One word. Clear, even though sophisticated, concept. Converge. This is how our partnership team described what our firm believes should be the theme of next year’s business scene.

Owning assets and hoping value increases is at the crosshairs with owning and operating revenue-generating assets, businesses and activities.

Investors are taking a long bet on a single event: value appreciation, which usually is a function of either scarcity or demand spike due to a certain trend or free market behavior. Most importantly, value appreciation rarely is based on real value creation. It is usually a nominal increase in perceived value. This is a very useful economic feature that pushes economies forward, in normal circumstances, and are very well needed. In years of overvalued businesses, tight budgets, volatile markets and uncertain political events, this backfires.

Higher value and optimized resources. We have been seeing the latter more than the former for the past 5 years. It is about time real value creation takes a priority.

Markets at all-time highs.
Businesses overvalued.
Yields low.
Ambitions high.

Priority should be given to revenue and profit generation businesses. Real value creation, a trait that is historically related to recession times, should supersede nominal value appreciation, a market behavior that is often associated with bullish economic situations. This is not suggesting an evident recession, but rather recession-like behavior that should be used as a vehicle to avoid recession.

Strategic business model changes to be implemented to all businesses.

Businesses should come together through partnerships, not mergers.

Too many mergers in a given sector or segment minimize alternatives and increase the chance of monopoly, or a form of monopoly at least. However, businesses coming together in coalition, partnership and collaboration keeps the competition while increasing mutual interest among each business in the aggregation. This has been the foundation of many conglomerate in the US and global markets for decades now.

Our world runs on businesses, the stronger the business the tougher the economy. Lives improve because businesses are profitable. This core concept of free-market capitalism is both the challenge and the solution defining fiscal year 2026.