Next-gen businesses cases go beyond a funding approval tool to drive transformation success

Co-Author: Georgianna Ma

Transform business cases into dynamic narratives for continuous value, stakeholder support, and strategic prioritization.

In brief

• Next-generation business cases go beyond initial funding, serving as dynamic, adaptive tools for ongoing validation and communication of value throughout a business transformation.
• They transform from static documents to engaging narratives, helping organizations articulate the purpose, benefits, and cultural impact of transformations, fostering support and belief among stakeholders.
• Evolving from a mere funding tool, these cases shift focus to prioritization, guiding actions and changes at every transformation stage, thereby maximizing their utility and impact.

Businesses cases hold a world of potential for enterprises willing to reframe this valuable tool, and the way its used, to generate results. Far too often, organizations pour resources and thought into developing a business case — only to leave it gathering dust on a shelf once initial funding is secured. The thing is? A next-generation business case can unlock value at any stage of a successful business transformation. Use it to your advantage to support long-term, sustainable success.

We’ve long known that most business transformations fail. In fact, recent EY research carried out jointly with Oxford University, revealed 67 per cent of senior leaders have experienced at least one underperforming transformation in the last five years. They fail for many different reasons – including suboptimal business cases. How so?

For decades, people across organizations have treated traditional business cases solely as a tool to seek and secure funding for transformation programs and other business imperatives. They tend to be documented pro forma – and then relegated to the proverbial shelf. That’s a mistake. Consider what actually goes into a business case: assumptions about value, long-term expectations, levers that can be tested over time. The business case needs be a living, breathing document used well beyond the initial kick-off stage to help continuously validate and communicate value to stakeholders.

The definition and realization of value through transformation is adaptive; not static. It changes over time. That means businesses cases must be viewed not purely as an accounting tool that’s formed to get funding approval but rather: as a storytelling tool that helps people get behind the value of the initiative / transformation itself.

In many ways, the traditional business case is primed to become an active, next-generation tool that can inform future results. A business case is a story that your stakeholders can actively follow, collaborate and engage in. Deriving that additional value from the business case itself starts by changing your mindset about its purpose and potential. How?

• Think beyond costs. Articulating value has always been a complicated process. It’s especially doubly true for aspects of transformation or business operations that are less easy to quantify. How do you measure innovation? What is the value of a diverse set of suppliers? How can you measure long-term value, that takes shape through robust processes over weeks, months and years at a time? Next-generation business cases help by empowering us with a tool to think beyond costs alone and start building organizational muscle to articulate value – especially as businesses try new and innovative strategies they’ve never used before.

• Tell a story people can get behind. Many businesses are operating in a certain way simply because they always have. Making a compelling case for change (one people can believe in and support) requires organizations to tell a better story; one grounded in purpose, a clear why and a vision of how things will be better for the organization once transformation has occurred. How will proposed changes impact them? Where will they gain exposure to new opportunities? How will this transformation nurture culture and bring the organization’s values to life? Next-generation business cases help by reframing the transformation journey as an engaging story with open, honest insight into the benefits people will realize.

• Move from static to adaptive formats. Falsely precise business cases that vector heavily on unfounded, early-on assumptions don’t generate sustainable results. Testing assumptions through the flow of work and continuous tweaking does. How can people become part of that process? Where are the opportunities for cross-functional collaboration and innovation? How can we enable people to make more agile decisions based on what they learn at every stage of the transformation process? Next-generation business cases help by evolving into inherently dynamic and adaptable plans.

•  Shift focus from funding to prioritization. The days of using business cases as a standard means of securing funding are done. Now’s the time to take the fear out of the business case process, and help people see the value business cases can bring at every stage of transformation (not just upfront). How can a business case help you prioritize actions and changes? Where are the opportunities to use business cases as part of the decision-making process? Next-generation business cases help by abandoning outdated thinking that pegs business cases as “one-and-done” documents.