Innovation Portfolio Planning — Building Capabilities

I’m going back to a Gary Hamel and Lowell Bryan interview (here) on The McKinsey Quarterly site (registration required).  Bryan here focuses on innovation portfolio planning, a topic which PMs should focus on as they look to expand their career horizons:

I like the notion of designing a managing concept or master plan—a master architecture, if you will—for every company. Such a master plan should lay out the big foundational elements to get your organization to work differently…

We use this approach a lot at SAP, though we talk about building capabilities.  These capabilities are the foundation for enabling us to work differently, but aren’t focused too narrowly on a specific outcome.  Rather, these capabilities are focused on supporting a strategic direction — e.g., improve project management maturity vs. improve scope management practices.