If where an organization allocates its resources determines its strategy, why is it that so few companies actively manage the resource allocation process? "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy" goes beyond platitudes about why you should use corporate portfolio management (CPM) by offering a practical methodology to bring this powerful discipline to your organization. "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management" takes an expansive view of where CPM can be utilized by demonstrating that it can be used across any business line, product group or functional area, e.g., IT, R&D, innovation, marketing, salesforce, capital expenditure, etc. CPM is appropriate anywhere discretionary investments are being selected and executed. As a result, other terms used to describe portfolio management such as IT portfolio management, enterprise portfolio management, and project portfolio management are all merely subsets or slices of CPM.
The book is written by Anand Sanwal, an expert on CPM, who has led American Express' CPM discipline (referred to as American Express Investment Optimization). American Express' CPM efforts are widely recognized as the most extensive, substantial and progressive deployment of CPM across any organization. Sanwal avoids academic theories and consultant jargon to ultimately deliver pragmatic and proven recommendations on how to make CPM a reality. The book features a foreword by Gary Crittenden, former CFO and EVP of American Express, and several case studies from leading financial services, technology, and government organizations utilizing CPM. Additionally, the book has received significant praise from thought leaders at Google, HP, American Express, The CFO Executive Board, Gartner, Accenture Marketing Sciences, The Wharton School of Business and many others.
I recently attended a decision analysis conference and that is where I learned about corporate portfolio management after hearing Anand Sanwal speak on this topic. His session was highly informative, and as a result, I purchased the book (despite the price tag) to learn more, and it's been very helpful. I was impressed by the no nonsense approach of the book and the pragmatic advice that is provided. The book avoids consulting and academic jargon and simplistic generalities to provide a very readable book on this very important methodology to optimize resource allocation. I've started to build the business case for portfolio management within my company and am relying heavily on the insights from the book to help in my effort. While our organization is still early in our corporate portfolio management journey, the concepts from the book have already been invaluable.
As a finance director for a large organization, I'm continuously balancing the need to innovate/take risks with making sound financial decisions. This book by Sanwal really provides a practical, effective framework for approaching corporate investments. The numerous case studies really bring the issue to life and provide some great insights. I've actually attended a conference where Sanwal spoke. He was quite good, so I've been keeping an eye out for his book. Needless to say, I wasn't disappointed.
As a senior finance professional in a large healthcare system, we continually struggle with deciding amongst the numerous discretionary capital investment proposals we get every year. Although we generally talk about our investments as a portfolio, we've really never managed it as such. Instead, I'd characterize the process typically as highly politicized and much more art than science. There has, however, been a recognition within the system that things need to change.
And so I picked up Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management looking to see whether it might actually help us move towards a real portfolio approach. The book has provided a practical view into making CPM a practice within our organization. I particulary liked and am trying to embrace Sanwal's data-driven theme especially as our organization has tended to be more decibel-driven as he calls it. I've given the book to all my direct reports as required reading and I anticipate the book will be a valuable resource as we move towards enabling CPM.
The corporate portfolio management discipline described in this book is probably not for every company - only the ones that want to win. I read the book and came away shocked as I realized that all the organizations I've ever worked with haven't managed their resource allocation with any amount of rigor even though it makes such intuitive sense. I realized as I was reading the book that my organization falls into what the author calls the 'unconscioulsy incompetent' category. I am much more informed now and I hope to move my organization to becoming 'unconsciously competent' in our resource allocation efforts.
Product Details :
- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 27, 2007)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0470126884
- ISBN-13: 978-0470126882
- Product Dimensions: 0.8 x 6.4 x 8.8 inches
More Details about Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy, 1st Edition
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