collected the top tips below, written in their own words, edited for length and clarity. Read on to see how some of the busiest people on Wall Street are staying organized and focused as business booms.

The four-slide rule

Mark Benedetti

Executive president and cohead of secondaries, Ardian

Vlad and I have got our fingers in a lot of pies, so we do a lot of meetings. One rule that we’ve put in place is that any presentation for an internal meeting cannot be more than four slides. You can have an appendix with all the details and data that you want, but if it shows up in our inbox with eight slides, we tell them to go back to the drawing board.

That forces the person doing the job to think about the critical points, and it focuses the conversation. If you get too bogged down in internal meetings, you’re not going to have time to review those big deals or talk to sellers or talk to investors, which is really the bread and butter of our business.

The power of ‘no’

Verdun Perry,

Global head of Blackstone Strategic Partners

Our team does anywhere between 100 to 150 deals a year. We use our knowledge, footprint, and familiarity with the GPs and their underlying companies and assets to determine very quickly the deals that aren’t worth our time.

Every week, we have a team meeting over lunch to talk about resource allocation, and we talk about every single deal. We assess which deals are not high quality or high probability. The next step is a quick but respectful no, which allows us to lean in and double our efforts on the high-quality deals.

With my own time, there are many times I have to say no, but I am able to rely on outstanding colleagues. Delegation is so critical to efficiency. We are all ambitious and want to succeed, but we cannot and do not have to do it alone. It’s not about you, it’s about the team. There are lots of people who are capable of doing something, and it can be their opportunity to step up, learn, and grow. Sometimes efficiency is about saying no for yourself and yes for someone else.

AI is only as good as the data behind it

Vladimir Colas

Executive vice president and cohead of secondaries, Ardian

It is true that AI is a real time saver for secondaries. But this is a private industry, and if you start applying AI to public databases or a statistical model on whether this 2016 vintage fund should exit companies in year eight, it will get it all wrong.

You need to apply AI once you have the right information and can do a proper bottom-up analysis. But getting the information from the GPs is the hard part. That’s why the job of an analyst in secondaries is not going to be replaced by robots tomorrow.

Blocking out time to think

Jeff Akers

Partner and head of secondary investments, Adams Street

My calendar just fills up. Nearly every minute of every day is taken. Being a leader means being able to step back and make sure you’re doing the right things, and not just dealing with a firehose coming at you.

Every Tuesday and Thursday, I block time on my calendar for “deal work.” It’s not actually reserved for a specific deal, but it ensures I have time to take a step back, assess and prioritize my list of to-dos, and think about what’s going on more broadly in our industry.

It forces me to step away from the flow of work and think about innovation, how we can be doing things better, and how we can identify new angles and enhance existing edge in the market.

Keeping an accountability list

Ben Perl

Managing director and global cohead of secondary private equity, Neuberger Berman

I don’t know Jamie Dimon, but I heard him speak while I was at Harvard Business School almost 20 years ago. I recall him saying that he carried around a paper list of everything that people owed him, and I think everything he owed them.

Since then, I’ve kept a similar to-do list. I use the back page of my notebook, so it’s always easy to find a list of who owes me, and what I owe people. It means I don’t drop the ball in a busy world. People are accountable to me, and I’m accountable to them.

Relatedly, I try not to put off anything for tomorrow that I could do today. There are always more things being added to that list. Each day, I try to complete all of the substantive items on my to-do list.

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