Lots of focus on portfolio and project management these days, with waterfall and agile adherents donning full-body protection for the never-ending battles of frameworks and methodologies.
You know what is missing? Not everything in your business is managed as a portfolio and not everything in your business is a project. Sure, you can try and cram everything into one definition or the other, but the real take away is that there are vast swaths of processes that go uninspected and unimproved when you adopt a frame of improvement reference that only includes a portfolio or project view.
I spent a lot of time understanding what goes into employee costs when I worked in global transformations. Grossly over-simplified, there’s two parts; the first is the salary and benefits while the second is everything else – real estate, I/T, allocations etc. The average employee hour charge rate of $100 might be reflected by $70 for salary and benefits and $30 for overhead. The ratio would vary widely between countries. Some would have an 80/20 split, while other had a 40/60 split when analyzed. Why the difference when the folks had the same basic roles? Basically came down to processes. Some were extremely efficient and constantly reimagined their work. Others didn’t, and more often than not, it came down to the fact that no one external to their teams ever thought to challenge.
How does this relate to portfolios and projects? Your projects and portfolios inherit the charge rate of your enterprise. If you’re not inspecting these processes, you’re missing a huge opportunity. How many redundant processes from three years ago are still in place? Is your go to market as efficient and effective as it might be? How long does it take to onboard a new employee until they can operate as a cohesive member of the team?
Sure, it’s not as glamorous as a portfolio or a project, but it is the underpinning of your costs. That’s why we feel we look at the end-to-end view of your ecosystem to drive better financial outcomes, not just the projects or the portfolio.