Practical Portfolio Management offers management consulting services, tools and techniques for business analysis, and training and development related to portfolio management. Self-described strategies aim to balance risk and reward for effective decision making.

Practical Portfolio Management

Practical Portfolio Management | 310 followers on LinkedIn. Consultation, tools, techniques, and training on your firm&#39;s portfolio of investment decisions. | Increase the value and reduce the risk of your firm&#39;s investment program.
Use optimization, comparison, and probability concepts to help leaders understand the consequences of investment decisions. Collaborate to find the best set of decisions that align with strategic intent and maximize performance.

Several weeks ago, I posted on my personal page about the knowledge and qualities a “complete” DA practitioner needs. I elicited feedback and received quite a bit. Here is my current list: Decision, risk, and portfolio analysis is a remarkably broad field. To be a “complete” practitioner, you need skills in data analysis and manipulation; economic and physical systems modeling, including decision trees, optimization, and simulation; tool-specific knowledge – Excel, other programs including add-ins, procedural language, graphics programs; judgment regarding how much data and modeling is sufficient; creativity and design thinking to build imaginative alternate decisions; design of experiments (important for VOI); facilitation skills to understand the problem or decision at hand; change management; financial understanding; behavioral psychology and economics; project management; statistics, both Bayesian and Frequentist; game theory; expert elicitation; communication skills to help bring leaders to good conversations; data visualization; principles, ethics, and the courage to stand by them; company-specific culture and governance navigation; BD and persuasion—as an internal or external consultant self-knowledge to know when you are out of your depth. Few people will ever be great at all of those. For most mere mortals, we pick a subset of those skills to go deeper and become experts in those. Others may choose the generalist route and then go deep as needed. There is not a single correct approach. It is essential for the practitioner to know their strengths and limitations and when they are in over their head. In my case, I started with some risk analysis and Bayesian Value of Information work and then learned more about cognitive biases. Eventually, I expanded into modeling, including basic Excel and Analytica modeling, Monte Carlo Analysis, and optimization. Along the way, I needed to learn about change management, organizational governance, and finance. Even after doing this work for 25 years, I have blind spots and much room for improvement. It’s what makes this field so exciting and compelling to me. For anyone interested in pursuing a career in decision analysis and improving organizational decision-making, this required breadth of knowledge provides many incredible career and concentration opportunities.

PRAC

COM:PRACTICALPORTFOLIOMANAGEMENT

Practical Portfolio Management