Building a better business case

Choosing her words carefully, Nina Burgess describes her employer, Fortune 500 financial company Comerica Inc., as "very intentional." By that, she means it's a company with lots of process and a deliberate decision-making model. If you want to spend the company's cash, you'd better have your business case down cold. That's because you'll have to make your pitch to the Strategic Investment Committee, an august body of top-level leadership that generally meets every four months to scrutinize every major investment proposal. The company has a multi-step process for ensuring that the business case presented for each project is truly accurate.