Every great business starts with a great business idea. Great business men and women see problems as opportunities! They thrive at making it their business to become the solution! Most successful businesses proceed by first creating a well-defined business plan, or at least a plan of action. Then why don’t they start every project by forecasting and documenting a clear business case scenario? Surprisingly, too many businesses forget to reassess their business needs regularly to meet the needs of shifts in their company or in the market. Human nature easily slips into a mode of approaching new problems with a business-as-usual approach, relying on managers to get the same results by doing the same things they have always been doing, while up against different conditions. Gradually team members are no longer on the same page even if all other variables are accounted for. Here is where a business case shines.
Knowing What You Don’t Know Sooner In The Process
All too often we as employees assume that our fearless leaders know what they are doing in any given circumstance. In reality, no one person in a company knows everything that needs to be known, sometimes about anything. Executives often must steer the ship through uncharted water well before they know what is ahead. In fact, every business faces unknowns and often has to make gut decisions.
This has given rise to nimble ideologies and methodologies, such as Agile Project Management, where a project team can start acting on what is known before other requirements are fully conceived. But the outlook rarely has to be so murky from the outset. I would argue that many organizations are shooting themselves in the foot if they proceed with a limited plan under the guise that they are using an Agile iterative approach to adapt later, when they could actually set the course more straight and true earlier on. There are time-tested tools, techniques, and formats in traditional project management that allow a project sponsor to assess business needs with sufficient clarity to then make quantifiable projections to uphold better success criteria in more instances than not. A business case serves as one of these guiding documents.
Turning To The Experts
Certainly, there are researchers, assistants, business analysts, optimization specialists, organizational behavior experts, and others whose job it is to stay ahead of the learning curve, but every employee should feel empowered to look ahead and put forward suggestions for improvements in their work and areas of expertise to meet tomorrow’s needs. In this case, you are the subject expert. These recommendations can easily turn into new projects that benefit the company at all levels, especially if everyone is doing his or her part, acting in tandem in their given sphere, as it relates to the companies greater Vision and Mission.
Working Within Your Company
Of course, it still hinges on your organizations culture and politics, aka Enterprise Environmental Factors (EEFs) as well. We are told that people make up a culture and it can’t be dictated, but we all know that employees function within a vacuum, which is largely determined by structure and limitations that are defined by upper management. The key is actively listening and engaging in healthy conversations between all levels where everyone knows their voice matters, but also knows to what degree it should or shouldn’t matter.
The larger the organization the more likely it is to be governed by a Strong Matrix system and the more unlikely it is for individuals at the bottom to have a strong say. The smaller an organization the more likely that employees will need to wear many hats and naturally work with all others in the company. Having worked directly with top decision-makers, however, for more than 15 years, and having been the voice of internal communications (or buffer at times) between executives and the workforce much of that time, I am of the opinion that the most effective executives are happy to make the work environment feel like a small close-knit community. As such, they are looking for more people with great ideas who are willing to share those ideas. Politics aside, companies need more proactive problem-solvers, not less. The so-called thinkers in an organization cannot think of everything. They need your voice! Just be sure to follow the formal process, which again, should come in the form of submitting a business case.
Being The Subject Expert
You, the individual, will come across challenges that can only first be spotted from a person in your position, but that sometimes will affect the whole landscape. Here’s the key! You need to qualify your input. The farther you go outside of your stewardship the better your legwork will have to be in order for anyone to consider it seriously. Your idea and ultimately your business case will need to be well thought out and well researched as it relates to your company and your market.
Crediting The Source
Please note one word of caution: Be sure you get credit for your idea by copying in other stakeholders on your proposal as it starts its journey on up the ranks. Some employees climbing the ladder are willing to steal ideas, step on others, and do whatever it takes to get to the top, even though it undermines the greater whole. If you are not looking for credit, then more power to you for putting the needs of your organization ahead of yourself, but realize that your company needs you to be your best self and to feel fulfilled you will want to be unhampered in your progress in your work life. To do this you need to be sure you are giving your best contribution to the company. Your company might have a reporting policy and procedure to take recommendations through supervisors and managers up to the top meetings, but you should remain one of the premiere subject experts on the matter. Being that you were the person who unveiled the problem, you may be best poised to attack it at its source. A business that encourages improvement in individuals and companies encourages business cases and smooth communication between all the players. If you do a good job presenting the business case to your superior yourself, you may be called on personally to take your proposed recommendations farther along the chain of command. Seize the moment! Businesses need “achievers” more than “doers” and it will be a great coup on your resume if you initiate company strides forward. Wherever, or however, a good business case originates its purpose is to lead to a project charter of a good project solution that meets your business’s needs.
Doing It Wrong From The Get Go!
I have worked on projects where the business need was never spelled out. As you can probably guess this was inevitably a disaster in one form or another. As a result of having no business case, the project’s success criteria was also never well-defined. Project Managers usually come into the equation after an executive committee has determined the business need. A freelancer can glean some information from a project contract. And some organizations have well-written benefits management plans that help to align any project specifications with the overall company goals and benefits sought from any business activities. But, ideally a Project Charter will be enacted that defines and authorizes who is responsible to manage the project. Usually the more energy exerted in the preliminary planning stages amounts to more easily meeting the desired achievements.
I have helped executives coordinate projects to reach desired outcomes only to find later that we didn’t reach the CEOs bottom-line. In other words, the project was a success at meeting its goals, but a failure at meeting the organizational goals. That’s a disaster! In the case of no business case, there really can be no concrete projections as to when the actual needs can be met to clear satisfaction, because it is a moving target for the project team. A business case helps to set expectations in stone.
Doing It Right!
If after doing a gap analysis you find your business or even your individual practices fall short of what you want to do and be, then you are on the verge of correctly assessing a need and forming a business case to put forward a solution. You may have the individuals and colleagues in your organization who are qualified to make the project plans that will meet those business and personal needs. Now all you need to do is clearly document it and communicate it in a business case. If you are interested, Storyboard PM will be releasing a packet of templates to help with project management, including a business case template. If you subscribe on our homepage to receive more news and information about Storyboard PM, for a limited time you can also receive the “business case” template for free.
If you can think of other great reasons for making formal business cases, I would love to hear them in the comments below.