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Cost of Misalignment Business Value Lens How It Works Where It Matters Most Who We Help Outcomes Our Story Connect

The goal of every leader in every organization ...

Get the greatest return from our investments

Two things stand between that goal and your organization:
seeing the full Business Value potential of each investment
and ensuring cross-functional alignment to that potential.

When those two things are missing ...
leaders often face three common problems that get in the way
of achieving the greatest return on their most significant investments.

"Every function contributed their piece of the business case. But I still don't feel like we are seeing the whole picture of what this investment could really do for us."
The business case is good and the numbers work. But this investment is important to our future and it is expensive. We need to know we are not leaving organizational value on the table before we ask the board to fund it.
"This investment keeps getting more expensive, taking longer than planned, and consuming far too much leadership time. And we can't seem to get a straight answer on why."
Investment reviews surface new delays, scope changes, and priority conflicts between teams. The pieces are all moving but they are not moving together. Something is off and it is costing us.
"Things are changing fast and redirecting our investments and operations takes months. We are missing important windows of opportunity."
We can make the strategic shift call quickly. But getting every function delivering in the new direction, whether the investment is still inflight or already in production, takes months and sometimes years. By then, the opportunity has often moved.

All three problems can be solved by scoping your investment through a Business Value Lens

investments

The significant commitments that matter most
to the organization's success

How do we get the most from our significant investments?

Investments like AI strategy, enterprise transformations, growth investments, M&A and strategic partnerships, product and portfolio strategy. Significant commitments, cross-functional in scope, high in complexity, and critical to the organization's success. These are the investments where getting the greatest return matters most.

Explore where it matters most

AI strategy

Enterprise AI, automation, data-driven operating models

Enterprise transformations

ERP, cloud migration, platform modernization, process redesign

Growth investments

New markets, products, customer segments, partnerships

M&A & strategic partnerships

Mergers, acquisitions, joint ventures, alliances

Product & portfolio strategy

Product lifecycle, portfolio optimization, new offerings

return

Business Value divided by the cost of attaining
that Business Value

Why aren't we seeing the results we expected from this investment?

We built the business case, approved it, and we're not seeing the results we expected. It's costing us more to get there than we planned. And it's hard to see why.

The business case was built from an incomplete picture of the Business Value possible. And the functions delivering it are not aligned to the same picture. One shrinks the value. The other inflates the cost. Getting the greatest return starts with addressing both.

Explore the Business Value Lens
Explore the cost of misalignment

What leaders have shared with us

Results are not matching expectations

We built the business case, approved it, and we are not seeing the results we expected.

Costs are exceeding the plan

It is costing us more to get there than we planned.

The root cause is not visible

It is hard to see why.

2x–4x
success rate improvement for initiatives that measure success against business objectives
2x–7x
improvement in success rates when cross-functional leaders engage together during planning
40–60%
of an investment's Business Value typically lives hidden between functions
Prosci · McKinsey · BCG · PMI · Gartner
greatest

Choosing which investment priorities to focus on
given our resources

Are we focusing on the right priorities?

The functions whose expertise is essential to identifying the full range of Business Value are often not in the room when priorities are set. Without the full picture of Business Value possible, people can only prioritize from what they know. Without a common language for what Business Value means across functions, prioritization can default to persuasion, politics, or seniority. And the Business Value that is harder to measure rarely survives prioritization and is often left on the table, even when it's identified.

Explore How It Works

What leaders have shared with us

The right people are not consistently at the table

Leaders delegate, priorities compete for their time, and the sponsoring function ends up having to decide for everyone.

Every function has a different perspective

Even with good representation, often the loudest, most persuasive voice or most senior leader drives the decision their way.

We prioritize what we can measure financially

And leave the rest of the value on the table.

We can't prioritize Business Value we can't see.

from

The path between investment and return
(aka execution)

Why is this investment costing so much more and taking so much longer than it should?

Strategy and goals are often not translated to a level of detail that cross-functional teams can execute from. The tools organizations use, OKRs, KPIs, value streams, milestones, are designed to manage work, not to define the Business Value the work should create. Without that translation, people fill the gap with their own interpretation of success.

When functions are not aligned to the same definition of success, effort gets duplicated, decisions conflict, timelines stretch, and value that was planned for quietly fails to materialize. The drag on the investment is real. The cost of misalignment and the Business Value that leaks during execution rarely show up as a single failure. They accumulate across hundreds of small misalignments.

Explore How It Works

What leaders have shared with us

Everyone is moving, but not in the same direction

The strategy and goals made sense when we set them, but by the time they reach the teams doing the work, people are interpreting success differently.

We can feel the drag but can't pinpoint it

Projects are taking longer than they should, budgets keep creeping, and teams are redoing work that should have been done right the first time.

It takes too long to realign when things change

When priorities shift or the market changes, everyone has to go back to their own understanding of what we were trying to achieve, and that's different for every function.

outcome

When our cross-functional leaders see the full Business Value potential of the investment and align to it, our teams execute with clarity, confidence, and speed ... and the return is greatest.

See the results See who we work with

The investment matters. So does everyone delivering it.

Questions about Business Value? A specific investment or initiative on your mind? We love good discussion and debate on all things Business Value. Please do connect.

Let's Talk Business Value

The greatest value lives between.