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Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy

by Anand Sanwal, Gary Crittenden (Foreword)

ISBN-10: 9780470126882
ISBN-10: 0-470-12688-4
ISBN-13: 9780470126882
ISBN-13: 978-0-470-12688-2
Hardcover
2007-04-27
Wiley


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Editorials


Product Description
If where an organization allocates its resources determines its strategy, why is it that so few companies actively manage the resource allocation process? "Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy" goes beyond platitudes about why you should use corporate portfolio management (CPM) by offering a practical methodology to bring this powerful discipline to your organization.

"Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management" takes an expansive view of where CPM can be utilized by demonstrating that it can be used across any business line, product group or functional area, e.g., IT, R&D, innovation, marketing, salesforce, capital expenditure, etc. CPM is appropriate anywhere discretionary investments are being selected and executed. As a result, other terms used to describe portfolio management such as IT portfolio management, enterprise portfolio management, and project portfolio management are all merely subsets or slices of CPM.

The book is written by Anand Sanwal, an expert on CPM, who has led American Express' CPM discipline (referred to as American Express Investment Optimization). American Express' CPM efforts are widely recognized as the most extensive, substantial and progressive deployment of CPM across any organization. Sanwal avoids academic theories and consultant jargon to ultimately deliver pragmatic and proven recommendations on how to make CPM a reality. The book features a foreword by Gary Crittenden, former CFO and EVP of American Express, and several case studies from leading financial services, technology, and government organizations utilizing CPM. Additionally, the book has received significant praise from thought leaders at Google, HP, American Express, The CFO Executive Board, Gartner, Accenture Marketing Sciences, The Wharton School of Business and many others.


Reviews


Great resource for IT Portfolio Management & Project Portfolio Management
I lead my company's IT portfolio management effort, and this is one of the most well-written strategy books I've ever come across. It does an amazingly good job of demystifying what can be a complex topic.

Major pros of the book:
- No jargon, acronyms and generally useless platitudes and overgeneralized frameworks like I've seen in other books on the topic. Straightforward, conversational tone makes the book very easy to read.
- Very practitioner oriented
- American Express case study - What the company has achieved is remarkable and definitely the best example I've seen
- 7.5 deadly sins of corporate portfolio management - These were spot on

Optimizing Corporate Portfolio Management: Aligning Investment Proposals with Organizational Strategy

Highly Recommended
The book provides a sophisticated yet practical approach to Corporate Portfolio Management (CPM) which invites managers to consider many facets that will challenge or support the CPM initiatives.

My favorite part is the section where Sanwal lists "the deadly sins" of CPM. These negative examples provide managers tools to anticipate organizational difficulties and adjust their proposals on CPM proactively.


A useful do-ers guide to resource allocation
The book highlights a significant problem in the corporate world. The seven deadly sins section idenitifies key challenges found in many companies while the case studies provide real world examples of those leading the charge. Good job!

High on substance and style
Definitely one of the best books that I have read on the subject! It combines well the academic aspects of portfolio management with honest insights into corporate realities. And the well-paced narrative makes it a great read!

The title is promising - unfortunately the contents do not live up to the promise
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.



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