CP70058E Strategic Portfolio Management: Business Strategy Case Study

Verified

Added on  2023/04/21

|26
|6259
|92
Case Study
AI Summary
This case study report delves into strategic portfolio management, focusing on the alignment of project strategy with business strategy. It begins by defining business strategy and its key components: mission, vision, and plan, emphasizing the importance of aligning projects with overarching business goals. The report then examines the attributes of both business and project strategies, highlighting the need for creativity, responsiveness to customer demands, knowledge sharing, and effective resource allocation. It uses National Express as a case study, analyzing its business model and recent projects like the Youth Promise Project and Military Covenant initiative to demonstrate how these align with customer-centric business strategies and contribute to competitive advantage. The report also emphasizes the importance of project purpose and stakeholder engagement, and the need to adopt a systems thinking approach in project management to ensure alignment with business objectives.
Document Page
Running Head: STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Strategic Portfolio Management
Name of the Student
Name of the University
tabler-icon-diamond-filled.svg

Paraphrase This Document

Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Document Page
1STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Table of Contents
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................2
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................7
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................12
Task 4.............................................................................................................................................17
References......................................................................................................................................23
Document Page
2STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
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
Document Page
3STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
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
tabler-icon-diamond-filled.svg

Paraphrase This Document

Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Document Page
4STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
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.
Document Page
5STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
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
Document Page
6STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
between the projects, it will be impossible to align the projects together with the business
strategy of the company (Kerzner and Kerzner 2017). Thus, it is absolutely necessary to continue
sharing knowledge between the projects so that the personnel involved have clear idea about the
requirements of alignment among the projects. Again, this project strategy is directly aligned
with the business strategy of knowledge sharing.
Lessons Learnt Repository leads to Better Project Management – This particular strategy
is also aligned with the business strategy of knowledge sharing. This particular strategy is mainly
based on the lessons learnt from the experiences of previous projects and utilizes them for better
project management in the near future (Tamaki, Park and Goto 2015). On the other hand, the
lessons learnt process is only possible when there is sufficient knowledge sharing between the
past project leaders and the current project leaders.
Project Teams are Multi-Skilled to Move between Projects – In a business organization,
there are often different types of project that are executed in order to suit the needs of the
business strategy. Again, the general business strategy states that the resources must be allocated
effectively and efficiently. Hence, it is important for the project teams to be multi-skilled so that
they can move between the projects (ul Musawir et al. 2017). This is mainly because in a
business organization, the variety of project teams is limited and hence, it is common that the
same project team has to take part in different types of project. Thus, in order to make the teams
move between the projects efficiently and effectively, the project teams must have varied skills
and adaptability with various types of projects.
From the above points, it is seen that the business strategies and project strategies must be
aligned together in order to reach the organizational goals regarding the business. Whatever be
tabler-icon-diamond-filled.svg

Paraphrase This Document

Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Document Page
7STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
the focus of the organization in the long run, it is important for them to deploy projects that are
aligned with their working business strategy so that the project outcomes can actively be
integrated with the business system of the company (Nicholas and Steyn 2017). Thus, the
purpose of the business strategy is to ensure the company reaches its business goals by
successfully aligning its projects with the existing business process.
Task 2
Competitive advantage is an essential requirement of a business organization when there
are several companies within the same target area and similar types of products and services. The
company under focus in this report is National Express, a UK-based bus service that has more
than 500 coaches in its fleet. In addition to UK, the company also provides services in other
countries under different brands. With a strong hold on the international market, the company
has more than 42000 employees around the world. While its services are extremely popular,
there are several other companies rapidly growing up and providing strong competition in the
market. Hence, the company needs to redevelop its business strategies in order to maintain its
competitive advantage over the other companies.
The main business strategy of National Express is customer centric i.e. it considers the
customers as a major stakeholder group and the business is entirely focused on the convenience
of the customers. In order to analyze the project and business strategy of the company, first its
business model needs to be analyzed. The main business model followed by National Express is
shown in the following diagram.
Document Page
8STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
Figure 2: Business Model of National Express
(Source: Case Study)
From the business model, it can be seen that the most of the business strategy is aligned
towards the customers of the company. The five outermost layers on the business model are
People, Community, Customers, Safety and Excellence. It shows that the focus of the company
is always the customers and the success of the company’s business depends entirely on the
behaviors of the customers regarding the company’s services. This also depicts that any project
that the company implements must also be focused on customer requirements, benefits and
convenience.
Document Page
9STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
The third layer in the model shows the business strategy of the company and includes
three main directions – delivering operational excellence, generating superior cash and returns
and delivering new opportunities. In this strategy, operational excellence is delivered so that the
customers choose National Express over any other companies. Generating superior cash and
returns is only possible when the company has strong competitive advantage in the market and
also holds the major portion of share in the market (Turner 2016). Finally, the company delivers
new opportunities for the people who are seeking jobs and provide them with good amount of
salaries as the company seeks to employ more people for extending the services even further.
In addition, one of the most recent projects that have been launched by the company in
recent times is the Youth Promise Project. The company plans to offer a range of projects, travel
incentives and community-based schemes designed to benefit young people and enhance their
opportunities of success in work, life and education. Now, in this case, it can be seen that this
particular project is also aligned with the business strategy of the company i.e. to grow by
involving the customers further as the main stakeholder group of the company. The Youth
Promise project includes several initiatives and benefits for the young people that will
significantly benefit them in their travel, work and education purposes but on the other hand, the
company will also be able to engage more potential new customers from the youth community.
This is one of the main reasons why National Express is far ahead of any other competitors in the
market.
Another new initiative taken by National Express is to sign the Military Covenant, as per
which, the company will provide guaranteed job offers for the military veterans who require jobs
to support their families. There are two main focuses regarding this initiative – benefiting the
tabler-icon-diamond-filled.svg

Paraphrase This Document

Need a fresh take? Get an instant paraphrase of this document with our AI Paraphraser
Document Page
10STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
military veteran community and increase the employee count such that the company can expand
its services even further.
Another major project that the company has undertaken is the reduction of pollution in
the country. While the company uses technically updated low pollution coaches for the services,
it also ensures the coaches are replaced every 7 years so in order to minimize the pollution.
Furthermore, the company promotes its services by emphasizing on the following (Source: Case
Study):
“Our services make an important contribution in reducing carbon emissions from
travel because buses, coaches and trains produce fewer emissions per passenger kilometre
than other forms of transport such as car or air travel. The CO2 emissions per passenger
kilometre in coach travel are around 80% less than those of the average new car. Emissions
from our vehicles constitute around 93% of our carbon footprint. National Express Coach has
a policy of renewing its coaches every 7 years to maintain a continuously high-quality product
and to capture the newest developments in reducing fuel emissions.”
From these statements, it is mostly clear that the company discourages the use of
individual cars for transport and encourages the use of their coaches in order to reduce the total
amount of pollution occurring from the emission of vehicle exhausts. It is clear from this
business strategy that the company is continually trying to enhance the customer base while
contributing to various causes that will benefit the people as whole. From the analysis of the
three major strategies of the company to increase its business that while the company’s focus is
the enhancement of business, its main values are customer centric and requires the involvement
Document Page
11STRATEGIC PORTFOLIO MANAGEMENT
of the customers as the major stakeholder groups from which the company can benefit as a
whole.
Finally, it can be summarized that the company has undertaken three main strategies for
its business:
I. Youth Promise Project
II. Military Covenant
III. Reduction of Pollution
All of these strategies are focused on involving more customers in the business and also
increase the overall customer base. Furthermore, with these strategies, the company will enjoy
strong competitive advantage over all other similar companies and continue to hold a major
portion of the share in the market. Now, from the analysis under the previous header, it is evident
that any project strategy must be aligned with the business strategy of the company in order to
achieve success in the market (Polonsky and Waller 2018). From the case study of National
Express, it can be seen that all of its projects and initiatives are completely aligned with the
business of the company that helps them enjoy significant competitive advantage over other
companies. It has been seen that in UK, there are no other similar companies that are even near
to National Express in terms of size, popularity and service whereas in the other countries, there
are a few competitors although National Express is quickly gaining the market shares through
quality of services, customer centric approach as well as brand value that has developed
considerably throughout the last few years. Thus, it is evident that for gaining competitive
advantage in the market, it is important for the company to establish some useful business
strategies as well as values that support its business objectives. In addition, the business values
chevron_up_icon
1 out of 26
circle_padding
hide_on_mobile
zoom_out_icon
[object Object]