𝙏𝙝𝙚 𝙗𝙞𝙜𝙜𝙚𝙨𝙩 𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙡𝙚 𝙢𝙞𝙨𝙩𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙘𝙡𝙞𝙚𝙣𝙩𝙨 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙬𝙝𝙚𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚𝙮 𝙖𝙨𝙠 𝙛𝙤𝙧 𝙖 𝙂𝙧𝙚𝙚𝙣 𝘽𝙤𝙤𝙠 𝘽𝙪𝙨𝙞𝙣𝙚𝙨𝙨 𝘾𝙖𝙨𝙚…
𝗜𝘀 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗮 𝘄𝗲𝗮𝗸 𝗶𝗻𝗶𝘁𝗶𝗮𝗹 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗶𝗱𝗲𝗮. Clients often approach people like me at the ‘concept stage’ of the business case process with project pitches like, “We need to do something about problem X.”
Of course, being a very capable consultant and advisor – I can take this and work up a project concept and business case from that, but this is above and beyond the green book business case: this involves full project concept, feasibility and development work.
𝗧𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗺𝗲𝗱𝘆 𝘁𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘁 𝗶𝘀 𝘂𝘀𝗲𝗳𝘂𝗹 𝘁𝗼 𝗱𝗲𝗹𝗶𝘃𝗲𝗿 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘀𝗲 𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗹𝘆 𝘀𝘁𝗮𝗴𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗳 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁 𝗱𝗲𝘃𝗲𝗹𝗼𝗽𝗺𝗲𝗻𝘁:
1️⃣ **Identify Needs and Opportunities:** Identify the pressing economic challenges or untapped opportunities within your target community or region. Ask what existing stakeholder feedback, data analysis, and insights currently tell you?
2️⃣ **Brainstorming and Idea Refinement:** Generate broad concepts and gradually narrow them to specifically address identified issues.
3️⃣ **Visioning the outcome:** It often helps to envision what a best case outcome or benefit is, and work back from there. e.g. “We want to reverse the decline in our economy and reverse the contraction in the business population. One concern is that our business start-up rates are very low, we need to find out how and why, where the opportunities are, and see what kind of activities or interventions may address that…”
4️⃣ **Preliminary Feasibility Assessment:** Conduct a preliminary assessment to ensure alignment with broader economic objectives. This stage involves weighing potential benefits against anticipated challenges.
Once you’ve established solid foundations – you will have a more coherent and focused project concept, and likely a better full project design.
You can then further develop the green book business case by:
➡ Defining Project Scope and Objectives
➡ Stakeholder Engagement and Partnership Development
➡ Detailed Feasibility Study
➡ Developing a Logical Framework or Theory of Change
➡ Budgeting and Resource Planning
𝗧𝗵𝗶𝘀 𝗶𝘀 𝗮𝗹𝘀𝗼 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗿𝗲𝗹𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗻𝘁 𝘁𝗼 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗻𝘂𝗺𝗯𝗲𝗿 𝗼𝗻𝗲 𝗿𝗲𝗮𝘀𝗼𝗻 𝗜’𝘃𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘄𝗵𝘆 𝗽𝗿𝗼𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝘀 𝗮𝗿𝗲 𝗳𝗼𝘂𝗻𝗱 𝘁𝗼 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝘂𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗿𝗽𝗲𝗿𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗲𝗱 𝗮𝗳𝘁𝗲𝗿 𝗳𝗼𝗿𝗺𝗮𝗹𝗹𝘆 𝗲𝘃𝗮𝗹𝘂𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗺 – 𝘁𝗵𝗮𝘁 𝘁𝗵𝗲𝘆 𝗱𝗶𝗱𝗻’𝘁 𝗵𝗮𝘃𝗲 𝗮 𝗰𝗹𝗲𝗮𝗿 𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗶𝗼𝗻𝗮𝗹𝗲, 𝘀𝗲𝘁 𝗼𝗳 𝗼𝗯𝗷𝗲𝗰𝘁𝗶𝘃𝗲𝘀 𝗼𝗿 𝗶𝗻𝘁𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗲𝗱 𝗯𝗲𝗻𝗲𝗳𝗶𝘁𝘀 𝗶𝗻 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗳𝗶𝗿𝘀𝘁 𝗽𝗹𝗮𝗰𝗲.
𝙒𝙝𝙮 𝙚𝙭𝙘𝙡𝙖𝙞𝙢𝙞𝙣𝙜 “𝙒𝙚 𝘿𝙊𝙉’𝙏 𝙉𝙚𝙚𝙙 𝙇𝙤𝙘𝙖𝙡 𝙀𝙘𝙤𝙣𝙤𝙢𝙞𝙘 𝘿𝙚𝙫𝙚𝙡𝙤𝙥𝙢𝙚𝙣𝙩” 𝙥𝙧𝙤𝙗𝙖𝙗𝙡𝙮 𝙢𝙚𝙖𝙣𝙨 𝙩𝙝𝙖𝙩 𝙮𝙤𝙪 𝙙𝙤…!
How come? well, by saying that - the person probably is doing so from the point of defensive ignorance. How do they...