Steak or Sizzle: What sells in your organization?

5. How will this program or initiative enhance the organization's competitive position? How does it specifically help with differentiation among key customers?

6. What are the critical success and failure factors (i.e., where else has this been tried and what has been found to drive its success or failure). What is our probability of success?

7. What are all the economic impacts of this proposal (i.e., investment, return, profit, payback period, need for future investment)?

8. Does the organization have the talent, competencies, and technology to implement this solution today?

9. What are the short-term and long-term consequences of not implementing this proposal?


10. Is the project plan credible?

11. What are the 2-3 alternative approaches recommended if this exact program isn't followed?

12. What do thought leaders in the field say about this issue/opportunity and what has been the external feedback on this particular proposal?

The Business Case Checklist:

In addition to answering the basic questions summarized above, executives agree that there are 10 factors that should be addressed in preparing and presenting the business case. When each of these factors is covered, you can be confident of the rigor of the analysis.

1. EXPERTISE. Senior management wants to be sure that you have invested the time to become a clear and undisputed expert in the solution/problem that is under review. They also want to be sure that people have calibrated with the smartest thinking outside the your organization. Gary Hamil, a famous business strategist and futurist, tells us that about 80% of what we need to learn about our own organizational future in the 21st century marketplace will come from talking to those OUTSIDE of our current organization. This means that it is critical to learn about emerging trends and issues and state of the art answers, and to be able to cite the impact on similar programs/processes. So, be sure to identify the critical success factors (why something worked, not just that it worked), calibrate with, the thought/practice leaders in the field, and anticipate and answer the tough questions.

2. METRICS. Words without numbers are not persuasive to those with the checkbook.

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