Real Business Architecture: Strategy, Design Thinking, and the Bigger Picture

How does business architecture go beyond conventional scope to become a genuine driver of business transformation?

Most treatments of business architecture focus on functions, processes, and capabilities — important, but incomplete. This 2012 presentation by Graham McLeod, delivered at The Open Group Enterprise Transformation Conference in Cannes, makes the case that the true scope of business architecture is much broader: encompassing innovation and design thinking, customer value and emotion, external context, emerging technology, and the full range of strategic concerns that drive organisational change. Drawing on TOGAF 9, Archimate 2, and the Inspired framework, the presentation maps out an expanded meta model that integrates motivation, functional, process, service, and capability perspectives — and shows how these are not competing views but complementary lenses that can be reconciled. A compelling section examines the transformative forces reshaping business in 2012 — cloud, big data, social media, additive manufacturing, and the rise of design-driven companies — and asks what business architects must do to stay relevant. Case examples from Apple, Volkswagen, and others illustrate how architectural thinking at the right level of abstraction enables the kind of strategic clarity that transforms organisations. The closing argument is unambiguous: business architecture practised at its full scope is a board-level strategic capability, not a documentation exercise.

Originally presented by Graham McLeod at The Open Group Enterprise Transformation Conference, Cannes, France, April 2012.

From Chief Information Officer to Chief Innovation Officer

How should enterprise architects and CIOs reframe their role in a world where innovation has become a survival issue?

Business models that were sound five years ago are already obsolete, and the pace of change is only accelerating. This 2011 presentation by Graham McLeod — delivered under the provocative subtitle "Get out of your cubicle and into the future!" — challenges CIOs and enterprise architects to fundamentally reframe their role in response to a world being reshaped by exponential forces. Drawing on Ray Kurzweil's computing power curves, the explosive growth of social media, the collapse of traditional value chains through 3D printing and digital distribution, and the rise of semantic and AI-driven applications, the presentation paints a vivid picture of the environment in which organisations must now compete. The central argument is that staying where you are is itself a risk — and that the architects and technology leaders best placed to lead are those who can connect these broad external change themes to the structure of the enterprise: its business architecture, processes, applications, information, and technology. A particularly compelling section examines innovation as a managed capability, drawing on examples from Procter & Gamble and Cisco to show how structured innovation processes, social tools, and external networks can be embedded in the operating model. The closing message is direct: design thinking, innovation models, and an outward-facing perspective are no longer optional extras for enterprise architects — they are core competencies.

Originally presented by Graham McLeod at an Inspired event, March 2011.