Target Audience: The target audience depends on the size of the company.

In a large company (say, $5 billion/year) with divisions of $500 million/year, the target audience may be the CEO or, alternatively and initially, the president of one of the divisions. Success shown in one of the divisions can generate greater acceptance within the company. In a mid-market company (perhaps $200 million/year), the CEO is usually the sponsor, but the work will involve those on the staff of the CEO.

Of greatest importance is working with key decision makers in both strategy and execution of new products and services. If it’s a functionally-organized firm, this often means spending a great deal of time with the VP of marketing and the VP of R&D. Others heavily involved in the process are the VPs of operation, sales and finance. If a Project Management Office (PMO) exists, it will also be highly involved. If the organization is not functionally organized, but rather aligned along key market segments, the work will still need to involve key decision makers in strategy and execution, with representation from the staffs of the general manager in each of the key market segments. Stakeholders: All stakeholders in the company have an interest in the success of the PPM process, since the process is aimed at accomplishing the corporate goals. However, those most affected by the decisions from the PPM process are those working on new product and service development. In a functional organization, this includes the VPs of marketing, R&D, operations, quality, sales, finance and customer service. Virtually every functional area in the company has a stake in successful decisions coming from the PPM process. Industries Covered I deal mainly with high technology companies, since my background of many years in high tech industries allows me to add value quickly by understanding the complex language and unique challenges of high tech. However, this does not preclude the positive contribution PPM and I can make in other industries. Target Company Size Between $50 million and $1 billion. Smaller companies and startups with one or just a few major products are generally too small to benefit from the efforts applied to project portfolio management. But when a company grows to a size where the number of projects makes it difficult for leadership to hold information about all projects in their minds and make decisions about them based on good understanding of quantifiable attributes of each project, then it needs PPM. The typical $150 million company with about 15 percent of revenue being spent on R&D would have 10-20 projects and will have difficulty choosing the best mix of projects to accomplish corporate goals without using project portfolio management.