Customer Reviews

Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy

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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.

I've read several IT portfolio management books given I'm responsible for bringing a portfolio management discipline to IT within my company (a Fortune 200 pharma), and I've been underwhelmed by most. Their focus has generally been on theory vs practice and while I've gleaned some interesting insights from those books, they ultimately left me with more questions than answers.

As a result, I picked up this book with a healty skepticism, but I came away having learned a great deal. I think what makes the book really work is that while the author recognizes the complexity of making corporate portfolio management a reality, his writing demystifies the topic and shows a practical method to making it a reality in different types of organizations. The focus on organizational behavior is great and is generally overlooked in all texts I've seen on this topic.

The case studies of American Express, HP, Cisco, and the State of Oregona are also highly informative in showing how different leading organizations are utilizing corporate portfolio management.

In short, a definite must read for anyone interested in bringing portfolio management to their organization, whether IT or otherwise.

I especially liked the 7.5 Deadly Sins of Corporate Portfolio Management, with my favorite being decibel- vs. data-driven decisions. I'm at a company where force of personality, relationships and pretty PowerPoint presentations are the rules of the game when it comes to securing funding for discretionary investments. I've been advocating a move towards a more data-driven approach to our resource allocation process, and the book provided me with some great fodder to enable a more disciplined approach to our resource allocation. Beyond the content, the book was very easy to read. It's definitely worth picking up if you are interested in or already working towards corporate portfolio management.

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.

Alike most readers who have reviewed the book on these pages, I approached "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management" with much gusto. Despite the catchy title, I soon discovered that the stake did not match the sizzle.

What is undobtedly the most valuable contribution of the book is its practical approach to managing corporations as portfolios. The book contains a number of proven examples that a pactitioner is sure to find useful. This is also what the author promises to do: to write a book from the point of view of a practitioner for the purposes of enlightening a fellow practitioner. So much so good.

From the perspective of an (customer) portfolio management expert (i.e. advanced level practitioner), I found the book quite "light" on all of the key words in the title: corporate portfolio management, aligning investment proposals, and organizational strategy. In more practical terms, the book does not manage to answer the question stated on the cover: how to align investment proposals with organizational strategy?

All in all, I find the book an OK source if you are an absolute beginner and need to get a first glimpse of the subject matter. For anyone with more ambitious aims, the book may not live up to its promise.

Sanwal's Seven Deadly Sins are a fantastic guide for anyone responsible for corporate/capital allocation. One of my favorites is Sin #3 - regarding emotion overriding data-driven decision-making. Here, Sanwal references an adage that rings all too true, "What gets measured, gets managed." In his sins, the author takes complex decisions making processes and boils them down to their essence. Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management is an essential part of any manager's library.

Optimizing Corpororate Portfolio Management gives a clear path to greater organizational efficiency. The lessons from the book are applicable not only for the private sector but are very easily generalized to the public sector as well. As someone who has spent meaningful amounts of time in both areas, I found the combination of frameworks and case studies allowed me to understand Sanwal's optimization philosophy and still understand where and where it is not applicable. Needless to say, I found it a worthwhile read, and a great investment.

It was a sad realization as I read this book to understand that, in the words of the author, the technology company I work for is unconsciously incompetent when it comes to the way we do our resource allocation. The book thoughtfully outlined a method and strategy to move us out of our current malaise. The case studies were also quite helpful in showing how different companies have done this.