The IBP advantage: The scope of portfolio management
While many organisations perform a regular deep dive portfolio performance review, at some point, it’s important to ask why, and what does it actually achieve?
Using a Portfolio Review process as an annual event or as a knee-jerk reaction is relatively common practice, and with so many organizations being siloed and lacking integration, this approach is never really going to be all encompassing.
Portfolio management: the opportunity to get it right
While many organisations perform a regular deep dive portfolio performance review, at some point, it’s important to ask why, and what does it actually achieve?
Using a Portfolio Review process as an annual event or as a knee-jerk reaction is relatively common practice, and with so many organisations being siloed and lacking integration, this approach is never really going to be all encompassing. Even if done annually, it has a lengthy preparation process and there will be gaps in data and likely an incomplete picture is created with which next steps and future investment decisions are made.
Doing portfolio analysis as a one-off or initiative-based activity is less than ideal. If a business also has portfolio plans that are not actively integrated into investment decisions, customer, and go-to-market plans, as well as the route-to-market response to deliver them, they are likely to fail. The amount and the pace of change that many categories and markets are now experiencing means that stand-alone one-off exercises are likely to mean a loss of agility and consequential loss of performance as the market and their competition leave them behind.
One-off Portfolio Reviews typically occur when other functions such as supply chain or the management team decide to take a lead and propose cuts from the tail looking from a one-dimensional perspective. This could be purely a manufacturing or supply chain perspective instead of truly understanding the market environment, customer requirements, and consumer needs as well as the challenges seen in producing and distributing the product. This leads to unnecessary costs, poor project execution, and inconsistencies in business performance. We also typically experience the sales organisation ignoring the decision and continuing to sell delisted products to customers, or the marketing team being protective over discontinuing a much-loved brand or SKU.
Ben has over 20 years of experience in a range of consumer goods companies working with household names such as Carling, Kellogg’s, Nike, Lucozade, and Dunlop.
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