What About Product Portfolio Optimization?

This column discusses two business processes: product portfolio management and product portfolio optimization. Since “Product” is one of the “4Ps of Marketing,” the Marketing function is responsible for them. Marketing needs to manage a portfolio of products at various stages during their life cycle, to keep the mix fresh, innovative, and competitive. A Forecasting organization needs to support the processes, getting adept at forecasting product life cycle sales and correlated products. Since the planning horizons are much longer than those typically used for Sales and Operations Planning processes, operational forecasts will not surface in supporting these processes.