Thought Leadership Piece

What is a business architecture?

video credit: Dr. Raj Ramesh

Why Business Architecture?

In 2005, Robert S. Kaplan and David P. Norton conducted research to identify the persistent gap between a company’s strategic ambitions and their actual performance. 90% of companies with modest growth targets were not achieving their goal. Their research uncovered that only 5% of company employees were aware of or understood the company strategy. These statistics are gut wrenching if you are a strategy management leader, especially within the realm of human service delivery.

Here, the challenge is not only to lead within your organization but also to be part of or lead a community-wide strategy that extends far beyond the physical confines of your workplace.

Norton and Kaplan introduced the Balanced Scorecard as a tool to help companies manage their strategies more effectively. Business architecture takes this concept further by incorporating the Balanced Scorecard and similar tools as visual representations of a business’s strategy. It then advances to visualize and optimize the implementation of that strategy across the entire business.

In the context of business architecture, the “business” encompasses all entities that have a role in contributing to the delivery of a strategy – organizations, partners, employees, advisory groups, assets, funding, processes, regulatory policies, IT, technology systems, etc. Business architecture synergizes these tangible and intangible business objects to present a complete picture of the business. This holistic view is then leveraged to define and execute the most successful path for strategy implementation.

Whether you are making program level adjustments, undergoing digital transformation or seeking business-wide strategy deployment, business architecture is essential in bridging the gap between strategic intention and operational execution. It offers a structured approach to visualize, plan, and implement initiatives, ensuring alignment across all levels of the organization and facilitating cohesive strategy execution.

Strategy Execution

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