Implement Anything: Presenting ROI - The ROI weather-person (Part 5!)

So, you’ve refined your implementation plan (Part 1 and Part 2), you’ve gotten your metrics worked out (Part 3), projected your costs and revenue (Part 4), and the numbers look good! Now what???

Presenting ROI

Well, now that your excel-fu is strong, might as well get good at powerpoint! And, I mean really good. This isn't a one time gig. Your firm has monthly financial meetings, quarterly projections and updates, annual budgeting, and if your implementation is anything more than a pimple on the company's budget - you better bet you'll be talked about in those discussions, so you better make sure you're in the room and have something to present to keep people up to date and committed to your success.

Presenting Projections for approval

Assuming you’ve done the wise thing and engaged the critical stakeholders in setting the assumptions by which you’ve built out your projections…

You did, right? Right?

…the presenting part is pretty easy. The key thing here is to remain conservative in your approach to things. Under promise, over deliver. As long as people feel you’re being conservative in your revenue side, they’ll be willing to forgive a lot of assumptions across the board – and since you’re projecting something as unknown as a new implementation of some technology that probably none of the managing partners in your firm will ever use… that forgiveness is incredibly important to getting approval.

If they’re not part of the group making the decision, bring some of the people that helped set the metrics and baselines into the room with you to help present. You standing up and saying that 2K is a conservative number for field issues is an order of magnitude less impactful than a senior superintended standing up there and saying it for you.

If the investment you’re asking for is more than 100K (most things will be), you’ll be dealing with people who are used to making projections for business reasons, so while underscoring that these are estimates is important, they are used to the mechanics and risks involved with projections. So don’t dwell too much on the implicit uncertainty.

Focus on the business value, and let some pretty images and maybe a video do the technical detail talking. On a couple of occasions my team managed to get a major implementation approved without ever even showing the software that was going to be used (because we hadn’t picked it yet!). Heck, we bought a $120,000 laser scanner, $40,000 in software, and hired someone's who's burdened cost was ~$100,000 all sight unseen to the leadership of the company - yes, that's how we started our scanning services business unit - with a spreadsheet and a video. Why did that work? Because no one in the room making the decision cared what it looked like or how it worked. They just wanted to know the business value and trust that we were accountable for making it pay off.

Think of yourself as a weather forecaster on your cable or national network of choice. You're using a scientific approximation to predict outcomes in a system that is far more complex than you can possibly understand - just like the people running your firm are. So, treat projections as predictions. Provide confidence metrics if you can. Is there an 80% chance of ROI, or a 20% chance? Are conditions sunny and warm, with a chance of showers so your implementation can sprout, grow, and flower; or did the groundhog see his shadow and you're probably looking at a few hard freezes before the seeds can germinate?

Wait, did this just turn into a farming analogy AND a play on words? Anyway...

Presenting Actuals for Review

Presenting actuals is a little different than presenting projections of course. First, people will want to understand any variance between actuals and projections, particularly negative variances. Second, you’re likely to have a lot more specificity on actuals, they may be calculated differently, and most importantly, you’re a lot more likely to piss someone off with actuals if those numbers point out something politically sensitive to people in the audience.

As an example, when presenting some of this BIM ROI information internally several years ago, I managed to offend two different principals in the company at the same time. One because the numbers showed his projects were doing substantially better than he was reporting up the chain of command (he was sandbagging in case something went wrong later in the project). The other because his market sector was way behind schedule in training and adopting Revit as compared to the plan because he wasn’t pushing his project managers to get on board. Oops!

Now, to be clear, I didn't do anything "wrong", but a little situational awareness goes a long way. If I'd just warned those two guys that this information would show in the report ahead of time... it would have been fine as they'd have had time to prepare their bosses or at least have a response ready. Fortunately, neither of them slashed my tires in the parking lot. The reveal was healthy and got things moving along in that market sector at a faster clip. Mr. Sandbagger had to recognize some additional revenue but got to keep some of it held back for later. So, it all worked out. But, I was completely blind-sided by the initial anger at me spilling their beans!

So, just make sure you try to stay aware of any dirty laundry you’re airing so you don’t make an enemy of someone that could obstruct progress down the road. Show the results to a senior audience or mentor first and get their advice on any potentially politically sensitive issues. I was a bull in a china shop most of the time, and it did catch up to me sometimes.

And, of course, don’t show excel spreadsheets if you can show something better. Make pretty graphs. People like visuals, and you can explain the graph during a presentation a lot easier than you can explain patterns in a bunch of rows and columns. This is less true for a construction or more business oriented firm. This is more true for a design or design engineering firm.

And, at least in this context, remember that most of your positive “actuals” are still really just agreed upon metrics for associating value to the implementation and not hard numbers. So, don’t die on a hill defending the veracity of what is essentially a made up number. If people want to change the rules of how those numbers are made up, do it willingly and come up with a new calculation method or set of metrics people are more comfortable with. Your goal in all of this is to prove that the investment is worth it. How you prove it isn’t the part that matters.

Most importantly, be humble. Maybe you are a Rockstar. Maybe everyone on your team are geniuses. But, you and your team aren't the ones doing the "real work" that makes the company money. You're facilitating people who are doing the real work by making them marginally (or substantially) more productive, more accurate, and hopefully happier in their jobs too. But, remember:

They did the actual work that brought in the money that pays your salary and buys all your cool tech.

So don't be like that guy who runs into the endzone and does some horrible solo celebration dance on his own like he's the only guy who scored the TD...

1. Act like you've been there before. Whether you have good or bad news, treat it like it is regular business and look and act professionally. Fake it before you make it is a thing for a reason people. If you look like you know what you're doing, people will assume you do even if you don't. So... Don't do a happy dance because you hit your numbers or people will wonder why you're so surprised and doubt your future projections. Don't blame failures on other people before you take any possible blame that could have been on you or your team or people will see you as someone who just makes excuses when stuff goes wrong. It's business. The unexpected is part of it, good and bad. Failure or success isn't inherently a reflection on you. How you handle it is. So, handle it like a professional and people will see you as one.
2. Recognize the rest of your team, including everyone that works around you and your direct reports. Don't act like you've won an Oscar and thank God and your mother... but give credit to your implementation team up front, thank the person you report to when it makes sense. and anytime you talk about project results celebrate that project team and give them as much credit as you can bear... even if they fought you the whole way and made it a royal pain in your ass to get the project over the finish line. It doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things if project manager X was a roadblock and superintendent Y was a thorn in your side every day on site. Give them credit for a successful project and for whatever success you did achieve on that project. It will pave the way for the next project being MUCH smoother, and force them to be equally nice and thankful for your team's support (or risk looking like ungrateful assholes - and very few people are ok with looking like an asshole in front of their bosses).
3. Focus on the reason you're ultimately there - to improve the business. Any topic or question should be welcomed and viewed in that context. Even something that might seem an attack on what you've been working on the last four years of your life, ...your precious... turn the other cheek by redirecting to the business goals and be open to anything anyone puts on the table as long as it is being discussed in terms of how it improves the business. You aren't omniscient and the company has limited resources - so if there's a better thing to be working on, you should be the first to be willing to examine the potential and pivot - because if you do you'll be the one implementing that more valuable and more successful implementation. If you fight it, someone else will be and then you'll be reporting to them. Your job is ultimately in service of the goals of the business, plain and simple. You aren't there to make the world a better place (unless that's a company goal). So, treat every presentation, every question, every critique as an opportunity to reinforce or redefine your direction to better serve those goals - and you'll be irreproachable (because you are indiscriminately approachable). It just isn't about you. It isn't about your team. It is about the service you collectively provide to enhance your business' success. The moment you give people the impression that it IS about you, you've just undermined your credibility and will spend man-years repairing that damage.

You: Kelly, are you speaking from experience or something?

Me: Yes, and it sucked.

So, act professional, share the credit generously, and focus on your real purpose within the company. You're not a BIM Manager. You're a Business Success Manager. Act like it.

Yes, I'm aware that the shortening of that title is "BS Manager". This is not accidental.

Presenting ROI for validation

As mentioned elsewhere in all this rambling, ROI is the "big win" you're ultimately looking to prove. The "precise" numbers you achieve (my 6.5MM projected net return in 2020 for instance) is grossly true but specifically fictional. But, looking at things through the lens of a ratio drowns out most of the specifics. As long as people managing your firm aren't overly optimistic or overly pessimistic about the value side of the equation, the actual ROI trend line is going to be pretty darn accurate. And your baselines for ROI performance you need to beat are going to be pretty darn accurate too. So, you'll know if you have a win or not.

Of course, ROI takes time to achieve. Every implementation starts by digging a hole you have to climb out of. So, early on in an implementation (the first year or three) you're mainly going to be looking for an upward trend in the ratio. Once again, if you implement early enough to use your practice technology prowess to win jobs with new clients, you should be able to show a pretty early upward trend and even a positive ROI. If not, it will take a lot longer to get above that break-even point, and even longer to get above the blue line achieved by a reasonable investment portfolio. But, if the trend is steady you can usually hold the course and make it there and everyone will be happy in the end.

Ultimately, you have to beat the blue line. If not, cut bait and run from that implementation unless there is something structural preventing it's success. At that point, you have to point it out and hope the powers that be either fix the problem, or tell you to move on themselves. Don't go down with the ship. Business involves risk and implementing new technology is a risk. Better to be the one sounding the warning alarms than it is to have someone else do it!

And, while I couldn't show a Beck version in my graphs, your company might have an alternate ROI baseline to beat. If you're at a firm that regularly acquires other smaller firms to expand into new market sectors or regions, they may have a solid sense for what that ROI is on average per $,$$$,$$$ and you can plug that into your ROI calculator as well. That may set a higher bar to overcome than the stock market, or it may not. But, if that's the bar your management or leadership looks at you should use it regardless. They'll be thinking about it even if you don't show it. Take control of that comparison and plan accordingly. Again, if you're a Business Success Manager, you should want to beat that bar with your implementation because otherwise the company SHOULD save that money to buy another firm instead. And you should point that out first. That will show that you understand the real mechanics of their decision making and buy you a lot of credibility in the C-suite.

And, if you're thinking:

Hey, I got the money already, why waste time presenting when I could be implementing...

Remember, you'll be back at the till in no time. Whether it is next quarter, next year, or the next implementation; you'll need more money. So, be the best businessperson you can be and you'll be amazed at the trust and budget that buys you...

Ending with a whimper

So, I don't have anything momentous or life changing to end with. That's pretty much it. Stop shying away from ROI, P&L, and other financial realities of the business we're in (if you are). Coolness isn't enough to justify an investment, like it or not. Treat what you want to do like a job instead of a hobby. Put together a business plan, get organizational buy in on it by building it collaboratively and learning about the business in the process, use that to focus your implementation on achieving results that mean something to the company's goals, execute on that plan while changing it as needed to adapt to the current situation, and then enjoy the successes while learning from the failures. Do all that (it's easy, really...ha!) and you will be amazed at how much more seriously your firm takes what you and your team can do for them. Hopefully they recognize it enough to keep you around and engaged for as long as I was at Beck, or longer!

And with that, let's go out and implement some bad-ass technology into our collective processes and change the landscape of practice technology in the AEC industry!

In memorium... (thank you notes)

In the spirit of my own advice, I'd like to thank some people who were formative in my own growth and thought process in developing this concept to this point...

Rick del Monte definitely deserves a huge shout out. Rick was my third (and longest lasting) boss at Beck, and will remain a mentor as long as he'll put up with my occasional questions. He managed to steer (pun intended) this bull in a china shop through a lot of my own missteps early on in my career; and was always an advocate for me even when I wanted to "stretch my wings" and move into corporate from my safe nest in the design org at Beck. I learned more from him than I realized at the time, and will never forget his immortal re-framing of someone else's famous quote: "Design isn't about finding the most efficient path to destination, it's about finding the most interesting path..." #Deep

I also must thank James Norris and Silviu Stoian. I have more than enough stuff to thank/blame them for individually, but since they were basically my left and right hands at Beck as we built up the Virtual Building Group, I'm going to thank them in one combined paragraph. It would have gone nowhere without them. They both think and act totally differently than I do, which is what made us such an awesome team. We were the three musketeers and leaving that triumvirate relationship behind was probably the hardest professional decision of my life. James informed most of my thinking on implementation plans full stop by basically going off and making one for scheduling without me knowing about it. It blew my tiny mind. Silviu in turn was a constant check on my own ego (I am an architect by training for heaven's sake - it's beaten into us with a 2x4 in architecture school) and basically kept the ship afloat during a couple of tough times through shear Eastern European stoicism and his herculean work ethic. He re-taught me to execute with a meticulousness I'm all too eager to forget in his absence. You cannot find two people I trust more completely than I do these two wise guys.

I liked them enough that I tried to hire both of them to come to work at ClearEdge3D when they decided to leave Beck in their own time. Silviu was smart enough to decline. James wasn't. Ha! Joke is on you James!

Mason Blalack probably doesn't expect a thank you shout out, but deserves one for his single minded stubbornness on something he was totally right about. We (at least partially under my leadership) were pursuing a hopeless strategy with our 3D Coordination implementation for years until Mason pointed out for the 50th time why it was dumb in a way that I actually understood for the first time. He more or less singlehandedly sparked the concept of the implementation matrix discussed in parts 1 and 2 of this saga. So, thanks to the man, the myth, the lumberjack of 3D coordination...

I'd be writing a whole additional 5 posts if I kept going thanking everyone who deserves it, but suffice to say (in no particular order); Frank Land, Jim Thillen, Gary Pille, Paul Higgins, Peter Beck, Stewart Carroll, Mike Boren, Julie Huval, Carter Vecera, Aaron Maller, Gary (the golden boy) Sanchez, Brent Pilgrim, Ryan (the missionary) Williams, Cory McDermott, Julian Nahan (the absentee musketeer), Chris Engebretson, Kelly Giddens, Norma Lehman, Holly Crowder, Mark House, Elizabeth Capps, Sean Wilson, Anthony Hauck, Kyle Bernhardt (to be blamed for most of the unicorn references), Jay Zallan, Trey Klein, Wesley Benn, Paul Doherty, Jose (never leave a drink behind) Fandos, Silvia Taurer, Martin Taurer, Martijn de Riet, H?vard Vasshaug, Adam Sheather, Melissa Thiessens, Margarida de Carvalho Jerónimo Barbosa (yes, that's her FULL name), Tim Waldock, Marcello Sgambelluri, and a ton more people I can't think of at the moment have taught me invaluable lessons about the topic or sat with me and brainstormed about this topic over their vodka cranberry, old fashioned, or other beverage of choice. So, listed or unlisted, thank you for sharing your knowledge and experience so I could collate it into this hot mess of a series of posts. I hope I didn't just get you added to the hit list of anyone who actually read all the way to the end!

Oh, and thanks to God, and my mom and dad. You may be cursing them, but without them I wouldn't be here to write this craziness! And Thank You to the Academy... Ha!

And, if you want to play with the materials discussed above and in prior parts you can download them all:

Implement Anything Materials

ROI Materials

Have fun!