The portfolio question beyond each business plan
An enterprise can approve individually persuasive business plans without creating a coherent portfolio.
Read the essayThe leadership review
Claire Mercier
Chief Strategy OfficerCanada · Global perspectiveVolume 03
Notes from practice
- NOTE I
Portfolio strategy
A portfolio review had become a debate about individual business plans.
- NOTE II
Strategic options
A growth opportunity depended on assumptions the organisation had not tested.
A leadership conviction
Strategy should make a consequential choice clearer. I examine assumptions, alternatives and capability demands, then help the organisation connect its chosen direction with capital, ownership and a disciplined plan to learn.
- Portfolio reshaped
- ₹6,200 Cr
- Exits, entries and partnerships
- New growth businesses
- 4
- Incubated to independent scale
- Strategic partnerships
- 15
- Across three continents
- Strategy horizon
- 2030
- Approved by the board, funded and tracked
Beyond the page
The record behind the perspective.
In the boardroom
- Meridian ConsolidatedIndependent Director · 2022 — Present
- The Futures Policy InstituteFellow and Advisory Board Member · 2019 — Present
Recognition
- Strategy Leader of the YearCapital & Governance Quarterly · 2024
- Deal of the Year — PartnershipThe Corporate Development Awards · 2022
In conversation
- “Making the portfolio choices most boards postpone”Capital & Governance Quarterly · 2025
- “Scenarios the board can actually use”The Boardroom Review · 2024
- “Episode 115 — Strategy is a choice, not a deck”The Leadership Ledger podcast · 2023
Turned our strategy from an annual document into a set of decisions we actually made.
Continue the conversation
Ideas are tested in conversation.
For board, advisory and speaking invitations, and for readers who want to take an argument further.
- Board appointments
- Advisory roles
- Speaking invitations
office@clairemercier.example