Mastering the Art of Making the Business Case for Change

Jon Lokhorst, CPA, CSP, PCC Leadership Coach, Your Best Leadership LLC
Enhancing Your Ability to Lead

As a leader, you’re expected to solve problems, seize opportunities, and deliver results. But even the best ideas rarely sell themselves. Many worthy ideas fall by the wayside because those who propose them don’t show how the ideas will move important organizational priorities forward. Worse, research from McKinsey shows that 70% of change initiatives fall short of their goals or fail altogether.

Whether it’s a new software platform, process redesign, team restructuring, or other business imperative, many proposals falter not because they’re bad ideas but because they lack a compelling business case for change.

As an example, let’s imagine that you’ve identified a critical problem in workflow management within your accounting department or client accounting services team. To solve it, you envision implementing a cloud-based application that’ll streamline tasks, automate manual processes, and provide real-time accountability for task management. You’re convinced that properly implementing this solution will help your team reduce errors, improve staff culture, and increase client or customer satisfaction. However, your boss isn’t easily sold on the solution, especially given the significant investments in time and money involved in implementing it.

Does this roadblock sound familiar? Well, the good news is that there’s a way you can increase the likelihood of getting your proposal heard and approved—making a solid business case for your initiative.

Through my work experience as a certified public accountant, chief financial officer (CFO), and leadership coach, I’ve identified nine steps that’ll strengthen any business case you bring forward.

1. DEFINE THE PROBLEM

Remember, most change initiatives are designed to solve problems. Create a clear and succinct description of the problem to attract attention. In the example above, the problem might sound like this: “Our current workflow process relies heavily on spreadsheets and email, resulting in missed deadlines, lack of clarity for responsibility, and poor visibility into work progress.”

2. EXPLAIN THE IMPLICATIONS

Help your superiors envision the repercussions of not making a change. Outline the consequences of the problem in both the immediate and long term, describing the current approach to the issue as a Band-Aid. As I often tell coaching clients, “Pull off the Band-Aid and let them feel the pain.” In the example above, the pain might include delayed transaction processing and reporting, lost productivity, wasted time, and overburdened staff who are inefficiently following up on tasks instead of focusing on client or customer service.

3. OFFER POTENTIAL SOLUTIONS

Show that you’ve done your due diligence by identifying multiple solutions to the problem. Provide a summary of the alternatives you explored and consider creating a chart that compares the critical elements of each alternative presented. Using the previous example, you might compare three cloud-based platforms with varying features and costs, showing how each stacks up on integration, ease of use, and reporting capabilities. Remember, don’t forget to include the “do nothing” option to show the consequences of sticking with the status quo.

4. PRESENT A RECOMMENDATION

Offer your proposed solution and a high-level description of how it’ll be implemented. As part of this process, explain the most significant advantages of your proposal over other options. For example: “Platform A offers the best combination of ease of use, accounting integration, and real-time visibility. Implementation can be completed in six weeks with minimal disruption as we transition from current processes.” Additionally, be prepared to answer the question, “How much will this cost?” and outline the financial investment.

5. IDENTIFY RESOURCES

Another question that’s sure to arise is, “How are we going to pay for this?” As this was one of my favorite questions from my CFO days, my suggestion for getting ahead of this is to identify potential funding sources for both upfront and ongoing costs and determine the budget lines that’ll pay for your proposal. If future cost savings will fund the initiative, show the payback calculation. Using the workflow management example above, you might show the estimated upfront investment is $X with ongoing support costs of $Y per year. For instance, you could suggest repurposing funds from discontinuing a software subscription that’ll no longer be needed or drawing from a technology innovation budget. Alternatively, highlight how the solution will create enough efficiency to cover its own cost within a specific time period through reduced staff time, overtime pay, etc.

6. PROVIDE A COST-BENEFIT ANALYSIS

Include nonfinancial costs and benefits with the financial ones. Regarding the workflow management example, benefits might include improved turnaround time, reduced time spent on task coordination, fewer processing errors, and increased accuracy in reporting. While some benefits are hard to quantify, such as improved staff morale, they contribute significantly to value.

7. ACKNOWLEDGE POTENTIAL RISKS

Rarely are change initiatives without risk. Leaders are naturally wary of proposals that include all benefits without acknowledging the potential for failure or setbacks. Therefore, it’s important to be transparent about those risks. With the workflow management example, you might acknowledge potential implementation glitches, staff resistance, or a sharper learning curve than expected. To mitigate those risks, you might propose piloting the project with one team or client, offering targeted training and support.

8. INCLUDE CRITERIA FOR MEASUREMENT

This step assures your superiors that you have a long-term view of success. To demonstrate this, describe how you’ll measure success and determine whether mid-course adjustments are necessary along the way. With the example above, success metrics might include a certain percentage reduction in overdue tasks, a determinable improvement in turnaround time, and decreased time involved in manual status checks.

9. REQUEST A DECISION

A clear ask speeds up the decision-making process, and a lack of clarity slows it down. Therefore, prepare your request in the form of a question that compels a prompt response or at least advances the discussion. Say something like, “I’m requesting approval to launch a 90-day pilot of Platform A, beginning Oct. 1, with a full rollout by next spring. How can we move forward with a proposal process to make that happen?”

As I’ve often seen with my leadership coaching clients, taking the time to make your business case can go a long way in getting your proposals approved from the top. In fact, several months after taking a cohort of health care leaders through the process of making a strong business case, the organization’s CFO shared that my business case process worked. He said, “When we asked this group to submit their revised budget proposals, we could tell which leaders went through the training. They took to heart the importance of making the business case and did their homework to submit better requests. Those who followed the process and did a thorough review got approval within 10 minutes of the call.”

All in all, if you want to advance in your career, don’t just find ways to solve problems—master the art of making the business case to get your solutions approved.

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