Chartered Account

Panasonic's Nimmo says he has had excellent results from drawing up a project charter outlining the cost benefit. That way, if the business case stacks up, he is more comfortable about giving the approval to go ahead. If the business case does not stack up, he can then go to the managing director, charter in hand, and say: "Do you really want me to do this?"

While he gets the business sponsor to draw up the benefit list on the assumption that that sponsor will know the benefits better than he will, he considers it a vital part of his role then to pass those benefits through a "sanity check" that recognizes that sometimes such benefits can be highly aspirational. "So we will ask: 'What are the hard dollars, as opposed to the aspirational dollars?'"

Nimmo says getting the business sponsor to do the exercise is good psychology, since it is easier for the business sponsor to accept that the project or proposal should not go ahead when he has been guided to reach that conclusion himself.

However, CIOs can also go further. Haddad says since organizations rarely reward those who say no, CIOs must strive to establish a culture and leadership that does value taking no for an answer.

"You must do the analysis and show these smart business leaders the right course of action," Haddad says. "One specific best practice comes to mind - signing an internal contract between the executives and the implementation team. This is legally invalid, but a political treasure, and establishes the cost, schedule and scope of the project.

"Rather than converging on that one number, provide a range. Best case, worst case and most probable. But do not stop there. Identify the risks that would move your cost and schedule toward the worst case. This approach will ensure that everyone is working to manage the risks and, in my experience, executives prefer a range with explanation rather than a fictitious number that is rarely met."

A distinguishing feature of CIOs who have mastered the art of the gentle let-down, Luftman says, is the ability to do two things that most CIOs simply do not do well: negotiate and market. "Even if you are certain that the idea, whatever it might be, is not going to be good, how you convey that is going to be fundamental to not only them agreeing with you this time, but in the longstanding relationship that you're going to have in future with those business partners."

Luftman says the best place to learn negotiating skills is any university that has a law program because most law programs make available executive courses in negotiating. "I spent some time at Harvard Law School in the negotiating program and I thought it was marvellous. And I think most law schools offer the same kind of opportunity," he says.

Putting Out Fires

Sometimes, though, there is value in giving a modified yes rather than a straight-out no. Plenty of times you will find yourself having to "fire fight" with some solutions quickly rather than being able to look at long-term prospects, says Laforest.

For instance, parts of the organization might be screaming for an enterprise content management solution right now, while the rest of the organization might be insisting they will not be interested until at least next year. The trick then, Laforest says, is to fight that particular fire by delivering an economic solution, which delivers enough to satisfy those clamouring that their requirements be met.

"Often you can spend just a few grand on packaged software to satisfy them and get a great return on it because this group is going to co-create that solution for you. Because you deliver them something within a week that nearly gets them what they want, and they're pushing it, they're co-creating it, they'll make it happen. Whereas you wouldn't buy a CRM package for a million dollars and roll it out because maybe 90 percent of the organization isn't ready for it yet and won't help you deliver it.

"You're better off satisfying a small pocket of enthusiastic users as quickly as possible and I think it's really important to deliver those solutions quickly. Otherwise they lose their enthusiasm and they don't ask again.

"Then the thing you can do is you can use a bit of a spin and say: 'Look, this is beyond my budget to be able to do this but if I stick my neck out with the CEO and get it passed, are you going to take ownership of it?' And nine times out of 10 they'll say: 'Look mate, if you'll do that for me I'll make sure we develop a return on it'."