Inside KKR’s playbook for creating long-term value
Private equity has moved beyond mere buyouts, showing that human capital plays a key role in driving returns in today’s business world
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Why private equity is essential in today’s complex markets
Nearly five decades after it helped establish the private equity industry, KKR continues to evolve. Founded in New York in 1976, the firm has built a reputation for enhancing businesses and has grown into one of the world’s largest private markets investment firms.
Today, it manages more than US$600 billion in assets across private equity, credit, real estate, infrastructure and insurance solutions, investing on behalf of millions of individual investors through public pensions and insurance plans, as well as sovereign wealth funds, foundations and private wealth investors worldwide.
In 2026, KKR will celebrate its 20th year in Asia, a milestone that underscores its deep roots and long-term commitment there. According to the firm, its Asia business has become one of the largest private equity investors in the region, with more than US$80 billion in assets under management and a staff of over 600 people.
Value creation for the long term
The evolution of private equity mirrors KKR’s own journey. Early successes helped put the firm on the map, but sustaining long-term trust with investors required more than transactions. So the business shifted towards what is now known as value creation: growing revenue via operational improvements, investing in human capital to help make good companies great, and building cultures of accountability and ownership. To put this philosophy into practice, the firm launched KKR Capstone in 2000, one of the industry’s first dedicated value creation teams, to partner directly with management and drive results from within.
“What sets us apart is the way we grow companies from within,” says Alisa Wood, private equity partner at KKR. “We create value by working with management teams to unlock growth and empower employees, creating companies that can thrive for the long term.”
Empowering employees, shaping culture
A hallmark of KKR’s modern strategy is employee ownership. Within many of the firm’s portfolio companies, broad-based equity programmes are introduced to ensure that it is not just senior management, but the wider staff who can share in the upside. This model is designed to align incentives and improve morale.
The impact is tangible. Employees see a direct connection between their work and the success of the business, creating an ownership mindset that fuels productivity and loyalty. Since 2011, KKR has encouraged broad-based ownership across its portfolio. To date, this has meant billions of dollars in equity awarded to more than 170,000 staff at more than 70 companies around the world.
This initiative has expanded to include Asia-Pacific companies as well. In January, KKR introduced a broad-based equity programme at Yayoi, a provider of financial and accounting software for small businesses and sole proprietors in Japan. Employees were granted ownership, giving them a direct stake in the company’s future and reinforcing a culture of shared purpose.
For KKR, this philosophy is an extension of its own culture of “shared success”. Almost everyone at the firm is a shareholder, and capital from its own balance sheet and employees is invested alongside that of its clients.
“Partnership is in our DNA,” Wood says. “We win together, and we learn from our mistakes together. That collaborative culture makes us better investors and better stewards of the companies we own.”
Expanding access through evergreen structures
In addition to its focus on value creation and culture, KKR is broadening access to private equity through evergreen vehicles. These provide an alternative entry point to the firm’s investment strategies in a format that may be more accessible and better suited to the needs of individual private wealth investors.
Wood says: “These vehicles allow private wealth investors to invest alongside KKR’s institutional strategies in the very same deals, and they can benefit from being fully invested from day one.”
But these structures are also complex. Managing them requires sophisticated infrastructure, robust liquidity management and a steady pipeline of deals. The operational intensity makes manager selection even more important. “Success depends not only on sourcing assets, but also on having scale, risk controls and discipline to run such vehicles effectively,” Wood adds.
A playbook built for the future
From championing employee ownership to developing evergreen structures, KKR’s evolution reflects a constant search for better ways to create value. The firm has broadened its toolkit beyond private equity to encompass a wide range of strategies across asset classes, but the underlying philosophy remains consistent: invest like an industrialist, support people and leave companies better than they were found.
For investors, the lesson is clear: in private equity, especially when markets are volatile, returns depend on the investing philosophy, scale and culture of the manager.
“The tools of private equity may change, but the principles remain the same,” Wood says. “Pick the good companies you can make great, back the people who run them and build cultures that can thrive. That’s how you make your own luck and create lasting value.”
Check out the video to hear more insights from KKR’s Alisa Wood.