Strategic Portfolio Management

Running Head: STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Strategic Portfolio Management
Name of the Student
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Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................23

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Task 1
Business Strategy is defined as a systematic process by which a business execution is
planned such that it reaps maximum rewards. The business strategy is mainly developed by
connecting to the following key areas.
Business Mission – This key area mainly provides the purpose of the business strategy.
Business Vision – This key area provides the possible goals that can be reached in the
business.
Business Plan – This key area provides the approach that will be utilized for reaching the
business goals.
Now, in order to implement a suitable business strategy, an organization needs to
undertake a certain number of projects that will slowly integrate the changes with the existing
business process. The projects also need suitable “project strategy” that must be aligned with
business strategies (Serra and Kunc 2015). In other words, the projects are mainly designed as a
part of the business strategy but again, the projects should also have strategic approaches that are
aligned with the business strategy of the company. However, in reality, the projects are not
always directly aligned with the business strategy of the company. In that case, the following
three steps are to be undertaken to align the project with the business strategy.
 Review of all existing and upcoming projects
 Prepare a systematic approach for prioritizing the project as per the business
requirements
 Align the projects with the strategic direction of the business

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According to Bell, Bryman and Harley (2018), the alignment of business and project
strategy requires interconnection between several aspects that are shown in the diagram below.
Figure 1: Alignment between Business Strategy and Project Strategy
(Source: Bell, Bryman and Harley 2018, pp.55)
From the diagram, the attributes of each of business and project strategy are discussed as
follows.
Business Strategy
Maximize Opportunity through Creativity and Innovation – This aspect of business
strategy involves maximization of business opportunities through creativity and innovation. In
other words, the company must be able to be creative and innovative to provide unique products
and services that will also satisfy the customer requirements. The unique services and products

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generally attract more customers and help the company to enhance its business through
enhancement of the customer base (Quinlan et al. 2019). In order to achieve this particular goal,
the company needs to come out of traditional framework of manufacture and sell and should
involve the policy of design, create and sell. This business strategy also helps the company to
gain competitive advantage over the other companies who compete over the similar products and
services within the same target area.
Be Responsive to Demands for Unique Product and Services – This business strategy is a
follow up of the previous business strategy discussed above. This strategy involves fulfilling the
requirements of the customers who are demanding for unique product and services. This demand
generally grows when there has been a major change in the technology and the customers do not
want to use the old technology anymore (Apenko 2017). For example, with the introduction of
Android operating system as well as the touch screen phones, most of the customers around the
world demanded the introduction of touch screen mobile phones with Android OS for replacing
the traditional Symbian or Java powered keypad mobile phones. The telecom companies who
fulfilled the demands survived the market while others who kept on manufacturing the old
designs of phones were gradually phased out from the market.
Share Knowledge to Gain Organizational Improvements – In addition to taking business
related steps, sharing of knowledge is also important in order to gain improvements within the
organization that also contributes to the business growth (Uhl and Gollenia 2016). Sharing
knowledge refers to sharing of the suitable pieces of organizational information with the internal
employees and the customers. Following the sharing of knowledge, the employees and customers
can provide suitable feedbacks that can help to improve the organization as a whole.

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Allocate Resources Effectively and Efficiently – Another important requirement of a
successful business strategy is to allocate the resources effectively and efficiently. Here,
resources can mean both human and material resources. In any business strategy, significant
amount of resources are utilized but due to misuse of resources, the business strategy may not be
successful enough (Wu et al. 2017). Hence, allocation should be done as per the requirements
and the resources must be effective in helping the business strategy to reach its goals. For
example, if the business strategy involves implementation of IT (information technology) within
the organization, it is important to deploy personnel who have strong skills in IT and business
and they should be provided with technically updated systems and software so that they can
implement the IT as per the requirements.
Project Strategy
Project Outcomes Satisfy Business Goals – In a business organization, project strategies
are chosen that must satisfy the ultimate business goals of the company. This project strategy is
directly aligned with the first two business strategies discussed i.e. creativity and innovation and
responsive to demands for unique products (Camillus 2016). In other words, the business goal of
a company is mainly to earn profits by satisfying the needs of the customers with creative and
unique services and products and also respond to growing customer demands accordingly. Thus
the projects that are being designed must follow these two business strategies and aim to satisfy
customer demands at the end of the project.
Knowledge is shared between Projects – Often in a business organization, there are
multiple projects going on at the same time that all have the same goal of implementing a
suitable business strategy. However, if there is no sharing of knowledge and information