Structuring governance for a strategic portfolio worth several billion euros

1. Strategic context

An international group made up of several companies was steering a strategic portfolio worth several billion euros, organised around shared roadmaps.

2. What was blocking execution

Initiatives were steered company by company. Projects overlapped from one entity to another, data quality varied, and steering practices differed between entities. At that scale, without a common reading of the portfolio, leadership could not make trade-offs.

3. Work on the model and governance

Mapping the roadmaps and how they connect to the strategy, setting up governance routines and portfolio reviews, and organising data governance with the central team.

4. Putting it to work

Running the reviews, coordinating the PMOs of the group’s entities, preparing decision material for leadership on competing initiatives, and sharing practices from the more advanced entities with those just starting. Leadership took the decisions; we prepared what it needed to take them.

5. Tools and data

Consolidated data and dashboards in the group’s portfolio management tool, and industrialised monthly consolidations and plan updates. The tool serves governance here: it gives every company the same reading of the portfolio.

6. Decisions and results made possible

A common view of the portfolio at this scale, which reveals overlaps between companies and gives leadership what it needs to prepare its investment decisions between competing initiatives.

7. What we learned

At this scale, governance starts with the data. As long as each company counts in its own way, no trade-off is possible; a common definition and industrialised consolidation make it possible.

See also: Strategy-to-Execution · Tools & Data