Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg In the beloved classic children’s book Millions of Cats by Wanda Gag, an old man and an old woman decide to get a cat to be their companion. The Old Man sets out to find a pretty cat, and he comes across a valley full of… “…hundreds of cats,

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg Most portfolio evaluations I get involved in take a close look at innovation. Often there is a special innovation group responsible for the new, the wild, and the odd. The group names vary: common ones are “Ventures” or “Innovation” or “Central R&D.” There are great hopes for this group

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg The cost of an opportunity is, of course, the sum of the resources required to pursue a selected opportunity. Usually it is straightforward to add up this cost, although for innovation opportunities, uncertainties may make some part of the cost unforeseeable. However, when we consider the cost of an

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg The Question of Efficiency This article addresses the last of the four critical questions for strategic portfolio decisions (see below), efficiency. The prior three questions — sufficiency, significance and renewal — are fundamentally questions of effectiveness, which must always proceed the question of efficiency. “There is nothing so useless

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg August’s ValuePoint introduced the Four Critical Questions for Decision Making in Strategic Portfolio Management (see below), and September’s edition examined the Sufficiency and Significance questions. In this edition, we’ll look at Renewal. All businesses die. Every business is slowly sliding into lower value, towards commoditization or obsolescence. Every one,

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg August’s ValuePoint introduced the Four Critical Questions for Decision Making in Strategic Portfolio Management (see sidebar). In this edition, we’ll look at two questions about Sufficiency and Significance. Sufficiency The Sufficiency question asks, “Do we have enough to achieve our goals?” In particular, is there enough potential in the

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg Strategic portfolio management can give your company leverage to meet its growth goals and renew its products and services to avoid obsolescence and commoditization. The process doesn’t have to be complex and bogged down in details. There are simple, powerful tools you can use to create great results. Complexity

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg At its core, Strategic Portfolio Management (SPM) is comparing competing proposals for selection so a company can drive the most growth from its investments. But this means some proposals get left behind. The hardest part of SPM is saying “no” and making it stick. Saying “no” to a project

Download PDF By David Matheson, SmartOrg During our May 15 webinar, “Opportunity Costs and The Cost of Opportunities”, the audience asked Shawn Williams, VP of R&D at Rogers Corporation, Udi Chatow, Business Management at Applied Materials, and I questions on how to leverage opportunity costs to drive the upside value of innovation projects and portfolios.