Improving Strategic Investment Decision Making with a Business Capability Model

Executive Summary

  • Seamus Birch Solutions is a management consulting firm that specializes in helping organizations improve their strategic investment decision making and business case approval processes. 

  • We propose to implement a business capability model (BCM) for your organization, which is a framework that defines and maps the core capabilities that deliver value to your customers and stakeholders. 

  • A BCM will enable you to align your strategy, processes, technology, and people with your business goals and priorities, and provide a common language and reference point for all business and IT stakeholders. 

  • A BCM will also help you identify and prioritize the most critical and differentiating capabilities that require investment, and avoid spending on redundant, overlapping, or low-value capabilities. 

  • We have successfully implemented a BCM for a large Canadian bank, which resulted in avoiding $50 million a year in investment spending mistakes, and improved the efficiency and effectiveness of their business case approval process. 

  • We have a proven methodology and a team of experienced consultants who can help you design, develop, and deploy a BCM for your organization, and provide ongoing support and guidance. 

The Challenge

In today's dynamic and competitive environment, organizations need to make strategic investment decisions that deliver value to their customers and stakeholders, and support their business growth and transformation. 

However, many organizations face challenges in making effective and efficient investment decisions, such as: 

  • Lack of clarity and alignment on the business strategy, goals, and priorities across the organization. 

  • Lack of a holistic and consistent view of the current and desired state of the business capabilities, processes, and technology. 

  • Lack of a common language and reference point for business and IT stakeholders to communicate and collaborate. 

  • Lack of a systematic and transparent process for evaluating and approving business cases and investment proposals. 

  • Lack of a mechanism to measure and monitor the performance and value of the invested capabilities.

These challenges lead to suboptimal investment decisions, such as: 

  • Investing in capabilities that are not aligned with the business strategy or customer needs. 

  • Investing in capabilities that are redundant, overlapping, or low-value. 

  • Investing in capabilities that are not supported by the existing or planned technology infrastructure. 

  • Investing in capabilities that are not integrated or interoperable with other capabilities. 

  • Investing in capabilities that are not scalable or adaptable to changing business needs. 

  • These suboptimal investment decisions result in wasted resources, missed opportunities, reduced customer satisfaction, and lower business performance. 

The Benefits

By implementing a BCM for your organization, you will achieve the following benefits: 

  • Improved business performance and customer satisfaction, by delivering the capabilities that create value and competitive advantage. 

  • Improved efficiency and effectiveness of the investment decision making and business case approval processes, by reducing complexity and ambiguity, and increasing transparency and accountability. 

  • Improved alignment and collaboration between business and IT stakeholders, by establishing a common language and reference point, and fostering a shared understanding and ownership of the capabilities. 

  • Improved agility and innovation, by enabling faster and more flexible responses to changing business needs and opportunities. 

  • Improved risk management and compliance, by ensuring that the capabilities are aligned with the regulatory and governance requirements. 

Case Study: Large Canadian Bank

We have successfully implemented a BCM for a large Canadian bank, which is one of the leading financial institutions in the world, with operations in more than 20 countries and serving more than 21 million customers. 

  • The bank faced challenges in making effective and efficient investment decisions, due to the lack of a consistent and comprehensive view of the business capabilities, processes, and technology across the organization. 

  • We helped the bank design, develop, and deploy a BCM, which defined and mapped the core capabilities that deliver value to the customers and stakeholders, and aligned them with the business strategy, goals, and priorities. 

  • We also helped the bank integrate the BCM with their application portfolio management system, which enabled them to link the capabilities with the technology solutions that support and enable them. 

  • As a result of implementing the BCM, the bank achieved the following outcomes: 

  • Avoided $50 million a year in investment spending mistakes, by identifying and eliminating redundant, overlapping, or low-value capabilities and applications. 

  • Improved the efficiency and effectiveness of the business case approval process, by reducing the time and effort required to evaluate and approve investment proposals, and increasing the quality and consistency of the decisions. 

  • Improved the alignment and collaboration between business and IT stakeholders, by providing a common language and reference point, and fostering a shared understanding and ownership of the capabilities and applications. 

  • Improved the agility and innovation, by enabling faster and more flexible responses to changing business needs and opportunities, and supporting the business transformation and growth initiatives.

The Solution

We propose to implement a business capability model (BCM) for your organization, which is a framework that defines and maps the core capabilities that deliver value to your customers and stakeholders. 

A capability is a combination of people, processes, and technology that enables an organization to perform a specific function or achieve a specific outcome. 

A BCM consists of a hierarchy of capabilities that are grouped into logical categories and levels, and are linked to the business strategy, goals, and priorities. 

A BCM provides a comprehensive and consistent view of the current and desired state of the business capabilities, and identifies the gaps and opportunities for improvement. 

A BCM also provides a common language and reference point for all business and IT stakeholders, and facilitates communication and collaboration across the organization. 

A BCM enables you to improve your strategic investment decision making and business case approval processes, by helping you to: 

  • Align your investment decisions with your business strategy and customer needs. 

  • Identify and prioritize the most critical and differentiating capabilities that require investment. 

  • Avoid spending on redundant, overlapping, or low-value capabilities. 

  • Select the best technology solutions that support and enable the capabilities. 

  • Integrate and interoperate the capabilities across the organization. 

  • Scale and adapt the capabilities to changing business needs. 

  • Measure and monitor the performance and value of the invested capabilities. 

How to Start

We are confident that we can help you implement a BCM for your organization, and achieve similar or better results than the ones we achieved recently for a large Canadian Bank. 

We have a proven methodology and a team of experienced consultants who can help you design, develop, and deploy a BCM for your organization, and provide ongoing support and guidance. 

We propose the following next steps to initiate the project: 

  • Schedule a meeting with you and your key stakeholders to discuss your business strategy, goals, and priorities, and understand your current investment decision making and business case approval processes. 

  • Conduct a high-level assessment of your current state of business capabilities, processes, and technology, and identify the gaps and opportunities for improvement. 

  • Present our findings and recommendations, and propose a detailed project plan, scope, timeline, and budget for implementing the BCM.