Julia Moser·
Wrote me a board-ready CDP business case with a one-page exec summary and the cost-of-inaction number
Build comprehensive business cases with problem-solution-evidence structure, financial justification, risk-adjusted returns, and implementation planning.
Investment Business Case & Justification Builder
You are a strategy consultant who builds board-ready business cases. Create a compelling, evidence-based investment business case.\n\nINITIATIVE NAME: {{initiative_name}}\nINVESTMENT REQUESTED: {{investment_amount}}\nDECISION AUTHORITY: {{approver — e.g., 'Board of Directors', 'CFO', 'Steering Committee'}}\nSTRATEGIC CONTEXT: {{why_now — e.g., 'Competitive threat', 'Growth opportunity', 'Regulatory requirement', 'Operational efficiency'}}\n\nPROBLEM/OPPORTUNITY STATEMENT:\n{{problem_or_opportunity_description}}\n\nPROPOSED SOLUTION:\n{{proposed_solution}}\n\nSUPPORTING DATA (paste any market data, financials, benchmarks, case studies):\n{{supporting_data}}\n\nOUTPUT — Board-Ready Business Case:\n\n## 1. EXECUTIVE SUMMARY (1 page when printed)\n\n**THE ASK**: We are requesting {{investment_amount}} to {{initiative_name}} over {{timeframe}}.\n\n**THE PROBLEM** (2 sentences + 1 compelling statistic):\n\n**THE SOLUTION** (2 sentences):\n\n**THE RETURN**: Expected ROI of [X]% with payback in [Y] months.\n\n**THE RISK**: Primary risk is [Z]; mitigation is [strategy].\n\n**RECOMMENDATION**: Approve with conditions [or] Approve as proposed.\n\n## 2. STRATEGIC CONTEXT\n- Why this, why now? Connect to corporate strategy and market dynamics\n- What happens if we do nothing? (Status quo trajectory with quantified cost of inaction)\n- Competitive landscape: Who's doing this and what are the results?\n- Urgency drivers: Time-sensitive factors\n\n## 3. PROBLEM DEEP-DIVE (Pain Amplification)\n- Current state quantification (cost, time, risk, opportunity loss)\n- Root cause analysis (use Ishikawa/fishbone structure)\n- Stakeholder impact map (who suffers, how much, for how long?)\n- Evidence: Internal data, external benchmarks, customer quotes, employee feedback\n- Cost of inaction: Annualized financial impact of not solving this\n\n## 4. SOLUTION DESIGN\n- Solution description (what, how, for whom)\n- Key features/capabilities delivered\n- Why this solution vs. alternatives (3 alternatives considered and rejected with rationale)\n- Proof points: Pilots, case studies, vendor references, analogous successes\n- Technology/architecture overview (if applicable)\n- Implementation approach: [Phased / Big bang / Pilot then scale]\n\n## 5. FINANCIAL JUSTIFICATION\n\n### Investment Breakdown:\n| Category | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Total | % of Total |\n|----------|--------|--------|--------|-------|-----------|\n- CapEx (hardware, software licenses, setup)\n- OpEx (personnel, training, maintenance, subscriptions)\n- Implementation (consulting, integration, project management)\n- Change management (communication, training, adoption support)\n\n### Benefits Realization:\n| Benefit Category | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Ongoing | Confidence |\n|------------------|--------|--------|--------|---------|------------|\n- Revenue increase / Acceleration\n- Cost reduction / Avoidance\n- Productivity gains (monetized)\n- Risk reduction (monetized)\n- Strategic/qualitative benefits (described, not monetized if not credible)\n\n### Key Financial Metrics:\n- NPV: $[X] over [Y] years at [Z]% discount rate\n- IRR: [X]%\n- Simple payback: [X] months\n- Discounted payback: [X] months\n- Benefit-Cost Ratio: [X]:1\n- Sensitivity: Result holds unless [key assumption] worsens by [X]%\n\n## 6. RISK ANALYSIS\n\n| Risk | Probability | Impact | Mitigation | Residual Risk | Owner |\n|------|-------------|--------|------------|---------------|-------|\n(Top 8-10 risks across categories)\n\n## 7. IMPLEMENTATION ROADMAP\n\n| Phase | Timeline | Key Deliverables | Investment | Dependencies | Success Criteria |\n|-------|----------|-----------------|------------|--------------|------------------|\n\n**Phase 1: Foundation** (Months 1-X)\n**Phase 2: Build/Deploy** (Months X-Y)\n**Phase 3: Optimize/Scale** (Months Y-Z)\n\n## 8. GOVERNANCE & ACCOUNTABILITY\n- Executive sponsor: [Role/Name]\n- Project lead: [Role]\n- Steering committee composition and meeting cadence\n- Reporting framework (dashboard, monthly reports, stage-gate reviews)\n- Stage-gate criteria: What must be true to proceed to next phase?\n- Abort criteria: Under what conditions do we stop?\n\n## 9. APPENDICES OUTLINE\n- Detailed financial model summary\n- Vendor comparison (if applicable)\n- Technical architecture diagram description\n- Change impact assessment\n- Detailed risk register
Ergebnisse
# Business Case — Customer Data Platform (CDP) Investment
**Initiative:** implement a CDP. **Ask:** €600k over 18 months. **Authority:** Steering Committee. **Why now:** fragmented customer data is throttling marketing ROI.
## 1. Executive Summary
**The Ask:** €600k to deploy a CDP unifying our 7 customer data silos.
**The Problem:** marketing wastes ~€40k/mo on duplicate and mistargeted spend; no single customer view.
**The Solution:** one CDP feeding segmentation, personalization, and reporting.
**The Return:** NPV €1.1M / 3yr, payback 14 months.
**The Risk:** adoption — mitigated by phased rollout and a marketing-ops owner.
**Recommendation:** Approve as proposed.
## 2. Cost of Inaction
Status quo: ~€480k/yr wasted spend, plus an unquantified opportunity cost in churn we can't predict.
## 3. Solution & Alternatives
Chose buy-over-build. Rejected: (a) DIY data warehouse — 2yr build, no marketer UI; (b) point-solution personalization — doesn't fix the data silo; (c) status quo — bleeds money.
## 4. Financials
| | Yr 1 | Yr 2 | Yr 3 |
|--|------|------|------|
| Cost (license + integ + change) | 350k | 130k | 120k |
| Benefit (waste reduction + uplift) | 300k | 620k | 700k |
NPV €1.1M @ 10%; IRR ~71%; BCR 2.0:1.
## 5. Risks (top 3)
| Risk | Prob | Mitigation |
|------|------|------------|
| Low marketer adoption | Med | Dedicated ops owner, training |
| Integration overrun | Med | Fixed-bid SOW, phased |
| Data-quality garbage-in | High | Cleanse sprint in Phase 1 |
## 6. Roadmap
Phase 1 (mo 1–4): integrate top 3 sources + cleanse. Phase 2 (5–12): segmentation + activation. Phase 3 (13–18): predictive churn. Stage-gate: 80% data-match rate before Phase 2.
Modell: Claude Sonnet 4
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5 Kommentare
Anna Hofmann·
Sent this to my whole team and we standardized on it the same day.
Maya Patel·
Okay the 'parking lot' for stray thoughts is genius, why didn't I do this.
Noah Steiner·
The meeting-cost note made me cancel two recurring calls. Worth it.
Felix Bauer·
Used it to plan a quarter and the OKRs finally feel measurable.
Sofia Almeida·
Energy-band routing finally made my afternoons usable.