Portfolio Management techniques
Managers face many challenges when deciding how to allocate resources to develop new ideas : –
- Intrinsic value – some projects are worth doing for themselves
- Right portfolio – there will be a set of projects that meet the overall needs of the organisation
- Retaining good people – some ideas will be rejected but it is important that the people behind them don’t take it personally.
One of our themes is about managing the R&D pipeline and it explores these issues further.
Below is one approach that is gaining interest.
Portfolio Management
Portfolio Management (PM) techniques are systematic ways of looking at a set of projects or activities or even business units, in order to reach an optimum balance between risks and returns, stability and growth, attractions and drawbacks in order to make the best use of usually limited resources.
In many organisations, the uncertainty surrounding individual projects leads them to place considerable emphasis on the development of a portfolio of activities which is aimed to balancing risk and reward in such a way as to reduce the overall uncertainty.
One useful approach to this task is to consider the innovation process from idea to implementation alongside certain variables, such as future cash flow projections and resource requirements.
Joe Tidd and John Bessant explore a number of techniques specially suited for Portfolio Management at the strategic and operational level.
Read more:
Portfolio Management Tools, Joe Tidd and John Bessant, www.innovation-portal.info (John Wiley and Sons Ltd)
Recommended by Charlotte Stone, post by R&D Today admin
Articles relating to selection & prioritisation
Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA)
To fail fast can save enormous waste later in the product lifecycle. Failure Mode and Effects Analysis (FMEA), enables potential errors or faults to be predicted during the early design stages and it is used by many companies as...
Read more
Financial benefits of moving from products to product-services
Manufacturing companies have increasingly shifted towards offering industrial product-services. Authors of this paper report that although simple add-on services offer a limited impact, more advanced services are significantly associated with positive financial performance.
Read more
Improving the assessment of innovation and technology management capabilities
Increasingly the alignment of technology management and innovation management is seen as crucial to the performance of knowledge and manufacturing-based organisations, creating a demand for improved methods to assess performance.
Read more
Techniques for Effective Prioritisation
Gut feeling may be a valid basis for making decisions about your personal life but a more objective and rigorous approach is needed within R&D Management.
Read more
Are these the best tools for R&D Management?
There are many excellent tools and techniques for R&D management, but all too often people re-invent the wheel as knowledge of these gems is not shared. Here are some of the tools that RADMA trustees and contributors to R&D...
Read more
Is Stage-Gate still relevant now Agile development is being adopted?
The biggest thing that separates winners from losers is their ability to understand the marketplace, see the unmet needs of the customer and build the voice-of-the-customer. Dr Robert G Cooper, originator of Stage-Gate discusses success, the impact of...
Read more
