Cathie Vick
The Port of Virginia

Capital Prioritization Taking the Politics out of Port Planning

This paper is designed to evaluate the best approach to assess and prioritize port capital investments using an organizational structure and objective criteria to gain alignment and pursue the highest return for the port. The approach is to use the Port of Virginia as a case study to evaluate port organizational structure and practices for capital prioritization and develop a tool and process that will help guide ports in making more objective and smarter investment decisions to reach their overall goals and enhance the return on their investments. Working through industry publications, industry data, presentations and interviews with industry experts, and publications regarding organizational behavior the paper will conclude with specific recommendations for key areas in which ports should focus to mitigate inner office politics and increase objective strategic decision making in funding capital needs across the port. The paper will provide specific recommendations for building objective scoring criteria for projects to help prioritize them and expedite projects being accomplished. This will help port management professionals throughout the industry evaluate their current system for prioritizing capital projects, make potential process improvements that increase objectivity and support, explore additional funding streams, and enhance and potentially accelerate their capital investments.