BRM Capability
A business relationship management capability is everything it takes, both visible and invisible, to nurture relationships in an organization. Examples of visible components are meetings, artifacts, and professional development, while examples of invisible components are knowledge learned, experience gained, trust, and confidence-building. Used effectively, these components build the endless reserve of energy necessary to evolve culture, build partnerships, drive value, and satisfy purpose.
The business relationship management capability facilitates culture advancement, driving it to one of trust, creativity, innovation, authenticity, and shared ownership across the organization. A mature business relationship management capability converges cross-functional teams to create holistic strategies that deliver organizational value and meaningful results.
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First Steps for Your BRM Journey
The Business Relationship Management journey from Level One Ad-hoc and Level Two, Order Taker isn’t easy, especially if you’re alone or in a small group and leading the change. Here are some small steps to get you started. We all know change isn’t easy, and even when a situation isn’t satisfying, we’re more comfortable with a […]
The Career Journey from a BA to a BRM
It has been my belief for a long time that the BRM role is one of the most difficult roles to fill in the IT family. It takes a combination of skills that span the curiosity of a good BA, the discipline of a PM, and the courage of a junior high teacher. When you […]
An Unlikely Road: BA to BRM and Why It Makes Sense
Somewhere along the way in my academic journey I read Robert Frost’s “The Road Not Taken,” and I can honestly say it struck me as being so profound. I wasn’t exactly sure why I found it to be enlightening as a young undergrad (maybe because I knew I had to speak to it in class), […]
A BRM Digital Transformation Strategy that Delivers Results Through Business Partnering
When building a digital strategy, common pitfalls are easily overcome by realizing that digital leadership comes from many places inside your organization. Get started with your BRM capability and a cross-organizational Digital Council.
More Than a Fringe Role: Positioning the BRM to Create Organizational and Personal Value
By Sheila Smith and Brian Bell Sheila Smith, President, Omega Point Consulting Brian Bell, Senior Manager, Business Engagement, Church & Dwight More Than a Fringe Role: Positioning the BRM to Create Organizational and Personal Value BRMConnect 2015 Thursday May 28 – 10:45 – 11:30 AM Much of it is actually in our hands! Yes, indeed, […]
Bridging the Chasm: Creating Close-knit IT and C-Suite Relationships
Joe Topinka, award-winning CIO, founder of the CIO Mentor, LLC, published author, and a member of BRM Institute Executive Council recently took the virtual podium to share his thoughts and golden nuggets of professional wisdom with dozens of attendees of the “Bridging the Chasm: Creating Close-knit IT and C-Suite Relationships” BRM Institute webinar. In the […]
Business Relationship Management Lessons from Nature
With spring in full bloom and the summer at our doorsteps, many of us are already exploring the countless treasures of nature. Some of us are heading to the beach, while others are enjoying the pristine beauty of the fields, forests, or mountain ridges. With yet another busy work week behind, many will find a […]
Business Relationship Manager
and Plan Build Run
In this article, we define business relationship management, business relationship manager (BRM), Plan Build Run (PBR), and show how various BRMs act as both pivotal agents of the shared service provider they represent as well as key involved strategic partners to the business units they support through PBR.
Strategic Planning and Business Relationship Management – Tips and Traps from the Field
In our upcoming BRM Institute Webinar Strategic Planning Tools for the BRM (January 31, 11a-12p EST) we will be mainly focused on Strategic Planning Tools and Techniques, so I wanted to lead into that webinar with a few “tips and traps from the field.” These are drawn from some 30 years of strategic planning experience, […]
Business Relationship Managers and a Sure Way to Catch Purple Squirrels
Business Relationship Managers and a Sure Way to Catch Purple Squirrels Several years back, I was working with a recruiter to find candidates to fill a newly formed BRM team. The recruiter said to me after several months of searching, “Where do you find these BRMs? They are like purple squirrels!” Recruiters have long used the […]
Why Efforts to Break Down Silos Fail and What Business Relationship Managers Can Do About It
Many companies today are burdened by silos—separate departments optimized for a specific function or set of functions, but pretty much impervious to anything going on around them that does not relate specifically to their functions. We see this across business units, where manufacturing, sales, marketing, distribution and R&D, for example, each operate in their own […]
Business Relationship Manager Meetings with Business Partners
Imagine you are an executive leader for a major corporation looking for strategies to move your business department forward. While enjoying your morning coffee, catching up on emails, you notice the weekly company updates email blast announcing a new BRM (Business Relationship Manager) will be starting next week partnering with your line of business. “What […]
Guest Post: Can a Business Relationship Manager Be Truly Strategic?
By Pete DeLisi The handbook of strategic expertise defines strategy as a means to achieve a goal. On the surface, therefore, it would appear that a Business Relationship Manager (BRM) can be strategic by aligning the business unit IT strategy with the goals of the business unit. In other words, IT would serve as a […]
Who’s On First? Playing Together With the Provider Organization – Part 2
This article is the second in a series about clarifying the interactions of the BRM with other roles in the provider organization. In the previous post I provided an example of the way in which one company reached role clarity across intersecting roles. Here, I explore areas where there is typically contention or confusion about […]
Great Read: The Art of Business Relationship Management
Two members of BRM Institute’s Advisory Committee — Glenn Remoreras (also Vice Chair) and Ibrahim Jackson – wrote a great article about Business Relationship Management. These two contributors had this to say: We are happy to share this article we co-contributed about the Art of Business Relationship Management. This was published on the Shared Services and Outsourcing […]
How Replaceability Gave Way to Maximizing Business Value
Since Industrialization began in Europe in 18th-19th centuries, the focus of many organizations, whether they were in the business of making cars or delivering customer services, has been increasingly on standardization and optimization of processes, increased efficiency with highly predictable consistent outcomes—more or less mimicking the humming rhythm of heavy industrial machinery. First, the focus […]
Four Reasons for a Business Case – And Why Three of Them Are Wrong!
Most Business-IT initiatives require some type of Business Case (cost-justification) to be prepared. This is an important Business Relationship Management (BRM) activity—typically undertaken as a joint activity between the BRM and their business partner, the common purposes for Business Cases include: Clarify the initiative Justify the cost Prioritize the initiative against other activities competing for […]
The Four Requirements of Partnership
Whenever I write or speak about the nature of the BRM role, I often draw parallels between what an effective BRM and a leader does using John C. Maxwell‘s succinct formula: “Leadership is influence. That’s it. Nothing more; nothing less.” Indeed, BRMs, whose job is to establish and maintain healthy balanced relationships between service providers […]