Stop Chasing Projects, Start Building Capital

Segment Intro

Greg Galle: What if I told you most organizations aren’t actually managing their innovation efforts—they’re gambling with them?

Daniel Buritica: And not small bets—we’re talking about gambling with your resources, your people’s energy, your reputation, and serious capital.

Greg Galle: Welcome to Next Moves with AI. I’m Greg Galle.

Daniel Buritica: And I’m Daniel Buritica. Today, we’re revealing why even the smartest organizations fall into this trap—and how you can avoid it by managing multiple innovation portfolios designed to build the right kind of capital.

Greg Galle: By the end of this episode, you’ll know how to use the Next Portfolio Manager—AI Assistant to bring structure, clarity, and discipline to your innovation efforts—by balancing across Optimize, Grow, Renew, and Maximize Portfolios.

The Innovation Chaos Problem Nobody Talks About

Daniel Buritica: Let’s be honest—how many times have you heard a leader say, “We’ve got tons of innovation projects happening right now!” Like that’s automatically a good thing?

Greg Galle: Yeah, but when we ask, “How are those initiatives aligned to your strategy? How are they building human, intellectual, political, reputational, social, or financial capital?”—the room gets quiet.

Daniel Buritica: Here’s the thing: Busyness isn’t progress. When teams are pulling in different directions, chasing shiny ideas, and overloading resources—that’s not innovation. That’s chaos disguised as progress.

Greg Galle: And it leads to what we call innovation fatigue. People get excited at first, but when projects stall or feel disconnected from real impact, morale drops, trust erodes, and suddenly innovation feels like an empty promise.

Daniel Buritica: If you don’t have a clear view—a real portfolio perspective—you’re not leading innovation. You’re hoping something sticks. And hope, as the saying goes, isn’t a strategy.

The $18 Billion Lesson — Future Combat Systems

Daniel Buritica: Okay. So, let’s bring this to life with one of the biggest innovation misfires in recent history—the U.S. Army’s Future Combat Systems.

Daniel Buritica: This was a bold vision. A fully integrated battlefield system—drones, autonomous vehicles, next-gen communications. But by 2009, after spending $18 billion, the program was scrapped.

Greg Galle: What went wrong?

Greg Galle: They didn’t manage it as a set of portfolios. Everything was treated as equally urgent, equally feasible.

Greg Galle: No segmentation.

Greg Galle: No phasing.

Greg Galle: Imagine loading your pipeline with nothing but high-risk moonshots—and pushing them all at once.

Daniel Buritica: No structured reviews.

Daniel Buritica: No clear alignment with evolving military needs.

Daniel Buritica: And no way to pivot when cracks appeared.

Greg Galle: So. Let’s take a moment to pause and reflect.

Greg Galle: Ask yourself:

Greg Galle: Where in your organization are you treating every idea as equally urgent?

Greg Galle: Where are you skipping segmentation or ignoring risk balance?

Daniel Buritica: The lesson here is simple—Ambition without discipline leads to disaster.

Daniel Buritica: Future Combat Systems didn’t fail because of a bad idea. It failed because nobody managed the portfolio of opportunities.

The Real Problem—You Don’t Know What You’re Managing

Daniel Buritica: Here’s where most leaders get tripped up. It’s not just that they don’t know how many initiatives they’re running—it’s that they’re not thinking in terms of multiple portfolios.

Greg Galle: Exactly. At Solve Next, we recommend organizations sort innovation opportunities into four distinct portfolios, each designed to achieve specific capital-building priorities:

Greg Galle: An Optimize Portfolio of performance-improving innovations—making what you already do better.

Greg Galle: A Grow Portfolio of market-expanding innovations—capturing new opportunities.

Greg Galle: A Renew Portfolio of disruptive innovations—your bold bets that reinvent the ways things are done.

Greg Galle: And a Maximize Portfolio of opportunities to liberate capital by exiting activities that no longer deliver sufficient impact.

Daniel Buritica: Just like you wouldn’t manage stocks, bonds, and cash the same way—you shouldn’t lump every innovation effort into one bucket. Each portfolio carries different risks, timelines, and returns across human, intellectual, political, reputational, social, and financial capital.

Daniel Buritica: So if you’re treating everything as “one portfolio,” you’re likely falling short or overshooting your capital-building goals.

What Makes the Next Portfolio Manager AI Different

Daniel Buritica: This is exactly why the Next Portfolio Manager AI Assistant exists. It’s not just tracking projects—it’s helping you sort opportunities into the right portfolios

Greg Galle: It helps you see if you are overloaded in Renew without enough Optimize to stabilize.

Greg Galle: You are neglecting Maximize opportunities—letting low-impact efforts drain capital.

Greg Galle: If your Grow Portfolio is aligned with where you want to expand market presence.

Daniel Buritica: It gives you that Portfolio-at-a-Glance perspective—so you’re balancing ambition, performance, and resource liberation intelligently.

NASA’s Portfolio Masterclass

Daniel Buritica: Let’s take a look at Next Portfolio Management done right. NASA doesn’t manage one giant innovation portfolio—they balance across several distinct portfolios, each designed to achieve specific outcomes and manage risk intelligently.

Daniel Buritica: Their Optimize Portfolio focuses on performance improvements—like extending the lifespan of satellites or upgrading systems on the International Space Station. These are low-risk, steady-return initiatives that ensured operational excellence and continuous value delivery.

Daniel Buritica: Their Grow Portfolio centers around programs like the Mars Rover missions—taking proven technologies and expanding their scientific reach. These initiatives aren’t moonshots—they’re scalable, with clear paths to impact, keeping public engagement high and political stakeholders supportive.

Daniel Buritica: Their Renew Portfolio is home to bold, transformative bets like the James Webb Space Telescope. High risk, high reward. But crucially, NASA never allows these disruptive projects to dominate their overall innovation landscape.

Daniel Buritica: And when necessary, they apply Maximize thinking—like when they retired the aging Space Shuttle program. That wasn’t just about shutting down a legacy system—it was a strategic move to liberate capital and redirect it toward next-gen initiatives.

Greg Galle: So. Here’s where the practical insight comes in for leaders:

Greg Galle: NASA didn’t just "balance" for the sake of it—they designed a resilient system where:

Greg Galle: Optimize kept the lights on and maintained trust.

Greg Galle: Grow provided momentum and visible wins.

Greg Galle: Renew pushed boundaries—but within a controlled portion of their total effort.

Greg Galle: And Maximize ensured they weren’t clinging to outdated programs out of sentiment or inertia.

Greg Galle: When delays hit the James Webb Telescope, NASA didn’t face a crisis—because their Grow and Optimize Portfolios were still delivering crucial forms of capital.

Greg Galle: That’s what portfolio resilience looks like.

Daniel Buritica: If you’re leading innovation, ask yourself:

Daniel Buritica: Do I have enough Optimize initiatives to stabilize performance?

Daniel Buritica: Are my Grow projects driving scalable, near-term impact?

Daniel Buritica: Am I over-weighted in high-risk Renew bets?

Daniel Buritica: Where am I missing Maximize opportunities—keeping initiatives alive that should be retired?

Daniel Buritica: This is exactly where the Next Portfolio Manager AI Assistant can guide you—by making sure your ambition is structured, balanced, and sustainable.

The Risk of Staying in the Dark

Daniel Buritica: Now, let’s look beyond aerospace. Cities and corporations are applying the same principles—whether they realize it or not.

Daniel Buritica: Take Melbourne’s Green Infrastructure Strategy.

Daniel Buritica: They didn’t just decide, “Let’s build more parks." They treated green spaces as part of a Grow Portfolio—expanding community well-being, reducing urban heat, improving air quality.

Daniel Buritica: But they didn’t stop there.

Daniel Buritica: They also identified Maximize opportunities—like repurposing outdated industrial zones or inefficient roadways into green corridors.

Daniel Buritica: This wasn’t just beautification—it was capital reallocation. They freed up underperforming urban assets and turned them into long-term value generators across social, political, and reputational capital.

Greg Galle: And they measured success beyond budget and timelines.

Greg Galle: They tracked:

Greg Galle: Reductions in public health costs due to better air quality.

Greg Galle: Increases in social cohesion and citizen satisfaction.

Greg Galle: And environmental resilience metrics like biodiversity and flood prevention.

Greg Galle: That’s what happens when you manage initiatives as capital-building portfolios, not standalone projects.

Daniel Buritica: Now, let’s cut to the corporate world and Siemens.

Daniel Buritica: They faced the challenge of digital transformation across multiple sectors. Instead of lumping everything under a vague "innovation program," they structured multiple portfolios:

Daniel Buritica: Their Optimize Portfolio focused on upgrading existing manufacturing lines with IoT sensors—improving efficiency and reducing operational costs.

Daniel Buritica: Their Grow Portfolio helped them expand into smart energy solutions, where market demand was accelerating and reputational capital was growing.

Daniel Buritica: Their Renew Portfolio invests in AI-driven healthcare diagnostics—a bold move into new territory with disruptive potential.

Daniel Buritica: And critically, they maintain a constant focus on Maximize—identifying legacy systems, outdated services, and internal processes that could be retired to fund future innovation.

Greg Galle: Here’s the actionable insight:

Greg Galle: Siemens leaders weren’t just asking, “What’s next?”

Greg Galle: They were continuously asking:“Where can we improve performance today?”

Greg Galle: “Where should we scale what’s already working?”“

Greg Galle: Where do we place calculated bets on reinvention?”

Greg Galle: “And what do we need to stop doing to fuel all of that?”

Daniel Buritica: This is what the Next Portfolio Manager helps leaders visualize—how to allocate resources across these portfolios, track capital impact, and stay agile as conditions change.

Greg Galle: Here’s the core takeaway—innovation isn’t a pipeline of ideas.

Greg Galle: It’s a system of distinct portfolios, each playing a role in building—growing, protecting, and liberating capital.

Greg Galle: If you’re treating all initiatives the same—applying the same decision criteria, the same pace, or the same expectations—you’re setting yourself up for imbalance and disappointment.

Daniel Buritica: Without segmentation, leaders unknowingly:

Daniel Buritica: Over-invest in high-risk Renew initiatives without the stabilizing force of Optimize.

Daniel Buritica: Miss out on Grow opportunities because they’re distracted by disruptive ideas.

Daniel Buritica: Let underperforming projects linger, draining resources that should be Maximized.

Greg Galle: Managing multiple portfolios allows you to:

Greg Galle: Balance short-term performance with long-term vision.

Greg Galle: Make smarter trade-offs when resources tighten.

Greg Galle: And communicate clearly with constituents about where capital is being created—and why some initiatives look different than others.

Daniel Buritica: And that’s exactly what separates organizations that sustain innovation from those that burn out after a few flashy projects.

Test Drive the AI Assistant

Daniel Buritica: Here’s how you start bringing order to your innovation chaos—by asking these five questions across your Optimize, Grow, Renew, and Maximize Portfolios.

Daniel Buritica: Think of this as your weekly leadership checklist—with or without AI—but trust me, it’s a lot easier with the right thinking partner.

Daniel Buritica: First: Have we properly sorted initiatives into the right portfolios—and are we balancing risk and resources?

Daniel Buritica: Too often, leaders treat everything like a single to-do list. Sorting initiatives is the first step toward clarity—and resilience.

Daniel Buritica: Second: Do projects in each portfolio align with their specific capital-building objectives?

Daniel Buritica: An Optimize opportunity should improve performance. A Grow initiative should expand market or impact. If they’re not doing that—you’ve got misalignment.

Daniel Buritica: Third: Where are we unintentionally draining capital—especially in neglected Maximize areas?

Daniel Buritica: What are you holding onto that no longer delivers value? Freeing up capital is just as strategic as launching something new.

Daniel Buritica: Fourth: Are we over-weighted in high-risk Renew efforts without enough stability from Optimize

Daniel Buritica: Bold bets are exciting—but without a foundation, they can sink you.

Daniel Buritica: Finally: Do we have a review rhythm tailored to each portfolio's nature—short cycles for Optimize, longer horizons for Renew?

Daniel Buritica: If you’re applying the same cadence to every opportunity, you’re either rushing or stagnating parts of your portfolio.

Greg Galle: This is where smart leadership shows up—not in chasing the next big idea, but in orchestrating balance.

Greg Galle: These five questions force you to think holistically—about risk, alignment, and capital impact.

Greg Galle: And this is exactly where the Next Portfolio Manager becomes invaluable. It doesn’t just remind you to ask these questions—it helps you answer them, consistently and objectively.

Daniel Buritica: So here’s your next move—don’t just listen and nod along. Go to the show notes and start your free test drive of the AI Assistant. See how quickly you can move from guessing to knowing—how structured clarity can transform your innovation outcomes.

Greg Galle: And we want to hear from you.

Greg Galle: What did these five questions surface in your organization?

Greg Galle: Where did you uncover hidden risks—or untapped opportunities?

Greg Galle: Connect with us on LinkedIn, share your insights, or drop us a message with your biggest innovation challenge—we just might feature it in a future episode.

Daniel Buritica: And, of course, don’t forget to subscribe to Next Moves with AI so you never miss an episode on how to lead smarter, more sustainable innovation.

Greg Galle: Thanks for joining us—see you next time on Next Moves with AI.