Over the past few years, we have studied or advised dozens of organizations with regard to managing their portfolio of opportunities over the life cycle, focusing in particular on the processes of resource allocation that drive portfolio decisions.i These organizations span sectors, including private enterprise, nonprofit and government; size; industry; and country.ii In most cases our work consisted of three steps. In the first, managers independently mapped their current portfolio and then compared their results with their colleagues’ to develop a consensus (noting material divergences). In the second step, the managers participated in brainstorming sessions to identify the major issues that their mappings suggested, focusing on any imbalances revealed by the mappings. The managers then gathered additional data (for example, through interviews with employees involved with specific startups or scaling business units) and discussed that information as a group to come to a shared point of view regarding the sources of any imbalances. In the final step, we worked with the managers to develop targeted interventions to rebalance their current portfolio as well as to address root causes that might lead to future imbalances.

i. D.N. Sull, “No Exit: The Failure of Bottom-Up Strategic Processes and the Role of Top-Down Disinvestment,” in “From Resource Allocation to Strategy,” ed. J.L. Bower and C.G. Gilbert. (New York: Oxford University... To read the complete article, login or sign-up using the form below.

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