The Business Case Roadmap-BCR: from the Idea to the Business Case

O livro The Business Case Roadmap BCR: from the Idea to the Business Case é o primeiro volume da coleção The Business Case Roadmap – BCR e foi publicado em 2018 pelos professores portugueses Vitor Verdelho Vieira e Susana Costa e Silva. A experiência de Vitor Verdelho Vieira como co-fundador de diversas empresas desde 1989 e como professor visitante na Católica Porto Business School (CPBS) se junta à experiência de Susana Costa e Silva (como professora da mesma instituição, coordenadora do Mestrado em Marketing e com mais de 100 textos e livros publicados) para escreverem um excelente livro didático que pode ser usado por empreendedores(as) e por professores(as) de graduação para ensinarem como partir de uma ideia para fazer com que essa ideia se transforme em um modelo de negócio (documento executivo formal Business Case). Se o Plano de Negócios (Business Plan) é um documento extremamente detalhado, o Modelo de Negócios traz bem menos detalhes mas não menos importante. No que diz respeito à trajetória acadêmica e profissional dos autores, há algo em comum que os une além de uma amizade de muitos anos: (i) a docência no MBA e na formação executiva da CPBS ministrando a disciplina Business Plan; e (ii) a consultoria na Porto Design Factory – um ponto de encontro de 20 escolas de quatro continentes com o objetivo de cooperação no desenvolvimento de projetos inovadores voltados ao empreendedorismo, do Instituto Politécnico do Porto. Individualmente, Vitor Verdelho Vieira e Susana Costa e Silva têm suas empresas de consultoria e há anos atuam promovendo a interlocução entre a academia e as empresas em Portugal. Recentemente, Vitor fez parte da equipe que definiu o plano estratégico resenha crítica critical review

The Business Case Roadmap -BCR: from the Idea to the Business Case Breno de Paula Andradeo activities of the Azores archipelago). Susana, on the other hand, coordinated the Territorial Marketing Plan for the Tâmega and Sousa Region and has collaborated with the Portuguese Footwear Producers Association -namely trying to know the effect of the country of origin of Portuguese footwear in international markets. These authors' experiences seem to make them more sensitive to market demands in relation to the academia, as they act directly, as consultants, solving problems and presenting solutions to important Portuguese organizations (namely the most representative Portuguese industries).
My choice for writing the book review can be understood from two perspectives: (i) professional and (ii) personal. Thus, my role as a professor of the subject 'Strategic Planning of Food Habits' in the Bachelor's Degree in Gastronomy at UFRJ made me reflect upon my role as a professor in a subject that is not central to the training of students in this Bachelor's degree; and, therefore, I should not delve deeper into an epistemological perspective regarding the Strategic Planning and Strategy. However, I shouldn't shy away from theory in classroom discussions. Having said that, The Business Case Roadmap -BCR: from the Idea to the Business Case -although in English, in a way it assures me as a professor the existence of theory on the topics covered; but, at the same time, although not simplistic, it does not delve into the epistemological issues of those topics covered in its content. Thus, it is a perfectly suited content to my professional performance in undergraduate courses through both a practical and theoretical perspective.
I choose not to translate freely from English to Portuguese here as it would be perhaps too long and a bit too odd. However, it is important to highlight the use of the term roadmap -which is a decision made by the authors, since this term refers precisely to the idea of a journey to be followed with a beginning, middle and end. This division through a roadmap brings two interesting implications: (i) from the perspective of teaching -step by step is an important didactic strategy when teaching content like this, which can help professors build knowledge with undergraduates; and (ii) from a managerial perspective -an entrepreneur can reflect on the steps and make the opening of a project more robust and with the possibility of success. That is why it is a relevant book both to management professors who teach Strategic Planning, Business Plan or similar subjects as well as to entrepreneurs, in addition to its pleasant reading. Based on these and other theories presented in the book by the authors, The Business Case Roadmap -BCR: from the Idea to the Business Case aims at discussing the need to deepen the idea of a business and not necessarily address its development. And for business students or entrepreneurs, the importance of deepening the idea of a business is considerably relevant -since laypeople often "put the cart before the horses" and often run the business without planning it. Shedding light on the importance of a business idea considering existing theories is essential to the future success of entrepreneurs Before I started writing this review, I decided to reread the book and choose five tools and theories that caught my attention due to the innovation of the approach or because I had been unaware of it (and thus tell evryone that this content was new for me). Thus, the five contents I discuss below are: Mission, Igikai Model,

Target Market Calculation, Innovation Matrix and the Difference between a Business
Model and a Business Plan. For these contents chosen in this review, Vitor Verdelho Vieira and Susana Costa e Silva use the publications of Kaplan, Norton and Barrows Jr. (2008), Zafar (2010) and Weinberg (2015), Satell (2015) to build their argumentstexts which are recognized in the themes addressed by the authors.
Concerning the Mission, it is interesting to notice that the authors run away from the classic definition of "the company's raison d'être" and consider two aspects: (i) the present and the future so that (ii) managers and staff focus on where they want to get. I consider that these two aspects approached by the authors fit perfectly in what I consider to be important in an organizational mission text -to make it clear (a) the business area of the company, (b) the organizational values and (c) stakeholders. The "present and the future" is associated with organizational values and the field of activity as well as "managers and staff" associated with the stakeholders of a company. A summary table on page 51 of the book helps to make the difference between Organizational Values, Vision, Mission and Business Purpose even clearer -which together compose the company's DNA. And in a context in which ideological polarizations are increasingly present in Brazilian society, thinking about the use of this Japanese philosophy can be an efficient strategy for aligning goals, perspectives and life goals for people that are about to start a business. It is necessary to pay attention to the fact that an employee's ideological alignment with the company does not harm human rights or provide any type of discrimination to an individual; so that it can act in the perspective of social ethics and also the company does not suffer from legal disputes. For example, choosing a vegan employee for an organic store is related to the values of the company and the individual ones. However, excluding an LGBTQIA + candidate for being whoever he / she is, may rather suggest na action without guidance for corporate social responsibility (although it was connected with the idea of aligning the values of a conservative company to the values of employees -as the Ikigai model shows). Therefore, this model cannot be used to exclude an individual.
When evaluating the market, the Portuguese professores are very didactic when using the example of a restaurant at a university to define the Target Market.
In light of the theoretical explanations presented in the book, I will transfer an exam-  Thus, 18 thousand people would be part of the potential available market.
Of these, around 3 thousand people have lunch at the university restaurant daily.
Thus, initially, the total market that this cafeteria can serve is around 15 thousand people. However, among these 15 thousand people there are some with different characteristics of consumption and intentions of purchase that may want something more sophisticated; others who have the habit of having lunch at home; some who are on a diet and bring packed lunches from home or have quick snacks. It is then necessary to establish a percentage of this market that can be effectively served. If we establish 10%, we have 1,500 people who can have lunch in the cafeteria. And, based on that number, the operational capacity of service delivery is analyzed and the amount of meals that can be delivered is defined. If the maximum operating capacity allows 200 lunch boxes a week and if each one is sold at R $ 10.00, the Target Market is R $ 2,000.00 per week.

Innovation is a topic discussed by the authors and a question is left for the reflection of the readers: what is the difference between innovation and invention?
Vitor Verdelho Vieira and Susana Costa e Silva answer this question by informing that invention is the creation of a completely new product, device or process; and, innovation is the process of (re) thinking or changing existing processes or products.
Making this difference clear is important to understand the Innovation Matrix -the fourth content that I highlight in this review.
The analysis of the Innovation Matrix can be performed similarly to the BCG Matrix -considering the vertical and horizontal axes. In the horizontal axis there is 'the skills required to solve the problem' -two possible categories: (i) well defined and (ii) undefined; and on the vertical axis there is the 'problem definition' -(a) if it is well defined or (b) if it is not well defined. From this interaction of the two possibilities for each axis, the innovation categories arise, which can follow a sequence from the first to the fourth: (i) Basic Research, (ii) Disruptive Innovation, (iii) Radical Innovation and (iv) Sustainable Innovation. By considering these types, Sustainable Innovation is one that keeps the product on the market being well evaluated. Innovation Funnel is another concept that is not addressed by professores and that can add to the understanding of innovation for readers who want to go deeper into phases of innovation in products or processes.
Portuguese authors use the dichotomy of some characteristics to explain the differences between a Business Model and a Business Plan, for example: (a) a Bu-The Business Case Roadmap -BCR: from the Idea to the Business Case Breno de Paula Andradeo siness Plan is more dense, has more quantitative information and generates greater confidence due to a greater number of pages. The Business Model, on the other hand, is quicker to read, easier to update or modify and it is more business-likeaddressed to those interested in understanding the context more quickly. On page 140 there is a table with 9 dichotomies. However, there is no classification of the dimensions of these categories and the second dichotomy does not appear to be a dichotomy -which is why I present in Chart 1 the eight dimensions in the first column (which are not explicit for the reader) and which generate the dichotomies that are well presented by these dimensions in the differentiation of concepts.

Foco do Documento
Business development Business presentation

Foco da Comunicação
Usually for internal staff Investors and other stakeholders

Tamanho do Documento
Two to three pages with attachments More than 80 pages with attachments

Modificações no documento
Easy and fast More difficult and time consuming

Divisão do Trabalho na Elaboração
It involves the whole team in all parts of the document The division of labor can be carried out by different authors and their expertise.

Existence of infographics and tables
Descriptive explanations are usually the ideal ones

Conhecimento da Equipe
The whole team must know the document Not the whole team is aware of all parts of the document Source: elaborated from Vieira e Silva (2018, p. 140).   The professional and social impacts of reading this work should be highlighted here. It seems more evident the professional impacts for professors and students of undergraduate courses in Business Administration or in courses in which the subject Business Plan is taught by the fact of systematizing theories from a script to be considered in the opening of an enterprise. We also have the possibility of long-term social impacts if the book is adopted by professors. In courses in which students seek qualification to undertake more safely (technically), the theories discussed in The Business Case Roadmap -BCR: from the Idea to the Business Case can make the ideas of young entrepreneurs more robust, and thus reduce the risk of bankruptcy in the first years.
We have heard for years that Brazil was the country that with the biggest amount of entrepreneurs, being also the country with the largest number of companies that went bankrupt in the first two years. Therefore, we can build together, Good reading!