I have, for some time, had the desire to write a business management book on the impact that the project management profession, and portfolio management in particular, can have on the development and implementation of strategy and for better organizational performance.
I wanted the content to reflect my 30-year business experience gained in a variety of sectors as well as my vision and collated thoughts on strategic implementation. I intend for this book to be hard-hitting in some aspects, but also a pragmatic guide that readers can leverage to reset their organizations using the power of value-driven portfolio management as the bridge that links strategy and its implementation.
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During the early phases of writing, I became concerned that my suggested implementation of portfolio management would be interpreted by many as a recommendation for another set of mid-level processes. Not so! Those, if added to existing processes would, I thought, further hamper the organization from being nimble, adaptable to change, and efficient. To that end, I have devised a value management framework that I believe can act as a tool for strategic planning and its implementation management. It can also maintain alignment of strategic desire with day-to-day implementation activities. This book explains what the value management framework is and how it can be applied to all aspects of strategy implementation management.
Section 1 sets the tone and suggests why a radical transformation is required in most workplaces. This proposition is based on the need to be better, to adapt, and to capitalize on new opportunities. It is also based on the need to exploit the underutilized mechanism that is portfolio management. The introduction of a value management framework allows for the development and alignment of strategy that is more realistic, less abstract, and thereby has a higher probability of being implemented successfully.
Section 2 discusses and details portfolio management, or a way of doing business, as I have defined it. This mechanism is pitched at a higher level than the commonly talked about project portfolio management. Portfolio management in this manner allows for operational expenditure (opex) and strategic capital expenditure (capex) to be planned in unison to allow for a more balanced portfolio(s) and for more value to be captured. These portfolios would replace today's typical short-term business plans.
Section 4 highlights the leadership aspects that are required to implement the many suggestions the book offers. It also presents a compelling change management discussion. Required change associated with future contributions from corporate support functions is also discussed. Some specific guidance is offered on roles, responsibilities, and professional development for key portfolio and program of work staff.
A number of factors will influence the types of projects deployed within an organization. A shift toward a market-driven operational strategy that is implemented using portfolio management will allow the organization to gain more benefits, as the portfolios will be aligned with business priorities. Corresponding programs of work and projects are better influenced as a consequence.
Those critical elements lead us to a value management framework to assist in establishing a strategy that focuses on organizational objectives and that can be communicated, executed, and confirmed throughout the entire organization. A value management framework encompasses the overall strategic framework for optimizing investment, its function, and its return. It utilizes five elements: value strategy, value planning, value engineering, value delivery, and value capture. As you can attest, this value management framework expands the classic element of value engineering considerably and provides a comprehensive mechanism for the wholesale determining of strategy as well as for the implementation of that strategy via the adoption of portfolio management across the organization. Without a value management framework, the deployment of portfolio management would likely tend to adopt a process-driven mentality, as opposed to the culture-driven mentality that the value management framework offers.
The correct strategies for investors with active management expertise fall on the opposite end of the spectrum from the appropriate approaches for investors without active management abilities. Aside from the obvious fact that skilled active managers face the opportunity to generate market-beating returns in the traditional asset classes of domestic and foreign equity, skilled active managers enjoy the more important opportunity to create lower-risk, higher-returning portfolios with the alternative asset classes of absolute return, real assets, and private equity. Only those investors with active management ability sensibly pursue market-beating strategies in traditional asset classes and portfolio allocations to nontraditional asset classes. The costly game of active management guarantees failure for the casual participant.
Aside from the appeal of the eleemosynary purposes that endowments serve, the investment business contains an independent set of attractions. Populated by unusually gifted, extremely driven individuals, the institutional funds management industry provides a nearly limitless supply of products, a few of which actually serve fiduciary aims. Mining the handful of gems from the tons of mine ore provides intellectually stimulating employment for the managers of endowment portfolios.
The knowledge base that provides useful support for investment decisions knows no bounds. A rich understanding of human psychology, a reasonable appreciation of financial theory, a deep awareness of history, and a broad exposure to current events all contribute to development of well-informed portfolio strategies. Many top-notch practitioners confess they would work without pay in the endlessly fascinating money management business.
After establishing a framework for portfolio construction, the book investigates the nitty-gritty details of implementing a successful investment program. A discussion of portfolio management issues examines situations where real world frictions might impede realization of portfolio objectives. Chapters on traditional and alternative asset classes provide a primer on investment characteristics and active management opportunities, followed by an outline of asset class management issues. The book closes with some thoughts on structuring an effective decision-making process.
A second theme concerns the prevalence of agency issues that interfere with the successful pursuit of institutional goals. Nearly every aspect of funds management suffers from decisions made in the self-interest of the agents, at the expense of the best interest of the principals. Culprits range from trustees seeking to make an impact during their term on an investment committee to staff members acting to increase job security to portfolio managers pursuing steady fee income at the expense of investment excellence to corporate managers diverting assets for personal gain. Differences in interest between fund beneficiaries and those responsible for fund assets create potentially costly wedges between what should have been and what actually was.
Relationships with external investment managers provide a fertile breeding ground for conflicts of interest. Institutions seek high risk-adjusted returns, while outside investment advisors pursue substantial, stable flows of fee income. Conflicts arise since the most attractive investment opportunities fail to generate returns in a steady predictable fashion. To create more secure cash flows, investment firms frequently gather excessive amounts of assets, follow benchmark-hugging portfolio strategies, and dilute management efforts across a broad range of product offerings. While fiduciaries attempt to reduce conflicts with investment advisors by crafting appropriate compensation arrangements, interests of fund managers diverge from interests of capital providers even with the most carefully considered deal structures.
Most asset classes contain investment vehicles exhibiting some degree of agency risk, with corporate bonds representing an extreme case. Structural issues render corporate bonds hopelessly flawed as a portfolio alternative. Shareholder interests, with which company management generally identifies, diverge so dramatically from the goals of bondholders that lenders to companies must expect to end up on the wrong side of nearly every conflict. Yet, even in equity holdings where corporate managers share a rough coincidence of interests with outside shareholders, agency issues drive wedges between the two classes of economic actors. In every equity position, public or private, management at least occasionally pursues activities providing purely personal gains, directly damaging the interests of shareholders. To mitigate the problem, investors search for managements focused on advancing stockholder interests, while avoiding companies treated as personal piggy banks by the individuals in charge.
Every aspect of the investment management process contains real and potential conflicts between the interests of the institutional fund and the interests of the agents engaged to manage portfolio assets. Awareness of the breadth and seriousness of agency issues constitutes the first line of defense for fund managers. By evaluating each participant involved in investment activities with a skeptical attitude, fiduciaries increase the likelihood of avoiding or mitigating the most serious principal-agent conflicts.
The third theme relates to the difficulties of managing investment portfolios to exploit asset mispricings. Both market timers and security selectors face intensely competitive environments in which the majority of participants fail. The efficiency of marketable security pricing poses formidable hurdles to investors pursuing active management strategies. 2ff7e9595c
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