The index below includes terms that are frequently used in BRI's resource materials, the Growth Forge software, in the course of performing our services. They may often be used by, and in many cases, coined by other experts and academics working in the new business growth and innovation strategy domain. We started maintaining a collection of them here for the convenience of our clients.
The measurable growth outcome a portfolio is assembled to deliver. The outer-loop grounding for all portfolio-level decisions about mix, allocation, pace, and termination criteria. Without a defined Portfolio Objective, there is no basis for evaluating whether the portfolio is sized or composed appropriately.
A portfolio strategy is a growth strategy that improves the odds of success by investing in multiple opportunities with different risk and return profiles, and actively removing the unsuccessful or less attractive ones as early as possible in their investment cycle. Its central premise — Pipeline ≠ Portfolio — is that moving opportunities through stages (the pipeline, a process) is not the same as deciding which opportunities to run, in what mix, against what objective (the portfolio, an intentional distribution of risk with strategic intent). A portfolio concentrates investment behind the strongest bets and limits exposure on the rest; the resulting funnel, in which most projects never reach launch, is a designed feature, not a sign of failure.
Actors not competing in the target market today but well positioned by their capabilities, assets, or strategic interests to become direct competitors.
Categories of products or solutions that are similar in their intent to address a common target use case.
The discrete form or forms in which a company delivers its sellable offering to customers — the unit of what is actually bought or licensed.
The discrete categories that compose a portfolio mix, defined to match the diversity dimensions a growth objective requires. Configurable per portfolio. The canonical taxonomy for adjacency-based diversification is Core, Adjacent, and Disruptive Innovation; other configurations include classes defined by business model, geography, or technology domain.
