An Architectural Approach to Strategizing: Structure and Orientation for Developing the Business Motivation

Abstract

It has been widely acknowledged that effective strategizing in today’s competitive environment has become a challenging task and thus requires a deliberate approach. This has also driven calls for a greater cross-fertilization of the field with other disciplines. In particular, good practices from architecture management may be considered a promising means to provide strategists with a reasonable structure and orientation for developing the business motivation (including, e.g., goals, strategies, and principles). Against this background, this chapter illustrates the use of architectural thinking in strategy development. Based on a fictitious case study, it explains how the use of an architectural approach that provides a clear structure can help achieve higher consistency, effectiveness, completeness, and comprehensibility.