Hey Reader,
I can tell you first hand that I can make an investment look good on paper.
From writing and reviewing over 70 business cases in the last couple of years and winning close to $0.5b in investment for clients, the hardest part of a business case is embellishing those that can’t answer ‘why we are doing this’.
Without attention to process, often the solution becomes the primary focus. When the solution becomes the objective, we are asked to redesign assumptions, uncertainties, benefits and the actual needs to confirm their solution.
Even a half-baked board member can easily pick someone looking for a problem to support for their chosen solution.
Proof in Practice
We recently worked on a project where the internal team had strong alignment on the preferred option. The solution was to upgrade a wastewater treatment plant. There were master plans, growth figures and plenty of technical assessments. It was clear that it needed to be upgraded. No question!
Then we were brought in to facilitate a problem definition workshop because costs had reached a threshold where external scrutiny was likely. Others who aren’t familiar with the industry were going to ask - why this option over a staged approach? What assumptions sat behind the cost profile? What would change if demand softened?
Real value-for-money scrutiny that most Boards don’t ask.
The client involved a bunch of smart people. Everything they needed to justify a strong case was available. But large chunks of inherent knowledge were not explained, or left out of their narrative.
The case was backed by the regulator because we reworked the logic, explored delivery options and explained trade-offs and our assumptions. The result was a convincing, cost effective, timely and prudent investment outcome. For bonus points, the business tweaked their narrative and could confidently explain it in public and to tenderers bidding on the job.
Think like your grandparents
My grandparents were fiscal with their money and could sniff out BS. If the project is complicated, high value, or high risk, ask yourself these questions:
- Why this issue?
Is this the real problem, or have we found a problem to justify the preferred solution?
- Why this decision?
Who's behind this and why are they pushing this decision?
- Why this approach?
Why is this the right pathway compared with staging, deferral, a lower-cost option or doing something different?
- Why now?
What changes if we wait, stage the investment, or test the assumptions further?
- Who benefits, who bears the burden, and what trade-offs are we accepting?
If it were your money, are the costs, risks, service impacts and public value clear enough to defend and get behind?
- Can the decision be explained simply under scrutiny?
Could a board member, councillor or executive explain the logic clearly to Treasury, regulators, tenderers, the community, or your grandparents?
If you have a major investment decision to make that you know will be scrutinised by Councillors, Board or Regulators, we can help sense check whether it will hold up. A short Strategy Exchange session can surface the pressure points early, before they become rework.
Cheers, Simon.