The Game Plan: Strategic BRMs Focusing on Optimizing Value
BRMs often spend most of their time looking at their business function’s game plans, otherwise known as those long-term strategies to achieving success. But what about their own game plans?
Some may argue that if BRMs make their business succeed, then they themselves have succeeded. While this is true, BRMs have the opportunity to maximize value in that win, for both the BRM and the business function—but only if they have their own game plan to optimize that success. In other words, a true win-win.
So what should a BRM game plan look like?
Like all complex and interesting things, the answer is it depends—on business relationship maturity, internal politics, and a myriad of other factors. How does a BRM make sense of this, then?
True to the field of business relationship management, BRMs should approach their game plan with value in the forefront of their mind, with a plan to measure and maximize anticipated value without depreciating value found elsewhere within the organization.
The four steps of maximizing value are as follows:
1) Finding potential value
BRMs first have to understand value to be able to find it. This doesn’t just mean reading up on a business function’s strategy, or knowing what their top aims are for the coming years. To really understand the business, BRMs must embed themselves in the business—meaning knowing how they work and learning about the complex and interesting factors that make up the unwritten rules of how they plan, operate, and improve.
Once BRMs really understand the business and the people operating within it, a working comprehension of the most effective ways value can be realized will soon follow. There is no point pushing for a strategic value chain to focus on when you know the people behind it don’t believe in it.
2) Measuring expected value
This involves looking at value from multiple angles, in order to see who gains what and where. Hint: it’s not all about the money. Reputational gains, risk reduction, trust-building, or simply laying the foundation for a longer-term future strategy may all be elements of value to be gained. BRMs should build up some KPIs for relevant stakeholders to agree on, and once these are established, they can move on to Step 3.
BRMs should approach their game plan with value in the forefront of their mind, with a plan to measure and maximize anticipated value without depreciating value found elsewhere within the organization.
3) Maximizing delivered value
Maximizing value entails looking for potential value leakage and minimizing it, and then looking for the big value gains that should utilize more resources. BRMs should ask themselves, “Can I now improve on the KPIs set forth in Step 2? Can I ensure that they are met with minimal risk?”
4) Checking for value disruption
Often forgotten about, this last step is critical. When BRMs look at the bigger picture, they can catch whether producing value for one business function within a large organization could potentially have a detrimental effect on another business function.
To mitigate this risk, BRMs should ensure that the correct levels of governance and control are in place, and that they are aware of any potential knock-on effects. Since a long-term project could be fine one month but have a big impact the next, BRMs must keep business functions up to date with high-level progress reports as things change.
Every organization is different, and it’s impossible to define a game plan that will work for everyone. However, when BRMs make the effort to get at the root of value and tailor their plan from there, therein lies an exciting opportunity to turn success into a win-win for both themselves and the business function.
Jeremy Byrne is a Business Relationship Manager (BRM) for Loughborough University and has worked at the University for over twelve years across multiple teams within the IT Services department. Jeremy helped to create the BRM role within his organisation and has ensured its success, as it has grown to encompass all areas of the University. He is an active member of Business Relationship Management Institute and serves as a vice chair of the BRM Council. Jeremy is certified in ITIL and BRM and has a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Information Systems, as well as a Master’s in Management and Leadership in Higher Education.