The academic intent of a business case and particularly a cost-benefit analysis is to document and provide context for the choices and decisions made in an organization. In practice, it is a poorly understood and misused tool.  As a result, many business cases are nothing more than obligatory and weightless rationalizations.

To unravel this issue, let us first start with a common situation.

Sue says to her boss, “Jay. Why don’t we buy tape from ‘carolinatapeco.com’? Their web site makes it easy!”

John, the new salesman, was excited about his new company car. His boss would spend over $130,000. on the top of the line luxury vehicle. Plus, the company maintenance team was responsible for the entire motor pool. “We Keep Them Running…” was the shop motto.

Precisely at 3000 miles, he took the car to Jack, the maintenance supervisor.

“What’s that you are doing, Jack?” he asked.