The power of simple words
I regularly discuss my view that simple language is essential to good communication.
For an example see my post Talking to customers of Enterprise Architecture services.
Today I stumbled on this short video that makes the point in a different albeit rather silly way. Wag your intellectual tail more, bark less. *smile*
The Capabilities Premium in Mergers and Acquisitions
This is an excellent Strategy + Bussiness article about the importance of matching capabilities in successful mergers and acquisitions (M&A). M&A transactions with a good match outperformed M&A with a weaker capability fit by 12% in terms of market returns. Acquisitions where the acquiring enterprise leveraged its existing capabilities to enhance the acquired enterprise’s … were the most successful but M&A transactions where capability was acquired also outperformed transactions where capability fit was weaker. The article points out that a lot of M&A activity occurs based on financial analysis, without capability analysis and that this is a mistake. [see the original Strategy and Business article]
Enterprise Architecture Evolution or as Intelligent Design
A short blog post that looks at how businesses grow either by evolution or by true design using business architecture. An analogy with Darwinism is used to focus the mind on survival of the fittest with specific reference to extinction! and questions the idea that businesses can successfully evolve organically. – With thanks to David Winders
Interesting reflection on the Product/Marketing funnel and the types of products to put in each category
The work builds upon Darren Shirlaw’s, P4P, P1, P2 business architecture.
- P4P = Product for Prospects
- P1 = your primary product
- P2 = your up-sell product
Human dynamics in Enterprise Architecture : Top 10 tips for building Effective EA Relationships
- Identify Key stakeholders both on the IT & on the Business side who will be affected by your decisions/influence. By speaking with them in the early stages you can avoid a-lot of back pedalling and re-selling them on your rationale for decisions in later stages of projects.
- Make a point to get to know those stakeholders outside of regular meetings.
- Create an EA Ambassador in your organization. Identify someone (other than yourself!) on the IT and/or business side who is an EA enthusiast
- Communicate early in the process and often. Make sure that your message is actually understood, not just heard.
- Ensure the EA message/content created is relevant to the intended audience.
- Encourage debate when making decisions/changes.
- Start by all speaking the same business language.
- Use your “Soft Skills”. Match your vocabulary and communications style to theirs.
- Ask your customer “How can we work together to help you” Your decisions will then be welcomed as consultative advice, rather than seen as “no other choice “ directives.
Ovum: Enterprise architecture remains an IT-centric approach
“Complex IT-centric [enterprise architecture models lack a way of presenting a sufficiently abstract and easy-to-change view of the enterprise, especially when it comes to the aggregation and analysis of data relating to architecture, strategy, and operations”
Enterprise architecture must be “able to provide the right information at the right time to the right people so that they can make the right decision. [This means that] data must be easily accessible and in a form that is understandable to the recipient. ”
“Thought should be given to the viewpoints that are available from enterprise architecture, especially for business stakeholders where a rich picture or pie chart could be more appropriate than a complex model.”
“There has to be a fundamental belief in architecture, which can only come from the prime strategists within an organization. This is more than just having support from a project sponsor; it is about having the board-level understanding of the possibilities of architecture, how it will affect the organization, what the cost and disruption elements are, and how the organization can grow and change around a truly adaptable environment.”
[link to source article]
Enterprise Architect
I am the author of the evolution versus intelligent design blog post on the business architects blog.
As I studied geology at university many years ago, well before getting involved with business architecture, I thought the analogy was an interesting way of explaining why business architecture should take place to avoid extinction.
David
David,
Thanks for stopping by and for writing the the blog. I really enjoyed reading it.