S05E08 Edith Penrose and the Growth of the Firm
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Release Date: 09/04/2025
S06E12 What the PMO Must Become Next
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
If today’s portfolio challenges are more political, technical, and uncertain than before, then the old reporting-focused PMO is no longer enough. This final episode explores the future portfolio office as a strategic sensemaking function.
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S06E11 Benefits Nobody Measures
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Organizations are often good at approving projects based on promised value and much worse at checking whether that value ever appeared. This episode asks what happens when portfolios manage delivery more seriously than outcomes.
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S06E10 Public Value Is Not ROI
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
In public organizations, value cannot be reduced to cost savings and efficiency alone. This episode examines how fairness, accessibility, continuity, trust, and legitimacy reshape portfolio decision-making.
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S06E09 Why Security Projects Keep Losing
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Cybersecurity, resilience, backup, recovery, and continuity are vital, but they often struggle against more visible and exciting initiatives. This episode explores why organizations respect resilience in theory but underfund it in practice.
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S06E08 The Technical Work Your Portfolio Ignores
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Architecture, integration, identity, observability, and data foundations rarely get applause, but they shape everything else. This episode looks at the invisible portfolio and why foundational work keeps losing out.
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S06E07 Are Project Portfolios Becoming Obsolete?
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Many organizations now talk about products, platforms, and value streams, while still governing through project logic. This episode explores whether the old portfolio model is starting to break.
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S06E06 How AI Breaks Traditional Portfolio Logic
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
AI initiatives do not fit neatly into old portfolio models. Are they experiments, capability-building efforts, innovation bets, or hype-driven distractions? This episode unpacks why AI creates such a difficult governance challenge.
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S06E05 The Real Problem with Prioritization
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Scoring models promise fairness and objectivity, but they can also create false confidence. This episode explores what prioritization helps with, what it hides, and why numbers do not remove the need for judgment.
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S06E04 Is Strategic Alignment Mostly Theater?
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Almost every project claims to be strategic. But when everything sounds aligned, does strategy still help us choose? This episode examines when strategic language becomes more performance than discipline.
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S06E03 Why Zombie Projects Never Die
Take the leap - Management by Gunnar
Some projects stop creating real value long before they stop consuming time, money, and attention. This episode looks at zombie projects, sunk cost, and the growing burden of portfolio debt.
info_outlineIn this lecture, we explore Edith Penrose’s groundbreaking work The Theory of the Growth of the Firm and her lasting impact on strategy. Penrose reframed the firm as a bundle of resources whose growth is shaped by managerial limits, learning, and the redeployment of capabilities. We look at how her insights anticipated the resource-based view of strategy and remain relevant for understanding both opportunities and constraints in corporate growth. Through examples from 3M to Amazon, the episode shows how Penrose’s ideas help us see growth not just as expansion, but as a dynamic process rooted in resources, capacity, and responsibility.