Why cost avoidance crowds out everything else
It's the number finance teams are most comfortable approving, because it's conservative and easy to audit after the fact — which creates a structural bias toward proposing cost-avoidance-justified projects even when the investment's real strategic value lies elsewhere.
This bias is self-reinforcing: teams learn that cost-avoidance cases get approved, so they frame every case that way, even when it understates the actual opportunity.
What value-created measurement actually looks like
New revenue enabled, customer retention improved, or time-to-market reduced for a new product line are real, measurable value categories — they just require a different, slightly less conservative measurement discipline, usually a before/after comparison against a defined baseline rather than a simple cost delta.
Technology business cases that include both categories, clearly labelled, give decision-makers an honest view of what's conservative and what's genuinely ambitious in the proposal.
Cost avoidance is the easy number. Value created is the real one. A complete business case needs both, clearly labelled as what they are.MNB Strategy Practice
Key actions
- Separate cost-avoidance and value-created categories explicitly in the business case
- Define a before/after baseline for value-created claims
- Avoid defaulting to cost avoidance simply because it's easier to approve
- Label each category's conservatism level honestly for decision-makers