Product design changes, infrastructure uplifts, moves to the cloud, new product or services lines….
What’s the link between them all?
They should all have had business cases created for them, but many probably havn’t!
We’ve all (come on now – you know you have) been either tempted or have implemented some change within your business that has been driven by;
- An assumption.
- A knee jerk reaction.
- To be seen to be doing something.
- A combination of the above or something else!
Whatever the reason, the change has been implemented and not delivered any real or tangible benefit to the business over and above the one or two people who thought it might have been a good idea.
Role of a business case
Every change that you are bringing into your business needs to be supported by a business case. Irrespective of what that change might be.
Some changes may not have a direct financial benefit to the company e.g. a regulatory change, but if you don’t do it, you may end up with a fine or worse!
But most changes will either;
- Reduce costs.
- Increase revenues.
If the change is not going to do this, then it should not be going ahead – period.
When doing the business case, the most important element is ensuring that you have considered all of the impacts (financial and operational) to your business.
This should also include a consideration for the impact on your business teams including how their roles may change. If they are going to change radically, then where possible, they should be engaged during the change implementation to ensure continued buy in to what you are trying to achieve.
If you have never created a business case, or indeed want to check whether you are missing anything, I found this handy link that is useful.
So, whatever you are planning to implement in your business, make sure your business case stacks up. Your bottom line will suffer if you don’t – and things are tight enough without wasting time and resource on something that isn’t going to bring your business benefit.
Do you prepare a business case for any changes you are implementing? Have any useful tips you could share?
Photo: Kevin Dooley
