BRM Career Pathways – Part 2:
BRM Career Pathways series is to provide the foundation and knowledge for aspiring Business Relationship Managers
How to land on a BRM Role?
According to Simon Sinek’s idea of Golden Circle, Every organization must start with the question of why? This illustrates the purpose, belief and cause of why they exist in the first place and motivates everyone. Similarly, as an individual, when your career is aligned with your purpose, it brings the best outcome possible to achieve your desired goals.
Start with small and quick wins. Don’t try to boil the ocean. To be more strategic, you have to build upon your tactical capabilities. Remember you can’t be both tactical and Strategic with the same business partner.
Aligning with internal partners is very important because customers are too quick to identify the difference between what you do and what you say. So, choose a particular segment or business unit and try to implement your BRM purpose.
As a BRM, adopt the mindset of connecting all aspects of the business that are disjointed and begin thinking about how this concerted effort will essentially “sell the role” to your leadership. Break down the Silos to prevent value leakage
Implementing the BRM model requires lots of foundational skills
- Business Acumen
- Portfolio Management
- Powerful Communication
Where do I Start?
As stated at the beginning of this article, transformation organizations are looking for people with broader skills. You need not be a master in all but need to be at the level where you can speak THE business partner`s language and resonate with their expectations
According to Sarah Ozahioglu, CBRM and a Senior Strategy Manager with TELUS who is leading one of the biggest evolutions within the organization – “The business landscape has clearly changed, the demands from partners have changed and hence we need to adapt and adopt.”
A BRM role is a very authentic role. It’s imperative to live with integrity, both professionally and personally, to build long-lasting and trusting relationships.
- Always listen.
- Begin with the end in mind
- Understand the maturity level of your internal business units
- Understand the maturity level of your business partner and external customers
- Relationship maturity assessment is a great place to start
- Not every customer is ready to engage at a strategic level. Chose to become and have the best relationship at the level they are in. For example, if a customer is at level 2 and not mature enough to become level 3, work with them at level 2 to become the best partner.
- Understand what the business leaders want and pick 2 or 3 most important KPIs
- Communication, Communication, and Communication – Communication with Business partners are very important.
What is the Percentage of certifications across the globe?
| Professional Training Certification(s) Currently Held | % |
| Business Relationship Management Professional (BRMP®) | 57% |
| Certified Business Relationship Manager (CBRM®) | 9% |
| BRM Fundamentals | 6%
|
| BRM Executive Brief | 3% |
| Strategic Partnering Approach | 2% |
| Becoming a Value-Focused Organization | 2% |
Data courtesy: © 2020, Business Relationship Management Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
What are the various Business Functions BRMs would Interface with?
Image courtesy: © 2020, Business Relationship Management Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
How much Business Relationship Managers Earn?
There are a wide variety of roles that BRMs consider important to work with and spend the most time engaging with. When it comes to the importance placed on working with certain roles, BRMs who make more than $150,000 place the highest importance on working with portfolio management (59%), architecture (46%) and business capability management (44%). On the other hand, those who make $75,000 or less place the most importance on working with project management (52%) and service managers (45%). Clearly, focusing on the higher-level, strategic business functions is associated with higher compensation levels while more tactical functions are associated with lower compensation levels.
Data courtesy: © 2020, Business Relationship Management Institute, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
Part 3 of this series will be about Relationship building, BRM Capabilities that Lead Organizations…
Are you interested in exploring further, you can reach us out for a FREE 15 minutes CONSULTATION at info@wordpress-129153-2119642.cloudwaysapps.com or suresh@wordpress-129153-2119642.cloudwaysapps.com
Note: The content references and benchmarking tool surveys are from the Business Relationship Management Institute, Inc., Copyright, and all rights reserved. Material from this publication has been reproduced with the permission of the BRM Institute
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Suresh Seetharaman
Suresh is a BRM Practice Head and a seasoned Principal Consultant and has over 27 years of experience in different facets of Business Relation Management, IT Service Management, Project Management, Training and Development, Business Development & Application Development areas. He has earned wide range of certifications that include DevOps Foundation, BRMP, CBRM, and ITIL 4
