With the rise of multibusiness enterprises in the 20th century, companies began to struggle with managing a number of business units profitably. In response, management thinkers developed frameworks to address this new complexity. One that arose in the early 1970s was the GE–McKinsey nine-box framework, following on the heels of the Boston Consulting Group’s...

We normally define project failure in terms of time, money and specification. A typical end-of-project report will state that the project was late, cost too much or failed to meet the users’ requirements. The National Audit Office reports on public sector projects that fail to meet these criteria. In organisational change projects, however, this misses the...

Just after I made my last post, several things came across my desk that said: Nope, you aren’t crazy after all. First, my colleague Matt Crawford sent me this link to coverage of the role of PMOs in the downturn. According to the CIO of the Baylor Health Care System, “Anytime you add what might appear to be a process, you always get a little bit of pushback,”...

Every organization wants to effectively execute strategies, but many struggle to implement a process for doing so. This struggle is one reason that the Balanced Scorecard has had such a wide following and impact on business. Simply put, the BSC emphasizes the linkage of measurement to strategy. For the first time, the details of the project portfolio (what the...

Whew! These are some challenging times. As I read the news daily I am struck by the fact that our economic woes are primarily management failures – failures in the areas of governance and strategy. This only inspires me to redouble my efforts to spread the word about integrating the strategic level of organizations with the task level via great project...