Business Case Packaging: The Role of Visuals and Presentation Skills

Thank you to Karen Huffman for inviting me to guest webex today for her Library Technologies & Project Management class at Catholic University of America.  Karen had asked me to cover the subject of developing business cases, and I provided a highly condensed version of the material in my book on the topic (http://books.infotoday.com/books/BusinessCasesforInfoPros.shtml).  The exchange after the presentation touched on some aspects I'd like to share here, with credit to the class members.  Those aspects go into the series of what my colleagues and I refer to as 'things we didn't hear about when we went to school'.

 

Make it visual:

 

At senior levels, some decisions are made quite quickly - contributing factors could include prior familiarity with the circumstances at hand, previous evidence pointing toward an approach, and the combined voices of stakeholders having chimed in.  In the "boardroom moment", there is not enough time to wade through long texts or spreadsheets - instead, punchy visuals summarizing data and illustrating desirable future states can be powerful persuaders.  There is a reason data visualization is a hot business area - given the same number of seconds for a person to assimilate information, much more can be crammed into visual means than is possible to communicate through the written and spoken word.

 

To be sure, a business case document must be solidly backed up with evidence, indicators, references to published literature, quotes from authorities, and so on.  But crystallizing facts and statistics into images to help decision makers understand quickly the key messages could be the factor setting one case apart from others when the votes are cast.  Of course, visualization may be a challenge for information professionals because our cases may be abstract to put it mildly; teaming up with people talented in the art of creating visuals or looking for an appropriate continuing education course could be advantageous.

 

Make it memorable:

 

In my book, I emphasized the value of practicing a business case presentation so that it comes across with factual heft, research strength, and professional polish … what I didn't say but wholeheartedly endorse is that - as a class member pointed out - our few minutes in front of the executive committee must also be vivid and memorable.

 

For information professionals advancing and advocating initiatives, I believe "it's not about us, it's about the stakeholders".  We do not ask for funding … the stakeholders do.  We are not pushing for change … the opinion leaders / knowledge workers / sales & client service reps (etc) are.  Yet we are likely one day to be standing there in the boardroom, having 10 minutes to pitch our proposal and put all our research and previous work into one concise delivery.  Skills in getting and keeping the attention of a tough audience are paramount!  "Where do I learn such skills?" you may ask.  I told Karen's class that several of my colleagues have described the strong boost in confidence they gained from the Toastmasters process (www.toastmasters.org).  Several avenues can be explored … the key is to be goal oriented about the need to build skill in engaging an audience.

 

Many thanks to Karen's class for raising these points.