Business Disruption Architecture
Gone are the days when a Business Architect would be called upon to provide ‘structure’ to an organisational change. If my experience counts, these days, I am increasingly being asked to inject ‘disruption’ in a (so-far) structured business. I have witnessed this most in financial services (having spent my life there!) but I guess this is true of other industries as well. As customer preferences change, their engagement models change, business are slowly (and painfully) realising adding another layer (ATM, call centres, web, mobile….) does not satisfy their customers. They need something more. And NOW!
So how do I ‘fix’ a business when the business (me included) do not know where it is heading to, or what do their customers need. The customer has never been more scarier. Channel preferences, segmentation criteria, age, sex, ethnicity and family income does not matter anymore - you can’t rely on them to understand their behaviour. Enter the new customer, when a 60 year old would like to backpack for a year, and a 18 year old would like to start a pension plan! What do such customers do to your ‘traditional’ customer profiles? Where would you profile the 60 year old and the 18 year old? Are they exceptions? No, certainly not. Are they the new profiles? Hmm! In this fast changing landscape, the traditional methods of differentiation and proposition building are no longer valid! As social media has freed (and fired) the imagination of users, we see cross-pollination of behaviours across (traditional) customer segments. And with it comes the changing preferences, demands for products/services and engagement model. Hey! I can see this in my own family. My Dad decided to buy a PC at the age of 75 and in the next 2 years he graduated from a basic Nokia to a smartphone. He’s on Twitter, he’s on Whats App… you name it he’s there. And for a simple reason of connecting with his (digital native) grandkids!
So, coming back to the issue. How do you model a new enterprise to manage this change? Do the (traditional) operating model frameworks, the business components that we used to swear by, still works? Are the components such as Products, Systems, Channels still relevant? Do we continue to think of the organisation in terms of these components? Or do we need to change to? There’s a strong desire to continue using the same paradigm for new models (comfort zone?) But at the same time, at the bottom of my heart I know that ain’t going to work. Then what should be the new business components? Is my approach of structuring a business into components still valid?
Business Architecture has never been so challenging and interesting as this. And I’m loving it! As with my clients’ models, my paradigms, approaches and methodologies are constantly evolving. What works for one client does not work for other and every engagement challenges me in a way I have not been challenged for a long time! Deconstructing an organisation and reconstructing it is an art. I am learning it fast. Till recently, as an architect, the ask was to ‘fix’ an issue and put it in a perspective. Now, the ask is more about rebuilding a house (to use an architectural analogy) while the residents continue with their lives! So the kitchen needs to change, and so does the menu, but not the ingredients. The living room can no longer be a living room but need to double up as a disco, a study and a corporate presentation room but you can’t move the sofa! Or the fireplace!
For want of a better terminology I call this disruptive (for the current operating model) but Innovative architecture!
