“New Coalition Forms to Drive Leadership in Strategic Initiative Management“

Agile Alliance, The Boston Consulting Group (BCG), and Project Management Institute (PMI), today announced the formation of a coalition dedicated to becoming the leading authority on strategic initiative management with the aim of helping enterprises reduce the failure rate of large-scale strategic initiatives and avoiding the resulting loss of competitive advantage and destruction of value. As founding members of the Brightline™ Initiative, these three organizations are developing a platform that will offer CXOs insights and solutions to bridge today’s recurring and expensive gaps between strategy development and strategy implementation. A report by the Economist Intelligence Unit of more than 500 senior executives worldwide found that 61% admit their organizations struggle to deliver the expected results of strategy planning, and only 56% of strategic initiatives were implemented successfully. The amount of money wasted as a result of poor implementation is a staggering 30 cents on every dollar of investment in organizations that are the worst performers, PMI research shows. According to BCG, only 24% of organizations deliver consistent total shareholder returns. Being able to adapt to regulatory changes, competitive pressures, and stakeholder needs requires the ability to develop and successfully implement strategy. The work of the Initiative will be shaped through a diverse coalition of highly influential thought leaders from the business, government, academic, and social sectors. Along with Agile Alliance, BCG, and PMI, new members of the Coalition from other sectors will join in to develop and champion best practices for strategic initiative management. Coalition members will also help shape the Initiative’s principles and global standards and framework for strategy implementation. Ricardo Vargas, Executive Director of BrightlineTM, describes the Initiative this way, “The Brightline Initiative, bringing together the thought leadership of the Coalition will integrate the best of the existing knowledge surrounding strategy implementation and link it to initiative management. It will deliver insights and solutions, empowering leaders to successfully transform their organization’s vision into reality through strategic initiative management.” The Initiative will take a holistic approach, providing thought and practice leadership that will include frameworks and cutting-edge research, networking through events and membership, and capability building through a resource library, education programs, and publications.