Executive Briefings
You don’t see too many Executives and General Managers attending courses longer than half a day and we understand that at Nonsuch.
We know that executives at the CXO level often don’t have the luxury of going to all-day, two-day, or longer courses to learn new or important capabilities. This is why Nonsuch has created an initial batch of three Executive Briefings directed at topics of importance to them with a general theme of investment management and governance also known as portfolio management.
These sessions can be added to monthly executive meetings or to any away day planning sessions. Each Executive will receive an A5 sized Quick Reference Card that capture the key points from each presentation. These are useful summaries that act as discreet memory prompts. Included in the fee is a pre-briefing with the sponsoring executive and/or a Project Office professional who may commission these sessions. This allows Youssef to ensure the session/s uses the right project, programme, and portfolio ‘language’ that your organisation has adopted.
Youssef, well known in New Zealand for his interesting, engaging, informative (and sometimes outrageous) presenting style, will spend 2 hours with your executives and focus on what they need to know to facilitate projects and programmes of change at your organisation and play their governance roles successfully.
We know that will make life easier for you and for them. We know that strong and visible governance is a key for success on projects, so Youssef will create a safe space at each of these sessions and ensure there is an opportunity for your executives to ask all the questions they’ve wanted to ask about these themes. Youssef has a long track record for delivering these sessions in New Zealand and Australia, so please ask for references if required.
Business Cases
- The importance of the Business Case or (justification documentation) in making decisions when exploring the viability of new projects. This session also explores the different types of Business Cases; how extensive they need to be; their role in the development of the Business Case; and when is the best time to develop the Business Case?
- The key components of the Business Case; explaining the Five Case Model and what each case (Strategic, Management, Economic, Financial, and Commercial) should contain when developing a complete business case.
- Understanding the ownership of The Business Case and when and where is it okay to outsource a business case?
- Tips and tricks into how to read, review, and critique a Business Case. Understanding the drivers behind the Business Case while also factoring in the impacts of risk and project complexity to the estimates on budget, effort, and timings. Understanding how to assess and choose the right options as laid out in a Business Case.
P3G – Project, Programme, & Portfolio Governance
- The Executive’s role in the governance of projects, programmes, and portfolios. Executives play a crucial in ensuring they facilitate successful projects and programme delivery and this session delivers the important points in a distilled fashion.
- The contents include guidance on how to reconcile the challenges of different project types. Executives will learn some techniques when dealing with different types of delivery methods like ‘waterfall’, agile, and ‘hybrid’.
- This briefing covers off how to improve decision making. It includes information on how the application of documented delegated authorities and escalation triggers assist Executives to improve the timeliness and confidence in decision making on projects, programmes, and in portfolios. This briefing also provides clarity on the separation between decision making and stakeholder engagement.
- This briefing also provides information on how understanding the three focus areas on all projects (outputs, objectives, and outcomes) helps ensure executives achieve the right balance of focus and energy applied at the right levels and at the right time.
Portfolio Management
- This briefing focuses on the importance of Portfolio Management in shaping and deciding the overall combined investment that an organisation will make in the delivery of projects and programmes. It covers off the differences between portfolio visibility (‘bottom up’ portfolio management) and portfolio prioritisation (‘top down’ portfolio management) and the role and purpose of each method.
- It covers off understanding the key differences between the focus on delivering successful projects and projects versus selecting the right projects for an organisation to achieve its objectives and desired benefits. The executives are also advised on how to keep the portfolio continuously optimised which involves regular reviews of the portfolio and making calls to stop, pause, slow down, speed up, or commission new projects while also understanding the trade-offs and implications of these necessary decisions.
- It covers off the investment mindset that needs to be developed to ensure the right projects that deliver the best benefits (not always financial benefits) are identified and assessed against various factors not just affordability and achievability factors. The focus on portfolio management is to identify the optimal portfolio that balances strategic, tactical, and legislative requirements while working within a financially sustainable budget.
