ROI Calculator: The True Cost of Execution Delays

A simple calculator to help leaders calculate the cost of delaying implementation of initiatives in the portfolio.

Each year companies lose millions in revenue because of poor sequencing of development and execution of initiatives in their portfolio.

By understanding how best to sequence initiatives, organisations can stop the leakage of bottom line results.

Cost of Delay is often mistaken for Cost of Delivery but, whilst both are important, the two are very different – Cost of Delivery tells you how much it will cost to build something. Cost of Delay is how much money you’re losing because you aren’t able to provide a product, service, or feature to your customers and, therefore, they’re not paying you for it.

This calculator helps you evaluate the Cost of Delay for each item in your portfolio so you can prioritise using economics and recapture lost income.

Why Cost of Delay is so Important

Organisations lose millions in lost revenue due to suboptimal prioritisation of initiatives every year.

When a client is unable to use a new product, service, or feature, they also won’t pay for it. That’s money represents unearned potential.

By understanding how to sequence the work in your portfolio, you can recapture millions in unearned potential – in one case, a client realised €160m in a single year just by restructuring the priority order of development using Cost of Delay.

Without understanding Cost of Delay, organisations face the following issues:

Political prioritisation that often leads to suboptimal value delivery

Random, unclear prioritisation that C-Suite struggle to understand, such as “story points” or other complex numbering system,

Lack of alignment due to disagreement about what really matters to clients and stakeholders

Lower employee engagement as the value of their individual contributions remains opaque

These problems manifest in disappointing results, but also in lost revenue… Money that could be booting bottom line profits.

Although many different methods claim to use economics, the reality is most are simply magic numbers. This drives most wastage because

Managers create side initiatives to connect value to opaque prioritisation mechanisms, to try and justify priorities

Value Realisation initiatives are often tied to the wrong numbers, so end up being disappointing

More reporting is undertaken to justify what has happened, rather than look forward to see what is needed next

Value continues to leak as revenue, and therefore profit, is sacrificed on the altar of magic numbers.

Cost of Delay is the key to unlocking powerful economic results. Any other prioritisation mechanism, whether intentionally or otherwise, masks an unnecessary loss of bottom line profits.
Toby Corballis

This calculator provides a straightforward way to understand how to evaluate the priority of the work in your system so that it delivers the maximum economic value to the organisation.

It is written for leaders who want to return the highest possible value to the organisation and regain delivery confidence.

What this calculator is (and isn’t)

This calculator is:

A practical worksheet that can be used by leaders at any level of the organisation, up to board level, to gain a practical understanding of the Cost of Delay for the initiatives in their portfolio

Based on years of economic research and experience

Focused on returning value to the bottom line

This calculator is not:

A beginner’s guide to economics or Cost of Delay

A vendor pitch

A performance-management handbook

Who this is for

This calculator is designed for:

Leaders who want to deliver better returns to the organisation

Executives frustrated by prioritisation mechanisms that seem like a dark art that only “tech” understand

Heads of Product, Delivery, Transformation, or Change

Those wanting to provide the best value for customers and stakeholders at the earliest possible opportunity

Those unafraid to reprioritise their portfolio for higher economic returns

What you’ll get

Using this calculator, you’ll get:

An understanding of how much economic value each initiative is worth to the organisation, per annum, once it is delivered

The method to calculate the economic value of an initiative

The different variables that help to inform your economic value

An understanding of when to make structural changes to the order of delivery

Download the Cost of Delay Calculator PDF

(Free. No registration required.)

Three Benefits from using the Calculator

Learn how to deliver value on time.

Get the actual formula for calculating Cost of Delay.

Obtain a clear view of the value of your portfolio.

Common questions about OKRs and execution

What is Cost of Delay?

Cost of Delay is the economic impact of not delivering an initiative sooner. It quantifies the value lost per unit of time – typically per week or per month – whilst something remains unfinished. This value may come from lost revenue, delayed cost savings, missed market opportunities, increased operational risk, or reduced strategic positioning.
Cost of Delay turns prioritisation from opinion into economics. Instead of asking, “What feels most important?”, leadership can ask, “What is the financial impact of waiting?”

Why is Cost of Delay important for strategic execution?

Most organisations prioritise based on urgency, stakeholder pressure, or internal politics. Cost of Delay introduces an objective, economically grounded method for sequencing work. It ensures teams focus first on initiatives that deliver the greatest economic return for the time invested. This prevents low-value work from consuming scarce capacity whilst high-value initiatives are stuck in queues (one of the most common causes of slow strategic execution).

How do you calculate Cost of Delay?

Cost of Delay is calculated by estimating the value lost per unit of time if delivery is delayed. Importantly, precise accuracy isn’t required as even directional estimates create far better prioritisation decisions than other prioritisation methods. The goal is economic clarity, not mathematical precision.

Why don’t most organisations use Cost of Delay?

Most organisations lack visibility into how long work actually takes and what delays truly cost. Indeed, most organisations don’t even have proxy values for these things. In other words, they’re flying blind. Once organisations instrument their delivery system and quantify economic impact, prioritisation becomes simpler, faster, and far more defensible. Cost of Delay replaces opinion with evidence.