In the private sector, the priorities for projects and activities are set based on specific criteria. These are often framed by answering a few simple questions, such as:
1. What will generate most profit for the shareholders?
2. What will provide the best long-term or short-term return for the company/investors/stakeholders?
3. Which project will benefit the company the most?
In the public and not-for-profit sectors, the prioritisation decisions are based upon less obvious financial cornerstones. Here, profit is not the motive. The return on investment in any project will be measured against, for example, improvements in service or contribution to the organisation’s wider aims.
To add a further dimension, whether public or private sector, almost all organisations are involved in a wide diversity of projects, making it very complicated to compare one project with another in terms of cost, importance or the extent of delivery of the long-term mission. It is difficult to identify those activities that have the most strategic value.
4-consulting has developed a tool designed to help our clients to review their activities and projects more effectively and to assist them to prioritise these where necessary. This tool has recently allowed the senior management team of a non-departmental government body to prioritise projects for inclusion in the corporate plan, to justify the portfolio of projects to their Board and, in some instances, to explain to stakeholders why certain activities cannot be undertaken.
Now we can offer a 1-day workshop to your senior management team in which we will use our unique
Impact Matrix™ software to review the impact of each major project upon the underpinning objectives of the organisation. In the process, the basic performance indicators of the organisation can be reviewed and assessed giving useful insight into the true value of these metrics to the
organisation.
At the conclusion of the workshop, your projects will be plotted on a simple quadrant to help you identify those which:
Based upon a robust mathematical model, this tool is flexible enough to work for all types of organisation, as long as you have some indication of your strategic objectives. More robust information can be modelled if your organisation is able to provide effective performance indicators against each objective as these can provide further insight into the strategic value of the activities and projects.
After a rapid-fire few hours of facilitated discussion, your organisation will benefit from:
