Project Portfolio: Marketing Manager 2b

The case consists of a role-play simulation in which teams of 4-6 participants represent one company (“Printing Equipment Company”). Each team is given a business strategy with strategic objectives, and a set of 8 candidate new product development (NPD) projects (with a detailed description and financials for each project). Each team has development capacity to execute at most half of the projects. It is thus the team’s objective to choose a project portfolio that best supports the organization’s strategy.

- To learn basic principles and methods of what makes a good portfolio. - To understand the multidimensional objectives in project portfolio choice. - To understand that technical decisions (here, choosing new products and their key configurations) are not only technical but drive the business in the future. - To thus link a functional level of decision making (here, of the R&D or NPD function and of the marketing function) to the overarching strategy of the business and to the other functions. Each set must include the 'base package' (4 documents) and the roles for 4-, 5- or 6-player teams, as follows: Role description for 4-player teams: Marketing Manager 1, Marketing Manager 2b, Product Development Manager 1, Product Development Manager 2b. Role description for 5-player teams: Marketing Manager 1, Marketing Manager 2b, Product Development Manager 1, Product Development Manager 2, Product Development Manager 3. Role description for 6-player teams: Marketing Manager 1, Marketing Manager 2, Marketing Manager 3, Product Development Manager 1, Product Development Manager 2, Product Development Manager 3.