AI Portfolio Optimization
A structured review of your existing AI portfolio — kill, scale, merge, pivot, sustain. Concentrate capital and capacity on the initiatives that compound, and free the rest. The strategic edit your portfolio's been waiting for.
PRICE
€4,900
DELIVERY
15 days
FORMAT
Partner-led
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§ 01 · The problem
"We have fifteen AI initiatives. Three are working. Nobody can name them on the spot."
Two years into the AI cycle, most enterprises have accumulated a portfolio nobody designed. Initiatives sprouted in business units, in IT, in innovation labs. Some shipped. Many didn't. Few were killed cleanly. Budget keeps flowing to projects whose original sponsors have moved on, while the three that actually move the needle starve for capacity.
The Portfolio Optimization installs the strategic edit your AI program needs. Every initiative inventoried, scored, classified into kill / scale / merge / pivot / sustain. Capital and capacity redeployed toward what compounds. The political cover to end zombie projects and the analytical basis to double down on the winners.
§ 02 · What you get
A portfolio reset, fully documented.
Six deliverables that turn a sprawling AI program into a focused investment portfolio. Built to be defensible in Comex and durable through the next planning cycle.
DELIVERABLE 01
Portfolio inventory
Comprehensive map of every AI initiative across the organization: shipped, in pilot, in roadmap, recently killed. Sponsor, budget, stage, intent, measurable outcomes. The picture nobody has today.
DELIVERABLE 02
Performance scorecard
Each initiative scored across 6 dimensions: strategic fit, value delivered vs promised, adoption, technical health, sponsorship strength, future potential. The objective basis for the hard conversations.
DELIVERABLE 03
Kill / Scale / Merge / Pivot / Sustain matrix
Every initiative placed into one of five strategic dispositions, with explicit rationale. The 2×2 your Comex signs off on — and the political cover to act on it.
DELIVERABLE 04
Reallocation plan
Capital and capacity flows from killed and merged initiatives toward the winners. Quarterly schedule. Headcount transitions. The redeployment math, not just the slide that says "we'll free up resources."
DELIVERABLE 05
Stakeholder communication plan
How to announce kills without losing the people behind them. Sequencing, talk tracks, alternative landings for displaced team members. The change management nobody plans for — and the reason most portfolio resets fail in execution.
DELIVERABLE 06
Governance ritual upgrade
Quarterly portfolio review template. Stage-gate criteria. Sunset triggers. The operating cadence that prevents the next portfolio drift — so this engagement isn't repeated in 18 months.
§ 03 · The method
Five principles. Five strategic dispositions.
Portfolio optimization fails when it's run as a finance exercise. The numbers don't capture political stakes, sponsorship reality, or strategic optionality. Our methodology applies five principles that reconcile the analytical and the political — because both determine what actually happens after the deck closes.
PRINCIPLE 01
Inventory first, judge second
Most organizations don't know their full AI portfolio. Shadow initiatives in BUs, half-killed pilots still drawing cloud spend, vendor POCs that drifted into production. We map everything before we score anything — and the inventory itself often surfaces the answer.
PRINCIPLE 02
Sunk cost is irrelevant; momentum is data
"We've already spent €800K" is not a reason to continue. But "user adoption tripled in Q3" is. We disregard accumulated spend in scoring future investment — and weight observable momentum heavily. The discipline that ends zombie projects without ending careers.
PRINCIPLE 03
Five dispositions, not two
Binary kill-or-keep frameworks miss the strategic middle. Real options: kill (stop entirely), scale (5-10x the investment), merge (combine with adjacent initiative), pivot (redirect to a different problem), sustain (maintain at current spend). The five-disposition framework forces a real decision on every line.
PRINCIPLE 04
Reallocation is the deliverable
Killing projects without redeploying their resources just signals retreat. The reallocation plan — capital and people moving from cuts to bets — is what makes the optimization stick. The math of the redeployment matters as much as the math of the kill.
PRINCIPLE 05
Ritualize the discipline
If portfolio review happens once, the drift restarts. Quarterly review cadence, stage-gate criteria, sunset triggers — installed as governance. The optimization stays optimized because the operating rhythm makes it inevitable.
§ 04 · Process & timeline
Fifteen days. Four sessions. Comex-ready optimization.
Partner-led from inventory through Comex sign-off. Designed to slot into the planning cycle that decides next year's allocations.
DAYS 01–03
Inventory & data gathering
90-min kickoff with executive sponsor. Cross-BU inventory: portfolio managers, IT leadership, business sponsors. We surface shadow initiatives and zombies — the full map nobody had.
DAYS 04–08
Scoring & preliminary classification
Each initiative scored across 6 dimensions. Initial kill/scale/merge/pivot/sustain placement. Sponsor interviews to test the political feasibility of preliminary calls. First-pass matrix circulated for confidential review.
DAY 09
Calibration session
Half-day session with executive sponsor and 2-3 trusted leaders. Challenge every preliminary call. Surface political constraints. Calibrate the optimization against organizational reality — without diluting the strategic edit.
DAYS 10–13
Reallocation & communication
Reallocation plan finalized: capital flows, headcount transitions, sequencing. Stakeholder communication plan structured. Governance ritual designed. All six deliverables consolidated.
DAYS 14–15
Comex readout & handover
90-min Comex readout. Q&A and pushback handled live. Final deliverables packaged. First quarterly review meeting calendared.
§ 05 · Who it's for
For leaders ready to edit before adding.
Built for four roles where the AI portfolio has outgrown intuition — and where the next planning cycle needs to be defensible rather than additive.
CHIEF AI OFFICER / CDO
Your portfolio has fifteen initiatives and you can defend five. You need an external review that earns the kills without political fallout — and reallocates capital toward what compounds.
CFO / VP FINANCE
AI spend has crept up across BUs without consolidated visibility. You want a portfolio map and a defensible reallocation logic before approving next year's envelope — not after.
COO / TRANSFORMATION LEAD
Initiatives keep proliferating faster than your team can scale them. You need a discipline that concentrates resources on what works — and a governance ritual that prevents the next drift.
PE OPERATING PARTNER
A participation has accumulated a sprawling AI portfolio from the previous management. You want an objective edit before approving the next funding round — and a governance install to prevent the pattern repeating.
§ 06 · Frequently asked
Six honest answers to common questions.
How many initiatives is this engagement designed for?
Sweet spot: 10-30 initiatives across the organization. Below 10, the Use Cases Prioritization Matrix (Skill 02) is the right fit. Above 30, we'd scope an extended engagement — the methodology holds but the inventory phase doubles.
How do you handle politically sensitive kills?
Directly. We surface them in the calibration session, never in writing first. The executive sponsor decides which kills they want third-party cover on — and which they want to handle privately. The stakeholder communication plan addresses talk tracks, alternative landings for displaced teams, and sequencing.
Do you replace our internal portfolio function?
No — we install the discipline they'll then operate. The governance ritual (quarterly reviews, stage-gate criteria, sunset triggers) is designed for your internal PMO or AI office to run. We don't create a dependency; we close the gap that existed before us.
What if our scoring data is uneven across initiatives?
It always is — initiatives in pilot have rich data, others have thin claims. We surface the data quality explicitly in the scorecard. Decisions on data-light initiatives are flagged for accelerated re-review. Transparency beats false precision.
How does this connect with the Use Cases Prioritization Matrix (Skill 02)?
Different temporal lens. Skill 02 selects new initiatives from a candidate list. This Skill edits an existing portfolio. Common pairing: Portfolio Optimization first to clear the deck, then Use Cases Matrix to populate the reallocation envelope. Sequential, not redundant.
Can the optimization survive a CEO change mid-execution?
If the new CEO inherits a documented optimization with sponsor sign-off and governance install, yes — typically. If the engagement is championed by one executive without broader Comex buy-in, no. We design for Comex sign-off precisely because it survives leadership transitions.
§ Ready when you are
Concentrate capital on what compounds.
€4,900, fifteen days, partner-led. The portfolio edit that ends the zombie projects and doubles down on what works.
BUY NOW — €4,900
SCHEDULE A CALL FIRST →