1. FRAMEWORK FOR A STRATEGIC PRIORITY
COUNCIL
Gherda Stephens
August 2011

2. Summary 1. Definitions 2. Framework 3. Structure 4. Process Flow 5. Financial 6. Questions
Framework for a Strategic Priority
Council to provide leadership with
ongoing business intelegence
around existing and proposed
projects/campaigns impacting the
business environment to ensure
prioritisation of proposed projects,
campaigns and initiatives with the
highest potential business value
and according to the availability of
resources to execute the projects,
campaigns and initiatives

3. 1. DEFINITIONS
•Projects will go through •By value for money is •A project is defined as
an evaluation process meant "the optimum a unique set of co-
whereafter it will be combination of whole- ordinated activities with
prioritised (ranked) life cost and quality, a finite duration, defined
according to Value for fitness for purpose to cost and performance
Money and Risk i.e. meet user parameters and clear
overall attractiveness requirements" outputs to support
specific business
objectives
Definition of a Prioritised Definition of Value Definition of a Project
Project for Money

4. KEY ISSUES
1. Duplication of project efforts
2. Resources are not optimised
3. Missing out on valuable
“Lessons Learnt” opportunities
4. Overloading of Frontline Staff
with non-revenue generating
tasks
PROPOSED SOLUTION
1. Establishment of a Strategic
Priority Council to manage the
portfolio of projects and to drive
implementation of structured
processes to ensure
collaboration across functional
project management teams in
an effort to align efforts not
only across business units, but
also across various segments to
ensure all strategies roll up to
the organisation’s overall vision
and strategy

5. The goal is to eliminate
duplicated efforts and to
prioritise activities based on
resource capacity in the
frontline

7. 2. PROPOSED FRAMEWORK
Frontline
The main purpose of the Capacity
council is to prioritise all
frontline activities, based
on resource capacity in
the frontline
The council must create
rules around what
resource capacity should
be used per month for Capacity for BAU
different activities i.e. Activities
change, operations 3
credit, sales, training,
product launches etc.
The council will provide
2 1
guidelines to ensure a
clear understanding of
how much time should Capacity for Capacity for
be spend on what Campaigns Change
activities

8. •
STRATEGIC PRIORITY COUNCIL FRAMEWORK
Foundation for Goal-oriented Strategic
governance culture communications
•Provide Exco with a •Employees see the value •Discussions aren't just
holistic view and of their project work about how much a project
recommendations to •Employees are focused will cost, but also about
facilitate transparent and fast (previously its anticipated risks and
decision-making dragged down in multiple, returns in relation to
•Clear linkages simultaneous projects of other projects.
between goals & various values) •This way, entire
allocation of resources •“Let’s do a great job on portfolios can be
•Understood by this one and move on to the assembled to produce the
sponsors and business next important project to highest returns based on
move this organisation current conditions.
forward.”

9. 3. STRUCTURE OF THE STRATEGIC PRIORITY COUNCIL
General
Chairman
Manager
Head:
Exco Exco Exco Exco
Project Sponsors Strategic
Member Member Member Member
Change
Head Head
Nat National
Frontline Enablement Impleme Impleme
Manager Manager
ntation ntation
Other Standing Members IT

10. STEERCO ROLES AND RESPONSIBILITIES
Can identify all work currently being performed in the frontline
– Status of working projects
– Show resources involved
– Provide key deliverables
– Show inter-dependencies
Identify pending work
– Use as a quick assessment of priorities
– Use as a foundation for learning and improvement
Tie this together in an enterprise wide view
– Provide ExCo with relative “up to date” information on all projects
– Help evaluate and prioritize at internet speed

11. Change Council
MAIN STAKEHOLDERS
Pricing Council
COO Council
Regulatory
Sales Campaigns and
other Revenue
Producing
New Product Launches
or Product Strategic
Enhancement Priority
Council
Cost Reduction /
Risk Council
Strategic Change
Sales Activation Council

12. 4. PROCESS FLOW
Segments
• All activities and/or projects based on resource
capacity in the frontline are identified
• A Master Project List is created
• Able to contain all project work activities being
performed in the organisation
• A Summary Line for Each Project
• Listed in assigned order (numbered P001, P002 etc.)
• Schedule Status
• Value of the projects is identified
• At a glance view of project status
– Drill down
– Consistent status
• Issues are able to transcend projects
1

13. Components of the Processs
Identify all projects Directory
impacting the business Structure
environment
•A "root” directory is defined &
• Status of working projects & each project gets a unique
resources involved number
• Provide key deliverables •A template is created to identify
• Show inter-dependencies critical components
• Contains all relevant •The PM is responsible for
documents completing the template and
publishing the project
Strategic Priority •End result is a library of projects
Council Framework within the portfolio
•Identical order to Master Project Lists
• Identified status but from a financial •Able to contain all project
perspective activities
• Not necessarily an earned value • Summary Line for Each Project
proposition in assigned order
• Involved business case approval • Hyper link to project overview
• Sub-project of a bigger corporate pg Rate and Rank then provide
objective Recommendation (Dashboard) to
Exco
Master Financial List Master Project List
Projects will go through a prioritisation process whereby
projects will be evaluated and ranked according to overall
attractiveness

14. High Level Prioritisation process
Categorise projects
Apply Standardise Prioritise Projects Provide
based on
Methodology to based on Value Recommendation
prioritisation
Score Projects and Risk (Dashboard)
evaluation
Strategic Alignment Financial Analysis Risk Assessment Regulatory/Mandatory
The guiding principles developed Cash flows (current year plus The overall risk of a project will be Consideration and prioritisation is
for the Group target operating next two years) will be determined by : given to projects which are
model have been used as a basis analysed and the following Regulatory/Mandatory in nature.
to develop key questions to be ratio’s will be determined to  Confidence level These projects are evaluated and
asked when evaluating the evaluate a project’s financial  Extent of impact prioritised separately.
Strategic alignment of a project. feasibility:  Resource requirements
 Complexity
The guiding statements are as  NPV  Degree of behaviour change
follows:  IRR  System / Process compatibility
 BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio)  ·Current Project Status
 Customer Centric Distribution  ·Regulatory Requirement
 Common Manufacturing
 Execution Excellence
(Score out of10 (Highest is Priority (High/Medium/Low) (Yes/No)

15. 5. Financial Analysis
Strategic Alignment: Rating Scale & Parameters
Criteria # Guiding Principles 1* UOM
1 - Low 5 - Med 10 - High
Positive
1 Client Centric Distribution Score out of 10 Negative Impact No Impact
Impact
Positive
Strategic Alignment 2 Aligned to xyz Strategic Goals Score out of 10 Negative Impact No Impact
Impact
Positive
3 Execution Excellence Score out of 10 Negative Impact No Impact
Impact
Financial Analysis: Rating Scale & Parameters
Criteria # Criteria 2* UOM
3 - Low 2 - Meduim 1 - High
1 PV of Total Cash Out Cash Out
2 PV of Cash In over 4yr period Cash In
Financial Analysis 4 NPV of Cash Flow Value
5 IRR %
6 BCR (Benefit Cost Ratio) %
Risk Assessment: Rating Scale & Parameters
Criteria # Criteria 3* UOM
1 - Low 2 - Meduim 3 - High
Operational Risk (Including level of complexity; resource Moderate
1 Impact Minimal Impact High Impact
requirements & capacity constraints in regions Impact
Risk Assessment 2 Time to implement Years <1Yrs 1Yr to 2Yrs >2Yrs
10% to 50% <10%
3 Confidence Level of Cash flow Realisation % >50% Confidence
Confidence Confidence
Criteria # Criteria 4* UOM Regulatory/Mandatory: Rating Scale & Parameters
Consideration and prioritisation is given to projects which
Regulatory are Regulatory/Mandatory in nature. These projects are Applicable Yes/No
1
/ Mandatory evaluated and prioritised separately.

16. 6. Questions