Lifelong Learning: Implementing Best Practice in Business
“Gains vs losses, it’s a rational framework. Very, very good. Thing is though, if you only present it with options that are a bit silly, then you get the least silly result at the end... But it’s still fundamentally silly”
In this episode Richard Pharro, CEO of APMG International, revisits the Better Business Cases scheme with Joseph Lowe, Co-Editor of the Green Book and Head of the Economics Branch at HM Treasury in his second appearance as a guest.
Richard begins the episode by asking whether Joseph ever imagined the certification achieving the success that it has, reflecting on the impressive milestone of 20,000+ exams in its 12 years of life. Joseph responds that he hoped that it would and expands: “it was a hope and a belief in its value”.
Fascinated by Joseph’s work within biodiversity, Richard then asks how Joseph applies the ‘science’ of business analysis to something as broad as biodiversity. Joseph compares the process to the diversity of expertise within the medical profession; “there are all kinds of minute subdivisions […] yet when an individual becomes ill, they may need a number of those professions to work together.”Next, Joseph highlights the benefits of the 5 Case Model. Mentioning how it enables identifying long-run aims, Joseph expands on this, joking “people’s idea of the long-run can vary of course, from next year to 30 years”Richard and Joseph go on to discuss the Options Framework, and how the Welsh Government & NHS trialled the methodology (before BBC was an established programme) in a strict version of its implementation to see what would happen; and how the results were a complete shock.
Richard and Joseph further discuss optimism bias; what Joseph thinks are the most important personal skills when developing a business case; and finishing the episode, Richard asks Joseph if he believes an AI such as ChatGPT could write a good business case.
