HBR's 10 Must Reads on Managing Projects and Initiatives (with bonus article "The Rise of the Chief Project Officer" by Antonio Nieto-Rodriguez)

A New Approach to Strategic Innovation

by Haijian Si, Christoph Loch, and Stelios Kavadias

COMPANIES TYPICALLY TREAT THEIR INNOVATION projects as a portfolio: a mix of projects that, collectively, aim to meet their various strategic objectives. Some projects, for instance, will improve business processes, others develop new products and services.

But while the portfolio concept can be helpful, our research suggests that portfolio objectives have become overly standardized. Most companies, in other words, seek similar portfolio objectives, such as achieving a balance between making incremental improvements and applying new technologies. All too often, executives carefully evaluate individual projects along standard performance metrics such as ...