Architect Your Business for the Future
Does your company expect to operate with the same business goals and expectations for the life of the company? If a company does not expect to grow, then the company is not positioning itself for much of a future.
Very few companies, if any, have a guaranteed customer base, no competition, and will not be impacted by changing market conditions. Competitors are everywhere and the ones focused on the future are more likely to have one. So how can you architect your business for the future?
Focus on the Business Framework
While the business vision identifies the future intended view of the company, the vision does not tell you how to get there. Few companies plan to close its doors after a short term run. But many companies structure their organization with short-term approaches.
Most companies want to grow by leaps and bounds but very few companies have architected their business to be in a position for growth or to withstand challenges. Business architecture ensures a solid yet flexible business framework as a blueprint for success.
Design Your Business for tomorrow
Many business owners attempt to architect their company based on current knowledge and expectations. While this approach may address some of the business needs today, but what about the needs of tomorrow?
How many processes, web pages or documents would need to be changed if the company changed or expanded the product offerings? How many gaps or redundancies would exist if internal areas merged or expanded? How many systems need to be re-designed when a business rule changes?
Focus on the setup
Many business owners start with a good business idea and then place immediate emphasis on generating sales rather than on setting up the business framework. Soon the company realizes that it cannot meet the demands of its customers or the industry because it did not have the foundation to withstand those expectations. Then it will be a continuous effort of patchwork to temporarily fix problems rather than focusing on new opportunities.
A little now vs. more later
One common mistake businesses make is assuming it costs more time and money to architect something correctly. Often times, it takes less effort and costs to utilize a business architecture approach particularly when you factor in the savings by avoiding rework.
Eventually companies come to realize that they cannot meet new challenges or expand beyond their current state without a sizeable investment to re-architect the business. Will the redesign be flexibile enough for the next major change?
A solid business architecture approach helps a company establish a solid yet flexible foundation to position it for the future.
Brilliant! I cannot agree with you more. Too many companies have short term vision. But maybe some of them think it is worth the savings now and then try to delay the inevitable as long as possible.
@ Andy Moore
Thanks for your input! It is a misperception that it always cost more to do it right the first time. Short-term solutions are usually meant to be throw-away options since they do not usually provide the opportunity to build or expand upon. And a company plans to grow so they often outgrow their short range options at some point but yes, they should definitely max out that solution for all its worth if that is the path they chose! Hopefully a company that selects short-term solutions has a plan in place for a smooth transition (and additional budget) to long term solutions.
Here is an example: One client ignored the suggestion of selecting a data storage option that accommodated growth and/or data export in a customer friendly way. They saved a couple of dollars but outgrew their plan within months. They had limited in-house technology capabilities so they were a captive audience to pay for the provider’s much more expensive plan or pay a high fee for the provider to export the data for them. When we learned they were trying to manually move one line of data at a time to save the pricey provider export fee, we stepped in to export the data for them. There was little satisfaction in seeing their struggles even though we tried to warn them beforehand during the planning phase.