Strategic Portfolio Management

Structure Is Strategy — Gaining Strategic Advantage Through Organizational Design

Conventional wisdom suggests that it is critically important to decide the enterprise strategy first and then re-align the organization to deliver on it. Reality is quite different.

Portfolio Management - Managing Energy Industry Portfolios for Value

Long lead times and large capital commitments mean that in the energy sector, portfolio management requires a deeper consideration of tradeoffs between growth, risk and return.

The risk of incrementalism and the importance of clear strategy during periods of uncertainty

Chairpersons and CEOs are at risk of becoming incremental in their thinking as a natural defense to today’s uncertain environment. We observe companies that are at risk of getting stuck given the extreme set of existential risk CEOs and Board members face in managing through today’s environment. They may take comfort from managing operational improvements within their control and shy away from bold choices that might deliver competitive advantage by fundamentally altering their strategy.

Global Macroeconomic Outlook

As we enter 2022, the global economic engine is overheating with inflation higher and more broad-based than anticipated, worrying investors and Central Banks alike. Additional risks to monitor include new potential COVID-19 variants, a mounting global debt pile, and ongoing geopolitical instability. The UK despite a successful vaccine rollout faces challenges of its own with a cost-of-living crisis threatening short-term recovery and Brexit likely to exert a long-term drag. Forward-looking executives are closely monitoring these macro-economic indicators to anticipate challenges and find hidden opportunities, e.g., building capabilities in an inflationary market, managing the energy transition amidst an energy crisis.

Re-Base the Plan; Regain Control - Food and Beverage

Covid-19 has created significant uncertainty for the Food and Beverage sector. How can business leaders re-gain a measure of agency over their short-term business performance? Marakon recommends formulating a 12-24 month plan to re-base your strategic plan to re-gain visibility and control over the alternative futures possible. This can arm you with the knowledge needed to make the right cost, investment, and financing choices now and over the next few months – choices that will help you not only survive, but also outperform when the recovery comes.

Strategic Resource Management - The Hidden Secret to Outperformance

Solid operational performance matters; if your team can’t reliably execute you’re finished. However, our comprehensive study of 1,200 companies revealed that the path to superior performance is determined by management’s decisions about where to focus the firm’s strategic resources (time, people and capital). At least 60–75% of the difference in performance can be attributed to high-level portfolio choices. The implications for senior management are stark and the report outlines the common challenges they face and six actions they can take to help ensure outperformance is within their grasp.

Sales Force Effectiveness - How to Balance Customer Centricity and Shareholder Value

In this paper, we identify five common organizational tendencies that can reduce sales force effectiveness and upset the balance between customer and shareholder value. We also provide observations on what makes an effective, customer-centric sales performance system as well as its benefits, challenges, and avoidable pitfalls.

2020 Emissions Regulations - A Storm Brewing for Global Shipping

The shipping industry, oil refiners, and commodity traders will all be impacted by the new IMO sulphur emission regulations that come into effect in 2020.

Winning with Digital in Consumer Financial Services

Lessons from Leaders and Laggards

The Power of Portfolio Focus: The Chemical Sector

Arnie Lowenstein discusses the importance of portfolio strategy in executive suites and boardrooms. A fast changing world, shifting growth dynamics in key sectors of the economy and across regions, plus often conflicting views of value between management and investors place portfolio choices at the top of many management agendas.

Designing the Winning Portfolio: The New Economics of O&G Requires a New Approach

This article is an updated version of an article that was originally published in the December 2014 issue of Petroleum Economist. Many of our clients have expressed increased interest in an appropriate portfolio response to a lower price environment. The methodology and approach has been slightly adjusted due to the change in context.

Leading Through The Oil Glut

One simple idea has driven Oil and Gas strategies for the last decade. Now, with the industry facing a supply glut, and expectations this will last for several years, it is time for a new approach. David Roxby discusses the options available, beyond cost cutting, and why some strategies work better than others.

The Digital Wealth Management Imperative

Following the financial crisis, there is a wave of new startups that are trying to redefine or refresh traditional models of wealth management. Their services are priced to sell, and traditional firms have not been able to deliver the quality of customer experience of these startups. While some startups have been able to grow to a modest level relatively quickly, the question is whether they will be able to sustain this rapid pace of growth, and what more can traditional players do.

Redefining Winning in E&P

How do you run an E&P company to satisfy investor demands for stable returns, in an inherently risky and cyclical industry? New sources of supply make portfolio decisions and shape increasingly important. Neal Kissel discusses a new approach to winning in E&P through better portfolio strategy.

Making Better Technology Investments in Oil Sands

Ramping up your investment in innovation and technology is a logical response to increasingly complex and marginal – but potentially huge - oil and gas projects. And the numbers confirm it: despite the recession, overall R&D spending by oil and companies has jumped by several billion dollars in the last 5 years as national oil companies and independents have piled in. Yet chief executives cite “making technology work” as one of the hardest challenges of the industry. In this article, we highlight what oil sands operators – as owners of the largest volumes of marginal barrels and growing investors in technology – are doing to improve their odds of success.

What Really Just Happened to the Future of Traditional UK Life Insurance Companies?

Four ways to help insurance companies thrive in the new paradigm.

Entry Into Adjacent Products/Categories - Lessons from the Consumer Products Sector

In the ongoing search for growth, companies with a strong capability around entering adjacent businesses have a significant competitive advantage. However, the journey is often littered with countless pitfalls and risks. Based on numerous examples from a range of Consumer Products categories, Marakon identifies key challenges faced, lessons learned and implications.

Economic Profit Growth

Almost 35 years ago, Marakon pioneered the Economic Profit metric and linked it to a new strategic framework for managing the value of an enterprise.

Building the Organizational Capabilities to Achieve Sustainable Organic Growth

Achieving sustainable and profitable organic growth requires more than new ideas, innovation, and strong execution. Rather, organic growth exemplars embed a set of institutional capabilities and a growth culture that define the organization and that are key enablers to realizing advantaged performance.

Managing Differentiated Commodities

Most industrial businesses are neither purely commodity nor fully differentiated, but are a combination of the two—in essence, differentiated commodities.

Stop Leaving Money on the Table - Get More Value from Your Brand Portfolio!

Successfully managing a brand portfolio can unlock significant value but the process is complex. We identify best practice principles from interviews, experience and theory.

How to Build a Global Beer Brand

The conventional wisdom is that beer is a local business. Despite many attempts, only a select few beer brands have made a successful transition from local to global. The stakes are high as those that win are viewed as the crowning success in the portfolios of the world’s best brewers.

Structure Is Strategy — Gaining Strategic Advantage Through Organizational Design

Conventional wisdom suggests that it is critically important to decide the enterprise strategy first and then re-align the organization to deliver on it. Reality is quite different.

Portfolio Management - Managing Energy Industry Portfolios for Value

Long lead times and large capital commitments mean that in the energy sector, portfolio management requires a deeper consideration of tradeoffs between growth, risk and return.

The risk of incrementalism and the importance of clear strategy during periods of uncertainty

Chairpersons and CEOs are at risk of becoming incremental in their thinking as a natural defense to today’s uncertain environment. We observe companies that are at risk of getting stuck given the extreme set of existential risk CEOs and Board members face in managing through today’s environment. They may take comfort from managing operational improvements within their control and shy away from bold choices that might deliver competitive advantage by fundamentally altering their strategy.

Global Macroeconomic Outlook

As we enter 2022, the global economic engine is overheating with inflation higher and more broad-based than anticipated, worrying investors and Central Banks alike. Additional risks to monitor include new potential COVID-19 variants, a mounting global debt pile, and ongoing geopolitical instability. The UK despite a successful vaccine rollout faces challenges of its own with a cost-of-living crisis threatening short-term recovery and Brexit likely to exert a long-term drag. Forward-looking executives are closely monitoring these macro-economic indicators to anticipate challenges and find hidden opportunities, e.g., building capabilities in an inflationary market, managing the energy transition amidst an energy crisis.

Strategic Portfolio Management

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The risk of incrementalism and the importance of clear strategy during periods of uncertainty

Global Macroeconomic Outlook

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