Business value has become an important focus area when we talk about transforming any organisation, through its most important asset in the business, its Workforce.

The term Business Value Lifecycle refers to a cycle of change or steps undertaken in order to transform the business and add value to the organisation at the same time.

Business transformation often includes initiatives such as:

1. Digitising the business through introduction of new technology such as cloud, mobility, robotics etc.
2. Changing the HR Operating Model and expanding Shared Services to drive more strategic HR business partnering
3. Outsourcing Services or deciding to keep them in-house.

No matter what the agreed initiative in your organisation is, the transformation in this context is always driven by the need to ultimately support the organisation’s overall business goal through changing or enhancing the people strategy.

Identifying the “Value” you want to achieve

The term “value” can have different meanings in different situations. It is not always just about achieving a hard dollar saving by shutting down redundant technology or saving a headcount.

To simplify and improve the employee’s experience at work or to enhance technology to be generally more focussed on employee’s needs, can be a strategic move to increase employee engagement and attract future talent. These are good examples of softer benefits and will drive strategic value in the long run.

Fundamentally, all organisations that want change must have an understanding of what drives change, create an environment to allow the change to happen over time, while still growing, innovating, and adapting to current realities at the same time.

Just considering to digitize, or just changing leadership in isolation of whole system thinking in your organisation, is likely to result in poor execution and consequent failure to achieve maximum value from the change in the first place.

As such, the introduction of moving through the Business Value Lifecycle on a continuous basis would ensure value is added to your organisation at the end of the day.

Identifying the Business Value Lifecycle phases

• Strategy Alignment: Make sure you understand your Business Strategic Direction. Why are you doing what you are doing? Clarify the purpose.

• Opportunity Assessment: Identify and prioritise the deep opportunities based on the gap between the strategic business intent and the current state of the organisation.

• Future Roadmap & Return on Investment: Design an end state proposal for a solution or change initiative, define business benefits and desired outcomes. Finalise a roadmap that contains steps to get there and calculate the Return on Investment (RoI).

• Solution Implementation: Implement the solution or change initiative to drive the Business Transformation and deliver the desired business outcomes.

• Value Realisation and Governance: Maximise the investment and accelerate value creation from the change initiative. Leverage proper Governance and prepare to enter a new Business Value Lifecycle

When we review any major change in any organisation, we often only see the visible signs of success or failure of the project. The revelation is that what actually allows for such a transformation to be successful, are mostly completely invisible and not often talked about.

Author credit: Michelle Clyde, Business Transformation Lead at Presence of IT

Michelle is the Business Transformation Lead at Presence of IT, a leading consultancy and provider of the world’s foremost Human Capital Management solutions. Michelle is a dynamic and visionary leader with extensive experience in leading business transformations, cloud technology solutions delivery and value realisation within the Human Resources space across large-scale projects and business programs of work.  She is passionate about the pursuit of business excellence, especially when it relates to people and how they drive business outcomes.

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