Developing a Business Case: Expert Solutions to Everyday Challenges
by Harvard Business School PressFormat: Paperback
Pub. Date: 2010-11-23
Publisher(s): Ingram Pub Services
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Summary
How do you decide on the best course of action for your company to take advantage of new opportunities? By building a business case.This book provides a framework for building a business case. You'll learn how to: Clearly define the opportunity you'll want to address in your business case Identify and analyze a range of alternatives Recommend one option and assess its risks Create a high-level implementation plan for your proposed alternative Communicate your case to key stakeholders
Table of Contents
| Mentor's Message: The Advantages of a Solid Business Case | p. xi |
| Developing a Business Case: The Basics | |
| What Is a Business Case? | p. 3 |
| A preview of key facts about business cases | |
| Business case versus business plan | p. 4 |
| When you should create a business case | p. 5 |
| A complex document | p. 6 |
| Seven steps to a business case | p. 6 |
| Define the Opportunity | p. 9 |
| Tips for articulating the opportunity you want to pursue | |
| Identifying a problem or opportunity | p. 10 |
| Developing an opportunity statement | p. 12 |
| Identifying your business objectives | p. 14 |
| Prioritizing your objectives | p. 14 |
| Assigning metrics to your objectives | p. 15 |
| Identify the Alternatives | p. 17 |
| Ideas for making sure you have many options to choose from | |
| Generating a list of options | p. 18 |
| Gathering input | p. 19 |
| Narrowing your choices | p. 23 |
| Gather Data and Estimate Time Frame | p. 25 |
| Suggestions for obtaining crucial information about your opportunity | |
| Identifying the information you need | p. 26 |
| Collecting the data | p. 27 |
| Setting a time frame | p. 29 |
| Documenting your estimates and assumptions | p. 30 |
| Analyze the Alternatives | p. 33 |
| Recommendations for comparing all your alternatives | |
| Evaluating alternatives against your metrics | p. 34 |
| Understanding common financial metrics | p. 35 |
| Creating a framework for comparing alternatives | p. 35 |
| Make a Choice and Assess the Risk | p. 45 |
| Advice for selecting a course of action and weighing its pros and cons | |
| Selecting the best solution | p. 46 |
| Weighing the risks | p. 49 |
| Deciding how to mitigate the risks | p. 50 |
| Determining whether to modify your recommended course of action | p. 51 |
| Craft a Plan for Implementing Your Idea | p. 57 |
| Tips for ensuring that your proposed alternative can be put into action | |
| Understanding the purpose of an implementation plan | p. 58 |
| Listing your milestones | p. 59 |
| Communicating with decision makers | p. 60 |
| Identifying resources you'll need | p. 61 |
| Clarifying responsibilities | p. 61 |
| Indicating expected payoff | p. 62 |
| Tracking your results | p. 63 |
| Communicate Your Case | p. 65 |
| Techniques for presenting your case to decision makers | |
| Understanding your audience | p. 66 |
| Using visuals to present your case | p. 67 |
| Tips and Tools | |
| Tools for Developing a Business Case | p. 73 |
| Worksheets for identifying alternatives, tracking implementation of your idea, ensuring that you've taken all the right steps for creating a business case, and documenting an actual business case | |
| Test Yourself | p. 87 |
| A helpful review of concepts presented in this guide. Take it before and after you've read the guide, to see how much you've learned | |
| Answers to test questions | p. 90 |
| To Learn More | p. 95 |
| Further titles of articles and books if you want to go more deeply into the topic | |
| Sources for Developing a Business Case | p. 101 |
| Notes | p. 103 |
| For you to use as ideas come to mind. | |
| Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved. |
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