Introduction:
The chosen company is Samsung Electronics, which is a business conglomerate. Its headquarters is in Suwon, South Korea. The company has a range of business segments and portfolios that make it a perfect contender for the application of project portfolio management. The company came as the biggest competitor of Apple Inc. after the 2007 smartphone revolution in the mobile phone industry. From that time, the smartphone category is the prominent and the most popular business segment of the company. This paper has taken Samsung electronics for its suitability for project portfolio management. The vision of the company is to be the top smartphone maker in the world, and it is pursuing this vision by offering a diverse range of smartphones across the globe. Samsung Electronics can ensure its competitive advantage and competitiveness through the application of project portfolio management effectively. The application of project portfolio management at Samsung can help it turnaround its business by offering a diverse range of products for the wider market.
Situational Context and Evaluation:
It is worth looking into the situational context and evaluation for Samsung Electronics. It would help whether it is effective to implement project portfolio management. The company has a large size, and many segments and portfolios work within the smartphone segment of the company. Then, it is useful to look into present portfolio management activities of the company and possible improvements in the future.
The company has been successfully introducing portfolio management, where high-end smartphones are allowing the company to compete with Apple and its loyal customers. Samsung has earned the name of a strong brand where it can offer competitive products to such customers. It is due to the focus of the company on operations and processes that end to these products. However, a successful strategy of the company is in light of making affordable products that are brought through economic efficiency and environmental considerations. The company’s efficient operations and efficiency in processes have let it target the affordable market segment. As a result, the company has gained increased market share and revenue (Asia.nikkei, 2020).
Currently, the company has been managing its projects with two main priorities. It has been struggling to compete with more affordable Chinese Smartphones. It increases the need for change in management approach for projects that fall under the domain of project portfolio management in the company. Samsung Electronics is part of Samsung Group that has a complicated structure. It requires the company to adopt diverse types of projects and their management. A salient feature of the group structure is holding one company’s shares in another company. Samsung Electronics also has the shareholding of other companies in the groups such as Samsung Life Insurance, is the largest shareholder of it. It is relevant to state here that the company is known for its semiconductor business. This business segment still yields high profits (Samsung, 2020).
In comparison with this business, the smartphone business is performing poorly in the last period. It needs new business and portfolio management as a new start so that the company can yield high profits again. Therefore, the scope for improvement in the project management of the company is prominent. The company has to consider a range of projects under the project portfolio management. Competitiveness might not be the result of a single project; instead, it has to engage in many projects. This is what the company should consider, and this paper proposes changes in this regard.
As noted above, the company has been concerned with and focused on social equity and economic efficiency. These are the attributes due to which the company has been doing well in the industry. Sustainable practices are gaining popularity in the industry, and the company is aware of it. Thus, the company has been considering these principles in its operations and processes. However, the company’s project portfolio management
Opportunities and Threats:
In the debate on project portfolio management, the company should consider opportunities and threats. It would help the company to come up with the expectations of the business. It has been noted that the company has been feeling the pressure and competition from Chinese rivals. These rivals have been taking the chunk from the affordable segment in the market. Samsung earlier dominated this segment, but the situation has been changing now. Now, the company has to bring changes through project portfolio management by introducing a line of products for the segment. It is better to offer products that appeal to this segment, along with the segment in the middle. The segment in the middle means that lies in the high-end consumer segment and the price-conscious consumer segment.
Opportunities and Likely Successes:
Opportunities and likely successes for applying the project portfolio management process at Samsung are many for offering a more affordable product for customers. The chosen process has four main parts that include inventory, analysis, alignment, and management in the end. There are many opportunities and likely successes in exchange for implementing this process. For instance, the company can set strategic goals and objectives that can work for its business. However, it is not an easy task to categorize projects and setting gating processes. Earlier, the company has been successful in competing with Apple Inc. That is reflective of high market share. However, increasing the market share of Chinese rivals have been putting the company into a challenging situation. Thus, the implementation of the process can open the door for success and strategic growth. The company can find a new project that can guarantee success by offering affordable prices. Now, the project portfolio project process calls for choosing a range of projects that can bring more affordable and customer-oriented products in the smartphone category (Cechurova, 2016).
Threats and Likely Challenges:
The company can face likely challenges and threats. It is not an easy task to align the change in the operations and process with the existing business of the company. The alignment with the strategic objectives and goals and management must be in the right manner. The project portfolio management calls for alignment because it must not be beyond the business jurisdiction. The company has the expertise to run a range of businesses under the group name, but the case with smartphones is different. The change to be introduced in the smartphone segment category is fundamental. The company has to invest heavily in the investment by offering more affordable devices for the price-conscious segment. Thus, the introduction of the project portfolio management process might face serious challenges in the end (Petro, Ojiako, Williams, & Marshall, 2020).
Development of the Plan:
It has been noted above that the project portfolio management for Samsung is worth introducing so that it can solve its problem with growth. The company should introduce the PPM for its existing business as well as for the new line of products. It would help the company to work on a new range of projects independently. For instance, a new product or line of products might not be enough for the company because it has been offering many products already. The difference in portfolio management with product development is clear. It is not a single project; instead, it is a new set of projects. Many projects can work under project portfolio management to be successful. Thus, the development of the plan is suitable and strategically viable so that it can align with the strategic goals of the company. The salient features of the proposed project portfolio management model are in the following.
The Proposed Project Portfolio Management Model and the Implementation:
There are many project portfolio management processes, but the proposed model related the strategic goals with the management of operations. The first step of the process is inventory that identified the strategic goals and objectives of the company. Practically, Samsung Electronics is part of the Samsung Group that has many businesses. However, the company is known for its smartphone business, which is its global recognition in public. Although the company has been the provider of semiconductors as well, it is now known to the public; the present paper takes the smartphone business of the company (PMI, 2020).
The first part of the proposed model is an inventory that identified strategic objectives. At this stage, the company categorizes projects and identifies gating processes. Then, the stage of analysis comes, that is about establishing matrices so that the gating process can be finalized. It involves organizing business and summarizing the project schedule and other relevant attributes of a project. Then, the proposed process has the alignment part that focuses on the elimination of redundancies. At this stage, the company should align all projects with strategic goals so that there is a streamlined set of activities. In the end, there is the management of the process where revision and initiation of new projects are prominent activities. Then, in the end, Samsung can launch the project portfolio process with necessary changes in the portfolio (Confido, Wibisono, & Sunitiyoso, 2018).
Source: https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/proven-project-portfolio-management-process-8503
Tools and Techniques:
The proposed project portfolio management process has four processes. However, the tools and techniques are many that can help manage different types of project portfolios for the company. It has been proposed that the company should first arrange and prioritize different projects. It means that there are many projects within the company. For offering an affordable product for Samsung, consumers do not require a single project. Instead, the company has to engage in a range of projects that can result in a marketable product. It would have projects for innovation, projects on product development, projects on marketing, and projects of other kinds of activities and operations. Therefore, arranging and prioritization tools and techniques are suitable for the management of project portfolio management for the company. In this regard, setting the sub-portfolio can be an effective option where the company can manage various projects more specifically (PMI.org, 2020).
Another suitable technique for the company is to set a standard for the management of a portfolio. Under this option, the company has two options. First, the company can set its standard for the measurement of the performance of the portfolio. For this, the company would need to engage in comprehensive and aggressive marketing to know the customer’s needs. It would need to evaluate its strengths and capabilities in bringing the new product. The second option is to choose a benchmark that can be Chinese rivals. The company can choose any of the two options for setting the standard for project portfolio management (Kral, Valjaskova, & Janoskova, 2019).
The next tools and techniques suitable for project portfolio management include aligning the process group and monitoring and controlling. The tool and technique to align the process group include identification, categorization, evaluation, selection, prioritization, and portfolio balancing. Then, the company requires monitoring and controlling where there is assurance for the management of the portfolio. Each project in the portfolio management should pass the monitoring and controlling process so that it remains under the standard and set criteria.
Conclusion:
The paper concludes that Samsung has been the prominent competitor of Apple Inc after the smartphone revolution since 2007. It has gained the highest market share and worldwide recognition through its products. However, recently the company has been struggling to keep the pace of growth and success in the smartphone industry because of more affordable smartphones form the Chinese rivals. As a result, the company must think about project portfolio management, where it can manage projects strategically. The paper has proposed tools and techniques and the process for PPM. The main focus of the proposed model and process has been to align with the strategy. It must align with the strategy so that the pursuit of affordable smartphones must remain within the jurisdiction of the company business. The paper recommends that Samsung must introduce PPM so that it can remain strategically competitive. It would allow the company to pursue areas of growth and competitive advantage. The proposed PPM process can undergo changes, but it must be considered.
References
Asia.nikkei. (2020). Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. Retrieved July 10, 2020, from https://asia.nikkei.com/Companies/Samsung-Electronics-Co.-Ltd
Cechurova, L. (2016). Project Portfolio Management Implementation at Smes in Czech Republic. Aktual’ni Problemy Ekonomiky = Actual Problems in Economics; Kiev (175), 137-147.
Confido, J. V., Wibisono, D., & Sunitiyoso, Y. (2018). A proposed selection process in Over-The-Top project portfolio management. Journal of Industrial Engineering and Management, 11 (3), 371-389.
Kral, P., Valjaskova, V., & Janoskova, K. (2019). Quantitative approach to project portfolio management: proposal for Slovak companies. Oeconomia Copernicana , 10 (4), 797-814.
Petro, Y., Ojiako, U., Williams, T., & Marshall, A. (2020). Organizational ambidexterity: using project portfolio management to support project-level ambidexterity. Production Planning & Control, 31 (4), 287-307.
PMI. (2020). A proven project portfolio management process. Retrieved July 10, 2020, from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/proven-project-portfolio-management-process-8503
PMI.org. (2020). Project portfolio management techniques. Retrieved July 10, 2020, from https://www.pmi.org/learning/library/project-portfolio-management-techniques-7624
Samsung. (2020). Regional Departments and Divisions. Retrieved July 10, 2020, from https://www.samsung.com/pk/aboutsamsung/company/divisions/
