Compelling Storytelling Speaks Truth to Leadership
And secures multi-million-pound budget for business progress
Transformative business ideas only make a difference when they become reality. If your concepts get lost in translation, or they fall on deaf ears, important change fails to happen. As one Enthuse Client found, gaining C Suite approval often isn’t about what you’re saying but about the way you’re saying it.
The Client
A leading brand in a highly competitive industry needed to undertake a major systems project. One of the organisation’s senior leaders had been tasked with submitting a presentation to secure budget for the project. They partnered with Enthuse to help create a compelling presentation to secure the funding and help the business continue its digital transformation.
The Challenge
Supply chain management at a European level is complex. When systems aren’t optimised, processes can be inefficient and unreliable, posing a risk to the business. The Client recognised this and wanted to consolidate multiple processes into a single online platform.
This new system would improve supply chain planning, deliver reliable processes, reduce inefficiencies and enable a smooth flow of information within the business and between suppliers and customers.
As in any business, multiple projects and departments were vying for budget. Although stakeholders understood that the new system was needed and that it would help people with their jobs, competing priorities meant the project budget was at risk of being delayed.
Initial presentations to the executive team had used technical language that wasn’t making the case strongly enough and failed to cut through.
The Objective
With major business benefits at risk, Enthuse was tasked with preparing a hard-hitting presentation for the executive team. One that would influence them to grant the multi-million budget required to deliver the new system.
The Solution
Enthuse worked with the Programme Manager to get to the heart of the story. This included discussing near misses within the Client’s business, as well as recent headline-grabbing industry challenges that illustrated the risks the business could face if the worst was to happen.
By drilling down to reveal the truth, Enthuse was able to:
Shine a light on the facts
Boldly state the risks associated with not moving the project forward
Explore exactly how the project would go on to solve those issues and bring major business benefits.
A narrative was created around what the project would mean for the business and a presentation deck created that turned complex information into something simple and powerful, pulling on this story to convey the truth in the most compelling way.
The Results
Working with Enthuse provided the Programme Manager with an external, more objective perspective and created space and time to step back and consider the project from a new angle and see how necessary it was to convey the hard-hitting facts.
Using direct, non-technical language, the presentation exposed the pressing need for the new system. Confronted with facts they couldn’t ignore, the executive team granted the multi-million budget.
Enthuse Communications also made a lasting impression on the Programme Leader who came to understand that the true value of communication stretches well beyond newsletters to landing powerful messages that help businesses progress.
Enthuse has continued to work with the Client to deliver the project launch and ongoing communications programme to engage colleagues with the new system.
Work included a stakeholder mapping exercise to identify which leaders needed to be most heavily influenced. By plotting out where the business wanted each stakeholder to be, Enthuse was able to create a communications roadmap to bridge the gap between current and desired future state.
This was all backed up with a comprehensive communications plan that gave the Client the tools and assets it needed to engage every relevant employee.
The Enthuse Difference
Andrea Law, Owner of Enthuse, says:
“People often feel they shouldn’t make certain statements at work. That there’s a risk attached to being open about the uncomfortable facts. But this means individuals aren’t being responsible or assisting their organisation to move forward in the right way.
“We helped our Client to identify the facts, inspired confidence in them to speak the truth to leadership and gave them the language to do so in a way that cut through.”
Choose Enthuse for next-level communications that will get the board on board with your plans. Contact us today on 07812 343310.