Hey everyone, thanks for sharing some time with me today. It was funny—while we were waiting for this session, one of the songs playing was Don't Stop Believin' by Journey. It made me think about how we’ve all been on a shared journey over the last few years. Nazar and I met a couple of years ago at the BAI event in New York, and I think all of us in this community are on a shared journey as we explore what's next. How do we move faster? How do we enable strategic agility in our organizations and those of our clients?
I want to start by thanking Evan, the BAI team, and all of the volunteers who put in a tremendous amount of work to make this happen for all of us—I really appreciate it.
Introduction & Structure
We’re going to jump right in. I want to make this interactive and, hopefully, have some really interesting discussions about the role that finance and funding models play in enabling strategic agility in your organization or those you support.
We’ll keep it simple and talk about a four-step path to enabling dynamic portfolio outcomes. Here’s a bit of structure for our 20-25 minutes together—maybe 40 with Q&A:
- First, we’ll explore whether funding models in your organizations are an enabler or an impediment to strategic agility.
- Next, we’ll discuss the four steps to enabling dynamic portfolio outcomes.
- Finally, we’ll focus on a call to action—how you can accelerate this process in your organization or the ones you support.
Poll: How Important Is Strategic Agility?
To kick things off, I’d love to get some feedback. If you could, please go to poll ev.com/forwardslash thebeach901. I believe Nazar has sent that to you in the chat. Let’s answer two questions.
The first question: How important is strategic agility today? That is, the ability to rapidly adapt your strategy in alignment with your organization or those you work with. Would you say:
- Not important – strategies don’t change very often.
- Somewhat important.
- Really important – we often fine-tune our strategy over time.
- Critical – we compete in fast-moving, complex markets and need to be highly agile and responsive.
Alright, not a surprise—very consistent with what we tend to see. We’ll give folks a few more seconds to respond.
Poll: Is Your Funding Model an Enabler or an Impediment?
Now, let’s move to the second question: Is your organization’s funding model seen as an enabler or an impediment to strategic agility?
I’m really interested in hearing from folks who say it’s an enabler because, in most groups I work with, funding models are seen as bureaucratic, ineffective, and a significant impediment to strategic adaptability. If you’re curious about this, take a look at last year’s BAI report—funding models were one of the key predictors of agility and adaptability across industries.
The Evolution of Finance & Funding Models
To understand the role of finance and funding models, context is key. Let’s rewind the clock to the early 20th century, when corporate finance as we know it today didn’t exist. The keys to winning then were:
- Scaling production.
- Building brand awareness in new markets.
- Establishing widespread distribution.
- Creating efficient, repeatable processes.
- Competing on function or price.
- Operating in local or regional markets.
This was the era of industrial economics, a massive period of wealth creation. Finance, at that time, focused on:
- Control and cash management.
- Planning and forecasting.
- Investment governance—ensuring the right investments were made.
- Enabling cost efficiency.
Projects were the exception, not the rule. The average product refresh cycle was five to nine years, so finance wasn’t built around rapid adaptation.
The Digital Era & Strategic Agility
Now, fast forward to the 21st century, where the market dynamics have fundamentally changed:
- Mass production has given way to mass customization.
- Customer centricity is key.
- Branding is digital and highly targeted.
- Customer experience is a differentiator.
- Innovation and time to market are critical.
- Competition is global and cross-industry.
This is the age of digital-era economics. The context has evolved, and so must our finance practices. While traditional finance roles like liquidity and cost efficiency remain, we also need to:
- Enable strategic agility.
- Invest in discovery.
- Look at portfolio outcomes holistically.
- Support continuous innovation.
Four Steps to Enabling Dynamic Portfolio Outcomes
Step 1: Invest in Long-Lived, Stable Teams
We know multitasking is a fallacy—it limits effectiveness, increases context switching, and just makes work harder. The solution? Fund stable, long-lived teams.
Step 2: Shift from Projects to Products
Stable teams alone aren’t enough. Project-driven teams still face context switching challenges. Aligning teams with specific products allows them to develop deep expertise and improves delivery.
Step 3: Move to Outcomes-Based Planning
Stable, product-aligned teams without a focus on strategic outcomes can lead to the “feature factory” problem. Using OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) helps teams align strategy and measure success.
Step 4: Enable Dynamic Reallocation
True strategic adaptability comes when teams can be dynamically reallocated across an organization based on top priorities. This requires:
- Taking a lean approach to defining “done.”
- Assessing better opportunities across the enterprise.
- Factoring in learning curves when reallocating teams.
- Maintaining high engagement and empowerment.
- Being deliberate about the frequency of reallocation.
Driving Action in Your Organization
This is a progressive process. You can’t enable dynamic reallocation before establishing stable teams, product alignment, and OKRs. Steps to take:
- Ensure you have a clear enterprise-wide view of opportunities.
- Eliminate empire-building culture.
- Be explicit about the assessment process.
- Experiment and iterate to find what works.
- Measure impact continuously.
As we think about enabling dynamic outcomes across an organization, the key is to be deliberate, thoughtful, and data-driven in our approach.