Building a Business Case: It’s Just Like Making Pizza!
Diana Tuma, PhD, MS, GC
Suppose you’ve ever written a business case. In doing so, I assume that researching the subject was a natural step. At this point, you came to a swift conclusion that there are as many variations on what constitutes an effective presentation as pizza toppings. Anticipating the following steps, one can make an educated guess that the realization of these options either hindered your progress, posed the question of the best approach, or inspired your project. The truth is, just like we all have a favorite pizza flavor, there is no hard and fast rule on what makes a perfect business case. A simple online search generates hundreds of thousands of examples, but which is correct?
I recall having to present a first business case more than 15 years ago. As a scientist, my first instinct was to include every detail because how can anyone decide otherwise? Many attempts later, I realized that a practical business case is about telling a compelling story, offering a solution, connecting with the audience, and taking them on a journey, all in under 20 slides. The actual craft of a storyteller is to ensure your case stands out above thirty other presentations the leadership team, investors, or stakeholders sit through that day. Of course, the numbers must make sense, which, in many cases, they do, but it’s more than being able to articulate the ROI; you must take them on an emotional journey.
Just as a pizza has various components that need to come together harmoniously, a business case requires a well-thought-out combination of factors to ensure success. Think of your business case as the dough – it’s the foundation upon which everything else rests. Just like dough, your case needs to be kneaded, stretched, and prepared meticulously to ensure it rises to perfection. You probably still need convincing, but I welcome a challenge, so allow me to demonstrate using an example business case we recently crafted for a client. The client was preparing for an investor meeting to showcase a new app focused on financial education for school-aged children. Their initial proposal highlighted the app functionality, fantastic feature set, integration, safety and security considerations, and ways they plan to drive commercialization. What was missing in this approach was the “emotional why”? The investors have limited funds, say $100M, to invest in in 2023. Outside of making investors more money, which majority of the proposals they hear are likely to generate, why should they prioritize our clients? The task was to restructure the business case and weave in the human element, ensuring the audience had an emotional connection. Similar to making pizza, try to layer on your primary arguments and supporting data, finding a creative way to compliment various flavors.
We started with bold statements that we can prove using data, “The lack of financial literacy presents a significant challenge for young adults and requires innovative solutions to transform one’s relationship with finances at an early age. The unfortunate reality is that 61% of 203M Americans were living paycheck to paycheck in 2022, representing a six percent increase from a year prior. While literature supports that early education is vital, only 30% of children in public schools have access to financial literacy classes.” In those few sentences, we made the conversation personal and relevant to the broader population, ensuring that the audience feels the challenge but also understands the total addressable market and revenue potential. Consider this the sauce or your value proposition. The sauce is what gives your pizza its flavor, just as your value proposition gives your business case its appeal. It needs to be rich, convincing, and spread evenly to create a consistent experience.
Then come the toppings – the various elements that add depth and character to your pizza. These toppings are like you’re supporting data, evidence, and financial projections in a business case. They should be carefully chosen, well-distributed, and not overwhelm the overall presentation. Finally, the cheese – the final touch that binds everything together. In a business case, this is your executive summary or conclusion. It should be smooth, creamy, and leave a lasting impression, just like the last bite of a delicious pizza. After working with several customers to help craft their business cases, it became clear that having a baseline template may be beneficial. Building on years of experience and lessons learned, the team created a business case template that individuals can use as a starting point equipped with graphs and figures, straightforward recommendations, and examples. Of course, we would love to learn from you and can’t wait to hear samples, trials, and success stories.
In the next blog post, we will share an example business case crafted for a customer. Stay tuned and as always, let us know how else we can help you grow.