Moving Business Decision Analytics into the 21st Century – May 2013 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg A few years ago, I was asked to speak on R&D decision making to a group of senior executives of a large Asian technology firm. During the Q&A following my talk, an executive
People – Not Data – Make Decisions – April 2013 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg Several years ago, I had lunch with the head of R&D of one of the world’s largest chemical companies. He was about to retire. The lunch was informal, accompanied by a beer or two.
Decision Analysis = Decision Engineering – March 2013 ValuePoint
Download PDF By James E. Matheson, SmartOrg Suppose we were to ask an experienced and well-qualified engineer to specify the design of a bridge over a river crossing. Would we expect the bridge expert to contemplate for a while and then
Sunk Costs and the New York Jets – February 2013 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg “Water over the dam” … “Don’t cry over spilt milk” … “Don’t put good money after bad”. Aphorisms from my parents, grandparents and teachers. “Sunk Costs” came later during early MBA classes. And
Gut Feel? Intuition? Any Role to Play in Decision Making? – January 2013 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg In response to the rhetorical question posed in the title of this month’s article, my answer is “it all depends.” If the decision at hand is fairly straightforward; if the
Innovative Innovation: Challenging Cherished Concepts – December 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg It’s that time of the year when publications plunge into deja vu all over again (to paraphrase Yogi Berra); ValuePoint is no exception. During the past 12 months, my colleagues and I participated in some
Optimizing the Value of Innovation – November 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Jim Brown, President of Tech-Clarity Your company’s top priority is innovation, right? In today’s business climate everyone is clamoring to be the most innovative company. Maybe your company is even implementing better practices and technology to innovate. Maybe
Beyond Ideation: Now What? – October 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg You have developed a number of great, innovative ideas for new products. The team is clamoring for support and funding, but resources are limited. How do you go about presenting your case? And, if you are
Cool Head, Warm Heart – August 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Somik Raha, SmartOrg In a remarkable paper in 1980, titled “An Assessment of Decision Analysis,” Stanford’s Professor Ronald Howard wondered if Buddha was the “First Decision Analyst” and wrote the following: There are those who believe that there is something
Bringing Agility to Business Development – July 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Somik Raha, SmartOrg First, let’s define what we mean by “business development (BD)”: turning of an idea into a marketable asset. This fundamental endeavor is driven by our desire to get our products and services in the hands
The Purpose of Business is a Business of Purpose – June 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Somik Raha, SmartOrg A wall of numbers stands on the projection screen and your eyes are already glazing over. Words seem hollow and dullness descends into your strategy meeting. While the answer seems right,
Revitalizing your Organization’s IQ – May 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg In our past three issues, Jim Matheson penned a series of articles, building from the reasons companies like Eastman Kodak and others fail from “brain death”, to Organizational IQ, which
Get Smart! – April 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Jim Matheson, SmartOrg In the March ValuePoint™, we offered an opportunity to test your company’s Organizational IQ®. If you haven’t taken the Organizational IQ test, we encourage you to take a few minutes to do so. The test
Measure Your Organizational IQ® – March 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Jim Matheson, SmartOrg In my last ValuePoint, I introduced the concept of the Strategic Intelligence of an organization, and described it by the embodiment of Nine Principles of the Smart Organization, as illustrated in the figure. This
Kodak joins the pantheon of “Brain Dead” companies – February 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Jim Matheson, SmartOrg Like many before it – Digital Equipment, NCR, Westinghouse, Motorola, Syntex, ATT, General Motors, etc. – Kodak has been put on corporate life support (bankruptcy). The world is watching to see if
How Do You Hold People Accountable for Portfolio/Project Decisions When Things are Uncertain? – January 2012 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Peter McNamee, SmartOrg In the December 2011 issue of ValuePoint, Don Creswell discussed the “R&D Grid” which was introduced in detail in “The Smart Organization” book by David and Jim Matheson. The grid has been renamed the
Elaborating on the “Business” Portfolio – December 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg In the November 2011 issue of ValuePoint, I defined what I call the “business” portfolio to describe portfolio management that focuses on creating economic value from investments in R&D, NPD and Innovation. In this issue,
What the Devil is a Portfolio, Anyway? – November 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, SmartOrg Portfolio. The term means different things to different people. Mention portfolio management and some think of resource management. Others think of collections of projects to be compared on various value dimensions; or managed
A New Degree of Freedom – October 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF A NEW DEGREE OF FREEDOM: TRANS-ORGANIZATIONAL STRATEGY By Jim Matheson, SmartOrg The strategic organization and the operational organization can be very different. The classic case is companies that are organized operationally by geography and strategically by product line. [Often in
Price and Margin in an Uncertain World – September 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF HAVING THE RIGHT CONVERSATION ABOUT PRICE AND MARGIN IN AN UNCERTAIN WORLD By Peter McNamee, PhD, Senior Solutions Consultant, SmartOrg When managers talk about the long term prospects of a product or product line, the conversation often centers
Glimpses of the Future – August 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF Text only: Glimpses of the Future of the Medical Devices Industry by David Matheson, President and CEO, SmartOrg Imagine picking up the Wall Street Journal and reading one of these headlines: Medtronic moves its headquarters Minneapolis to Beijing or Success
The Challenges Don’t Change – June/July 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF. The Challenges Don’t Change. This Time There Is A Solution. Like Yogie Berra once said, “It’s déjà vu all over again!” I’ve attended several innovation and product development events during the past few months—just returned from Frost & Sullivan’s excellent
Spring Forward to Success – May 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF Text only: And the winner is… First of all, thanks to everyone who responded to our survey (March and April ValuePoint). And, now (drum roll) I’m pleased to announce that the winner is Paul Bevilaqua of Lockheed Martin Management and
Decisions, Decisions, Decisions – April 2011 ValuePoint
Download PDF In this issue, we revisit decision quality, drawing on the concepts set forth in David and Jim Matheson’s best-selling Harvard Business School Press book The Smart Organization: Creating Value through Strategic R&D. In chapter two, David and Jim introduce the
Survey Highlights Portfolio Management Issues – March 2011 ValuePoint
March 2011 ValuePoint™ By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc Survey Highlights Portfolio Management Issues Download PDF During a joint PDMA/SmartOrg webcast, February 10, we surveyed 35 executives and managers from a variety of industries about their challenges in managing product development portfolios. The results of the survey were similar
Optimizing the Value of Innovation – 2011 February ValuePoint
This month I invited Jim Brown, President of Tech-Clarity to present his views on innovation. Tech-Clarity, as its name suggests, is dedicated to making the value of technology clear to business. I hope you enjoy Jim’s article. – Don Creswell, Editor, SmartOrg, Inc. By Jim Brown, President of Tech-Clarity
Tilting the Odds in Your Favor – 2011 January ValuePoint
Download PDF In talking with customers and prospective customers — innovation, product development and R&D executives — a number of issues continue to challenge them: Selecting the best projects to develop and market Too many projects in the pipeline Inability to
It’s been a Great Year – High Points of 2010 – 2010 December ValuePoint
By Don Creswell, SmartOrg Inc. Download PDF Throughout 2010 we have focused ValuePoint articles on creating value through innovation and product development, with emphasis on optimizing the economic value created by projects and project portfolios. A series
New Wine Varieties – 2010 October ValuePoint
The scope and application of Decision Analysis has expanded according to SmartOrg CFO Jim Matheson.
Forecasting under Uncertainty Part 2 – 2010 April ValuePoint
By Don Creswell, SmartOrg Inc. Download PDF In Forecasting under Uncertainty — Part One (March 2010) I introduced Value Map models that identify key project development technical, commercial and cost variables that influence expected economic value of a project, product or other business opportunity.
The Saga of the Solar Teapot – Go or No Go? Part 2 – 2010 February ValuePoint
(Continued from 2010 January issue) By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc Download PDF Summary: this is the story of a radical new product idea: a solar teapot. Given limited resources and uncertainty, is this a product the company should fund? The “Saga of the
The Saga of the Solar Teapot — Go or No Go? – 2010 January ValuePoint
By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc. Download PDF This is the story of a radical new product idea: a solar teapot. Given limited resources and uncertainty, is this a product the company should fund? The “Saga of the Solar Teapot” is a simplified example of how companies
Uncertainty Redux – 2009 September/October ValuePoint
By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc Download PDF “Uncertainty” is gaining a lot of attention these days, emphasizing the need to focus more than ever on probabilities and a range of outcomes. In our last issue we quoted President Obama on this need. And in the 28
Uncertainty is Popping Up All over the Place! Ideas on How to Handle It – 2009 August ValuePoint
Download PDF By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc In June’s ValuePoint, I provided a brief overview of how value-based portfolio management has helped Dow AgroSciences (DAS) exceed sales and EBIT growth goals. Now you can view the whole story. I am
A Plea for Simplicity – 2009 July ValuePoint
By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc Download PDF In one of my parallel lives, I served as National Director of Referee Assessment for the United States Soccer Federation. The Federation has a highly respected program for training and evaluating soccer officials at levels
Value-Based Management Helps Dow AgroScience Create Sales and Earnings Growth – 2009 June ValuePoint
Executives Identify Key Challenges to Managing Strategic Portfolio Value – 2009 April ValuePoint
Executives Identify Key Challenges to Managing Strategic Portfolio Value By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc Download PDF “We have too many projects for our resources: how do we select the best ones to pursue?” This was one major challenge identified by executives who participated in “Better,
Dealing with Uncertainty in Uncertain Times – 2009 February ValuePoint
By Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc Download PDF In recent issues of ValuePoint™, we stressed the need to deal explicitly with uncertainty when forecasting and managing project and portfolio value—important at all times but imperative in these uncertain times. In this issue we explore
Retaining Value During Difficult Economic Times – 2008 December
Download PDF It is an easy choice to hunker down in difficult economic times, slashing budgets and reducing staff. Things are about as uncertain as they can be as I write this month’s column and while cutting costs can be very appealing
Answering the Critical Questions that Drive Project and Portfolio Value – 2008 November ValuePoint
By Don Creswell, SmartOrg Inc. Download PDF Last month I wrote about “Optimizing Portfolio Value in Difficult Economic Times.” I discussed the critical need to focus on creating economic value at two levels: Portfolio Value Optimization (PVO) that concentrates
Numbers are only Numbers Unless… – 2008 November ValuePoint
ValuePoint • November 2008 Numbers are only Numbers Unless …. By Don Creswell, SmartOrg Inc. When you’re in the software business, it is easy to get too close to things, dwell on great and wonderful features and lose sight of the reason for these features in the first place: to provide significant benefits
Optimizing Portfolio Value in Difficult Economic Times – 2008 October ValuePoint
Don Creswell, Co-Founder, SmartOrg Inc. Download PDF When the economy turns down, it is more important than ever to carefully scrutinize your development portfolio and redirect resources to projects that have the best chances for creating value. You cannot afford to carry projects that drain scarce
Strategic Portfolio Decision Course – 2008 August ValuePoint
Download PDF Many of you are aware of our founders’ history, moving from theorists in decision analysis and strategic decision-making, to applying the methodology as consultants, to engaging with the real world as software developers. We are fortunate during this
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