Please note: This conversation was based on peer-to-peer engagement and shared experiences, not formal research. The insights shared reflect personal perspectives from within the community.
Hello everyone! The TBM Council recently hosted an engaging “Coffee Chat” focused on “Starting TBM from Zero,” bringing together members of the TBM community to share insights and discuss the evolving landscape of technology business management. Attendees from various organizations, including Juniper Networks and Stanley Black and Decker, shared valuable perspectives on initiating and building TBM practices. Community members Dominic Holasek and Trae Baker led this open discussion, sharing their experiences with building and adapting TBM frameworks.
What is a TBM Council Coffee Chat?
TBM Council Coffee Chats are informal, peer-to-peer engagements where we create a relaxed space for community members to share real-world insights, ask questions, and learn from one another. It’s all about connecting and growing together.
These sessions are held every four to six weeks per strategy community and typically last about 30 to 45 minutes. They’re hosted by fellow TBM community members who are passionate about sharing their experiences and lessons learned. You won’t see any formal slides—just honest, practical conversation focused on the ‘how-tos’ of implementing and evolving TBM in your organizations. We encourage you to participate—ask questions, drop thoughts in the chat, and let this be a space where you feel comfortable sharing. It’s the community that makes these chats valuable.
Key Insights from “Starting TBM from Zero”
During our “Starting TBM from Zero” Coffee Chat, several crucial insights emerged for those beginning or evolving their TBM journey:
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Executive Sponsorship is Paramount: Gaining early executive buy-in, ideally from a CIO, is a critical first step to ensure visibility and support for your TBM initiative.
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Start Simple and Iterate: Begin by classifying core expenses using cost pools and towers, even with spreadsheets, and share incremental progress to build excitement and credibility.
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Credibility Through Financial Accuracy: Ensure all TBM numbers tie back directly to finance reports, even if it means focusing on the most material costs and transparently grouping smaller items.
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Strategic Team Composition: For initial TBM model building, a strong quantitative background with fundamental accounting knowledge is highly valuable, with IT technical knowledge becoming crucial in later stages for tower assignments.
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Communicate for Impact: Tailor TBM’s benefits to your audience (e.g., quantifiable savings for CFOs, transparency for CIOs) and prioritize direct conversations to uncover specific business problems that TBM can solve.
Starting TBM from Zero (Survey Results)
Prior to this coffee chat, a poll was conducted to gauge the community’s experience with TBM implementation. The results showed a significant portion of attendees were starting fresh:
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Starting from scratch (new TBM implementation): ~66% of respondents
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Inherited an existing TBM practice (new to it): ~33% of respondents
This clear interest set the stage for a deep dive into the practicalities of initiating and building TBM practices.
Building TBM from Scratch: A Practitioner’s Journey
Dominic Holasek, an IT Chief of Staff, shared their experience of initiating a TBM practice in early 2023 at the request of their CIO. A key lesson learned was the importance of executive sponsorship from the outset. The primary drivers were a need for data visibility and transparency beyond traditional financial reporting, particularly in understanding IT resource consumption and identifying potential savings in areas like software licensing. The organization initially opted against purchasing specialized software, favoring a proof-of-concept approach using spreadsheets.
The journey began by collecting accounting data, classifying each expense item (e.g., individual team members, software vendors) according to the TBM taxonomy, focusing initially on cost pools and towers due to the ease of one-to-one mapping in a spreadsheet. A significant insight was the value of sharing progress incrementally, even partial views, to keep stakeholders engaged and excited.
To address the need for a multi-dimensional view, especially for attributing costs to ultimate beneficiaries (the business layer), the speaker utilized VBA scripting to split costs, such as allocating an individual’s cost across different departments they support (e.g., 50% to marketing, 30% to SCO, 20% to engineering). For visualization, Tableau was used to present the data with “pretty colors,” enhancing understanding.
A crucial point for attributing costs, particularly labor without time tracking, was to engage directly with managers to understand which business units their teams primarily supported. This informal approach focused on understanding the purpose of the work rather than criticizing activity.
Credibility and Early Wins in TBM Implementation
When building a TBM model, it is vital that all numbers tie back to finance reports, ideally “to a penny”. While striving for comprehensive detail, it’s practical to focus on the 80-90% of most significant costs and group smaller, immaterial expenses into an “other” category. Transparency about this “other” bucket enhances credibility.
Trae Baker also emphasized the “80/20 rule” in TBM modeling. Collecting small, quick wins, such as identifying unused software licenses, does a great job in building credibility and demonstrating tangible financial impact. These early successes can often organically drive adoption without extensive convincing.
Building the TBM Team and Driving Adoption
Regarding the ideal background for TBM team members, it was suggested that an initial focus on quantitative skills and fundamental accounting knowledge (understanding OpEx, CapEx, prepaid concepts) is highly valuable when first building the model and reconciling with expense reports. Later stages, particularly in assigning costs to IT towers like compute, database, or storage, would benefit significantly from IT technical knowledge.
For driving adoption and buy-in, having someone from the finance team lead the TBM initiative provides immediate credibility. Including IT finance in all conversations and weekly meetings fosters partnership and addresses potential pushback related to financial discrepancies.
Ideally, an executive-level champion who can effectively drive the TBM practice is crucial, as their support can overcome resistance. If such a champion isn’t initially present, the goal should be for the TBM leader to recruit one.
Communication of TBM’s purpose and benefits should be tailored to the audience. While senior leadership teams can receive an overview, engaging directly with individual teams through in-person conversations often yields the most impactful use cases and helps uncover specific business problems that TBM can address. For CFOs, tangible financial impacts, such as identifying unused capacity (e.g., software licenses, hardware), resonate strongly, even if there are strategic reasons for such capacity.
Join the Adoption Community!
The TBM Council’s Adoption Community Workgroup is actively looking for more members to participate in open forums, coffee chats, engage with the community, and contribute to assets. They meet regularly and discuss a variety of topics focused on helping organizations successfully implement and mature their TBM practices.
If you’re interested in connecting with peers, sharing real-world insights, and helping shape the future of TBM adoption, we encourage you to join the Adoption Community and Workgroup. You can continue these conversations and ask questions on the TBM Connect forum.
Next Steps: Engage and Learn More!
To continue your journey with Technology Business Management, we invite you to explore our website, log into TBM Connect here, dive deeper into the TBM framework, learn the fundamentals of TBM modeling, and review our latest research here—including the State of TBM report and our ongoing study of TBM salaries. Consider enrolling in a TBM course, joining the TBM Council to connect with a global community of peers, or attending the next TBM Conference to engage with thought leaders driving innovation at the intersection of technology and business. You can also explore our network of partners for additional resources and expertise, and subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed about the latest insights, events, and tools in the world of TBM.
Ready to connect, learn, and grow? Join one of our TBM Strategy Communities on TBM Connect to participate in open forums, attend upcoming Coffee Chats, and contribute to our growing body of shared knowledge!
