To me, someone who didn’t go to business school, the all-too-common admonition to “make the business case” for something was often a showstopper. What is a business case, what does it include, how do I make one, and what hard questions need be answered when making it? I had no idea where to start. And even my best bosses were no real help, handwaving vaguely about time and costs and benefits and whatnot.
It turns out that, aside from some large businesses that have a very specific format for an internal proposal, they were handwaving vaguely because they didn’t have anything more specific to say, and because some of their words carried meaning that wasn’t obvious.
It took me a long time to figure this out. I finally pinned someone down while I was early at Belkin and fairly interrogated them about the “business case” that seemed so daunting throughout my career, and learned that there’s not really much to it. You could bash together a business case for whatever without too much trouble, I bet.
Sure, there’s the matter of benefit—that’s a bit of business jargon that refers to the desirable result of doing a thing, said in a way that doesn’t depend on how it is achieved. For example, we would like to have a more inclusive workplace. There are lots of things we could do to get there. Improving the inclusion of underrepresented groups in our hiring pipeline is one tactic we might use to help achieve that benefit.
So this business about benefit, time, cost, etc. is correct, and really about expressing a problem, a benefit to counter the problem, and then offering possible methods and their costs that will help achieve the benefit.
I wrote a little memory jogger to help build these. It’s not much to look at; I’ll bet you can fill it out pretty easily as you think about a problem you are trying to solve. A simple proposal, not too expensive or time consuming, can be just this in an email. A fancy proposal will need more flesh, but the anatomy is the same:
We have (problem)
It costs us this (in treasure, pain, missed opportunities)A way forward is (solution)
It will cost us (how much) to get started (in treasure, people, space, equipment, etc.)
In the first (timeframe) it will yield (result), based on (the similar experience of others)
Ideal for us is if it ramps to producing (result)
Other opportunities it might create include (stretch)There’s also (alternative solution)
It’s better than the other (because)
It’s worse than the other (because)
It will cost us (how much) to get started (in treasure, people, space, equipment, etc.)
In the first (timeframe) it will yield (result), based on (the similar experience of others)
Ideal for us is if it ramps to producing (result)
Other opportunities it might create include (stretch)
Etc.
Any part of this you can’t answer can be answered with the help of folks in your organization, folks you know or learn about via working the network, or can be left asked but unanswered. You’ll need to talk to these people anyhow to gather support for your proposal, so you might as well include them early—involving people in creating the future that they will be part of is really the only good way to create buy-in.
Recently I’ve started to knock this sort of thing together into a little proposal format. It doesn’t match the above exactly, but you’ll recognize the themes.
A specific and action-oriented name for the initiative
Background
Explain the situation that gives rise to the problem and any useful facts about the situation that will be good to know as people read through the proposal.
Problem
Express the specific problem you’d like to go after, more plainly and directly than suggested in Background.
Our Aim
State the desired benefit. For example,
Elevate the average employee’s awareness of inclusive work culture and behavior, and equip them to participate in small local interventions when necessary.Proposed Intervention
Explain the concrete steps you plan to take to achieve the benefit.
Cost and timeframe
Talk about what it would cost, and how long it would take, to do those steps. Consider initial costs, recurring costs, whether we’re “done” at some point. Bonus points if the costs and time line up exactly with the activities in the proposed intervention.
That should be enough to get most ideas out of your head and into active discussion in your company, club, homeowners association, etc.