PM Network - August 2014

every project delivers its intended business value, she says.

Of course, mapping deliverables onto strategic objectives is easier said than done, says Ms. Chang. While mission statements and published annual goals paint one part of the picture, often it’s internal objectives that more concretely de;ne where an organization is trying to go.

“Sometimes it’s very easy to make out what your organization values, and sometimes it’s di;cult. You have to do some investigation work to get that understanding,” Ms. Chang says.

Only once portfolio managers have that strategic understanding in place can they work toward achieving it, she says. “When you know what that success picture is, it’s lining up your team, lining up your skill set and lining up your portfolio structure to get you there,” she says.

While slow growth puts more urgency on securing the right people for the right projects, global talent shortages have made those people harder to find.

Worldwide, 35 percent of employers report having difficulty filling jobs due to a lack of available talent, according to a 2013 study by ManpowerGroup, a global workforce solution provider based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. This is the highest proportion of employers expressing concern about talent shortages since 2007, when it hit 41 percent.

The talent shortage makes it even more important to select the right projects and programs, says Blaze Goraj, PMP, HP Enterprise Services, Poznan, Poland.

“As the right resources are very expensive, it’s vi-
tal to make the right investment,” he says. “Deciding
where to invest is crucial because we have a limited
number of people with the right capabilities.”
More than half of the companies surveyed by
the ManpowerGroup said a lack of qualified talent
was impacting their client-facing abilities. And an
increased number of organizations said talent short-
ages were hurting business outcomes.

The necessity for understanding local and cultur-
al differences can further shrink the available pool,
Mr. Goraj says. “In different cultures and different
countries, you deal with a crisis in different ways,”
he says. “Sometimes you need to deal with things
face-to-face rather than making a phone call to
deal with the situation.”
When talent is in short supply, the cost of replac-
ing individuals who leave an organization rises.
Investing in retaining those people can reduce the
costs of attrition and make a portfolio more suc-
cessful, Mr. Goraj says.

“We need to be able to quantify that losing person A will cost us X amount of money,” he says. “We can and we should invest that amount of money to avoid that. It is the risk management aspect of people management.”

TAKE IN THE WHOLE PICTURE

To help their companies excel amid timid growth, portfolio managers have to take a broad view of business value and ROI. Looking at the overall value of the portfolio, not just individual projects, allows portfolio managers to identify e;ciencies and discover hidden value, Mr. Eacker says.

For instance, a chemical company’s project to build a plant that produces ammonia may not seem to be a high-value endeavor—until it becomes clear that the ammonia will be used as a raw material in producing a higher-value product. A strong understanding of these relationships can help ensure the portfolio is optimized properly, Mr. Eacker says.