Why Boards Don't Believe Your IT ROI (And How to Fix It)
Executive summary
IT ROI does not fail because the numbers are missing; it fails because the economics were never agreed to. When strategy, execution, and economics live in separate conversations, the CFO inherits a "reconciliation problem" that shouldn't exist—defending technology that technically succeeded but financially failed to land.
This briefing establishes a critical governance shift: ROI is not a calculation; it is an agreement made before capital moves. By forcing three pre-approval requirements—identifying the business decision enabled, the specific financial outcome, and the singular accountable owner—organizations move from hostile boardroom debates to high-confidence capital discipline.
Chapters and Timestamps
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00:00 — The $12 Million Silence: Why ROI Fails
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01:12 — The Break is Structural: Growth vs. Delivery vs. Return
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02:22 — Why Month Six is Too Late to Define Success
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03:50 — The Core Distinction: ROI is an Agreement
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04:04 — Three Requirements for Defensible ROI
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05:21 — Case Study: Turning Hostility into High-Confidence Spend
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06:50 — Summary: Governance as Capital Discipline
Full Transcript: Why IT ROI Collapses in the Boardroom (And How to Fix It)
Jayson Hahn:
The CEO approved the gross spend, the CIO delivered the project, and the board asked just one question: "What did we get for the money?" Suddenly, the room went very, very quiet. That silence is not an ROI problem; it's a governance failure.
The Broken Capital Story
Nobody is hiding anything. Everyone did their job, but they were operating on very different definitions of winning: growth, delivery, and return. When strategy, execution, and economics live in separate conversations, the CFO inherits a reconciliation problem. ROI fails in translation, not execution. I've watched CIOs present green dashboards while CFOs explain budget overruns. They technically succeeded but financially failed to land because the economics were never agreed to.
ROI is an Agreement, Not a Calculation
If ROI is defined after delivery, it's already too late. Real ROI requires three things before approval:
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What business decision does this enable? Not what system is changing, but what decisions are being changed? Does it allow us to enter a new market? Does it transfer risk off the balance sheet?.
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What financial outcome defines success? Is it revenue? Is it margin? Is it risk reduction? You pick one, you attach a number, and you set a timeframe. If the answer changes based on who is asking, there is no agreement.
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Who owns that outcome? It’s not IT and it’s not Finance. It’s one accountable operator who will stand in front of the board and defend that result.
Case Study: $28M IT Budget Services Firm
I worked with a $750 million services firm that had strong execution but zero board confidence. By forcing these ROI definitions before spend approval—mapping every material investment to one decision, one metric, and one owner—the conversations stopped being hostile. The board stopped asking, "What did this cost?" and started asking different questions: "Should we do more of this or less of this?".
Summary: Governance as Capital Discipline
IT ROI fails when delivery replaces economics and success is measured in activity instead of outcomes. Governance fixes this because governance is capital discipline, not control discipline. It is the discipline to define economics before approving spend, to hold one owner accountable for one outcome, and the decision to stop funding ambiguity.
Jayson Hahn: 18-year Global CIO and Board Advisor.
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Each briefing addresses a specific board-level failure point in IT spend, governance, ROI defense, or Tech Spend accountability.
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