What You'll Find in the Book

"Messner's new book is one of the most extensive works on business cases available." -- Dr. Yinshan Tang, Senior Lecturer, Henley Business School (UK)

Contents

List of Figures List of Case Studies About the Author Preface List of Abbreviations Book Companion Website

"The book links topics from financial investment appraisal, decision making, and risk assessment that are not always considered in one source." -- Anthony Mitchell, Client & Programme Director, Ashridge Business School (UK)

1. Deciding on Corporate Investments
   1. Financial goals vs. corporate strategy
   2. Why investment decisions fail
   3. Definition of a business case
   4. Characterizing investments
   5. Infrastructure investment framework
   6. Trustworthy business cases
   7. Enterprise analysis
   8. Business case project
   9. Structure of a business case
   10. Consensus and stakeholder management
       
2. Key Financial Concepts
   1. Time value of money
   2. Net Present Value (NPV) concept
   3. Payback and discounted payback method
   4. Return on Investment (ROI)
   5. Internal Rate of Return (IRR)
   6. Profitability Index (PI) and Benefit-Cost Ratio (BCR)
      
3. Fundamentals I: Costs
   1. Cost stages
   2. Financial issues with costs
   3. Estimating costs
   4. Taxes
   5. Leasing
      
4. Fundamentals II: Benefits
   1. Benefit taxonomy
   2. Strategic benefit maps
   3. Value panel
   4. Benefit discovery chart
   5. Managing non-monetary benefits
   6. Customer value for the company
   7. Ensuring benefit criteria completeness
      
5. Making Investment Decisions with NPV
   1. Continuous cash flows
   2. Terminal value
   3. Time horizons
   4. Capital rationing and capital restrictions
   5. Inflation
   6. Worked example: Highway safety alternatives
   7. Worked example: UC replaces telephony system
      
6. Factoring Risk and Uncertainty
   1. Definition of risk
   2. Assumptions and complexity
   3. Risk assessment process
   4. Risk preferences of decision makers
   5. Measuring level of risk of futrue attributes
   6. Sensitivity analysis
   7. Scenario analysis
   8. Simulations
   9. Probability trees
   10. Decision trees
   11. Empirical validation
   12. Risk assessment by certainty equivalents
   13. Global investments, country risk, and international contracts
   14. Worked example continued: UC replaces telephony system
       
7. Factoring Strategic Flexibility
   1. Strategic real option analysis
   2. Black-Scholes formula
   3. Subjective real option valuation
   4. Real option management
      
8. Business Case Presentation
   1. Executive decision making
   2. Structure of the business case report
   3. Storytelling
   4. Deliver the presentation
      
9. Business Case as Controlling Framework
   1. The challenge of benefit realization
   2. Operationalizing competencies with practices
   3. Benefits realization competencies framework
      
10. Influencing Decisions in Sales
    1. Turning selling around
    2. Business case selling
    3. Avoiding weak business cases

Glossary
Notes
Bibliography Index

Read the book's reviews and about the author.