Connecting the Dots: Aligning Projects with Objectives in Unpredictable Times

For consultant Benko and Harvard business professor McFarlan, the problem with many corporations today is their alignment. Different projects within the same company often compete, overlap or contradict, squandering valuable resources in a time when companies can't afford to waste a nickel. Instead, say Benko and McFarlan, a firm's project portfolio should be like geese flying in formation--that is, in perfect alignment. The book's guiding metaphor is that of""frontier living,"" in which a group of pioneers comes together to focus on a specific goal. Today's information frontier demands the same kind of discipline, write the authors. The traits workers will need for this journey include being agile (in order to respond to the unforeseen) and having an""outside-in"" perspective (taking a hard look at your own business practices). More so than most other management tomes, the authors try to inject this book with a little thematic verve. The result is an unusually readable and skillfully packaged take on corporate retooling. But it's a tad too fond of trendy buzzwords (e.g.,""project chunking"") and struggles a bit to make the case that alignment, above all else, is what ails American business.