It’s all about perspective! Companies are facing unprecedented challenges due to the digital transformation trend and the endless possibilities it brings. Messages about digital transformation, augmented reality, artificial intelligence daily pass by and emphasize the possibilities but also the need for organizations to translate into concrete opportunities. “What opportunities does this offer us? How do we ensure that we translate this into concrete applications? How do we stay ahead of our competitors? “

Translating the technological developments that affect every sector requires a structured approach. How do we evaluate and prioritize the various ideas and initiatives that come along? For effective decision making, clear parameters need to be set out in how initiatives will be assessed. What perspectives does your organisation have to objectively evaluate initiatives?

The Rubiks® cube: it looks never the same …

A perspective represents the point of view from which you look at something.  Taking different perspectives often shows another side of reality. Everyone remembers the well-known colourful cube that you can view endlessly from different angles to determine those few clever actions that should make the cube perfect again.

In a business context it is no different: different perspectives give a broader insight into what is needed to decide whether you will allocate time, money and people to a project. It is therefore quite surprising that many companies lack a clear framework about which perspectives to use when evaluating projects and the project portfolio.

Determine what is relevant for your organization

There are a number of obvious ways to categorize projects, such as but not limited to:

• Risk profile. To what extent is the proposed project a high, medium or low risk of being successfully implemented?
• Legal obligation. Is this a project that we are obliged to do?
• Strategic theme. To which strategic theme does the project contribute?
• Type of project. Is the project focused on process optimization, innovation, or transformation?

Each company must determine what is relevant from the point of view of their strategy and operations. Consider, for example, the contribution to relevant market development, the business unit or department where the project has the most impact, the country or region, and so on.

The purpose of categorizing initiatives is to be able to look at it from different angles. If this is done with too few or irrelevant categories, then you get a one-sided view of reality. Making the right choices then becomes quite a challenge. Wrong choices ultimately lead to a waste of resources and a failure to reach the strategic direction that the company has set out. Therefore, Invest in sessions with management to determine the right perspectives for your company and use them consistently to assess all initiatives in the project portfolio.