Talking about strategy » corporate portfolio management http://kimwarren.com with Kim Warren Tue, 07 Feb 2012 10:00:48 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Portfolio of strategy initiatives http://kimwarren.com/strategy/portfolio-of-strategy-initiatives/ http://kimwarren.com/strategy/portfolio-of-strategy-initiatives/#comments Tue, 17 Nov 2009 14:18:15 +0000 Kim Warren http://www.kimwarren.com/?p=822 [...]]]> A reminder from McKinsey makes a strong case that uncertainty calls for flexible pursuit of diverse initiatives - but strategic management of a portfolio of initiatives works is always needed. Any organizations takes at least some initiatives, over and above the continuing management of business-as-usual – major investments, product launches, entering new markets, setting up joint ventures and so on. The challenge is working out which to do in what order over what timescale for the best total impact on the trajectory of future performance, and then how to steer those changing priorities.

Unfortunately, the article offers only a crude 2×2 matrix for mapping such a portfolio [except being McK it has to be a 3x3!]. Yet we can do way better than this and undertake genuinely strategic management of this issue - see a very brief note in my post on Corporate Portfolio Management. I will happily explain more if there’s interest.

]]> http://kimwarren.com/strategy/portfolio-of-strategy-initiatives/feed/ 0 The Growth/Share matrix lives! http://kimwarren.com/strategy/the-growthshare-matrix-lives/ http://kimwarren.com/strategy/the-growthshare-matrix-lives/#comments Thu, 15 Oct 2009 15:10:56 +0000 Kim Warren http://www.kimwarren.com/?p=770 [...]]]> Offspring of the BCG matrix [and McKinsey/GE versions] are alive and well it seems – over 60% of top global companies actively use such tools, though not quite as in the 70s. Dieter Heuskel of BCG chaired a good session on this at the SMS conference this week. [See Managing for Value for example of his + colleagues' work.] The panel showed early research findings on the matrices’ usage – which shows two key changes: 

  1. They are more sophisticated than the simple growth/share boxes whose mis-use did so much damage in the past. Business units’ relatedness gets looked at, as does risk assessment. Michael Mirow, former head of Strategy at Siemens and now with Decision Institute, gave a great explanation of how his former firm uses matrix assessment for investment/disinvestment decisions.
  2. The matrices are not used for performance management purposes, as was common in the 70s, being limited to investment choices and also for external explanation of corporate strategy.

I guess what we see released publicly by matrix users may look pretty simplistic, but this early report suggests there’s some sophisticated thinking and analysis going on behind the scenes. Keep an eye out for a more comprehensive report from BCG.

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