Enterprise Architecture As Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution (Hardcover)

by Jeanne W. Ross (Author), Peter Weill (Author), David Robertson (Author) "DOES IT FEEL AS IF the employees in your company are working harder and harder, but you're still losing ground?..." (more)
Key Phrases: business modularity, standardized technology, family enterprises, Optimized Core, United States, Build the Foundation One Project (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description
Does it seem you’ve formulated a rock-solid strategy, yet your firm still can’t get ahead? If so, construct a solid foundation for business execution—an IT infrastructure and digitized business processes to automate your company’s core capabilities. In Enterprise Architecture as Strategy: Creating a Foundation for Business Execution, authors Jeanne W. Ross, Peter Weill, and David C. Robertson show you how.

The key? Make tough decisions about which processes you must execute well, then implement the IT systems needed to digitize those processes. Citing numerous companies worldwide, the authors show how constructing the right enterprise architecture enhances profitability and time to market, improves strategy execution, and even lowers IT costs. Though clear, engaging explanation, they demonstrate how to define your operating model—your vision of how your firm will survive and grow—and implement it through your enterprise architecture. Their counterintuitive but vital message: when it comes to executing your strategy, your enterprise architecture may matter far more than your strategy itself.

About the Author
Jeanne W. Ross is Principal Research Scientist, MIT Sloan Center for Information Systems Research.

Peter Weill is Director at the Center for Information Systems Research, MIT Sloan School of Management. He lives in Cambridge, MA.

David C. Robertson is Professor if Technology and Strategy at IMD International.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 234 pages
• Publisher: Harvard Business School Press; illustrated edition edition (August 8, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1591398398
• ISBN-13: 978-1591398394
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #18,381 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

35 of 36 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enterprise Architecture for Executives where it belongs, August 6, 2006

By	M. McDonald (Chicago, IL United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

Ross, Weill and Robertson do what no one else has done in the area of Enterprise Architecture (EA). They have made it understandable and accessible for the executive. EA is an over abused term, often by IT people to intimidate business users and others. Ross, Weill and Roberston provide a well researched, clearly written approach for enterprise architecture and how it applied to business and technical strategy.

The subject may sound dry, but think of it this way -- how do you design your company for current success and future flexibility and you have an idea of the power behind the practices in this book. I say practices rather than ideas because this book is filled with well documented case studies and discussions of what real executives are doing. UPS, CEMEX, Delta Airlines, ING Direct, TD Banknorth are all companies that have realized value. This makes the book practitioner focused and all the more valuable.

Enterprise Architecture zealots will find this book wanting in terms of detailed diagrams and statement professing the unqualified necessity of EA. That is a signal to business executives that this is a book for them to understand the business implications of enterprise design and architecture.

This work is the result of careful examination and study of the topic from a business perspective and that care shows. The book is a balanced and action oriented view on EA, rather than a source of gushing enthusiasm which is something you find in more consulting oriented books.

If you are thinking about how your enterprise can become and sustain its competitive power, change at low risk, and take advantage of new opportunities; then EA may be an answer and this book is the clearest business description of EA, how to implement it and how it works out there.

If you are an IT person, read this book to see how IT concepts like EA are really business initiatives and how to explain them as such to your executives. If you have unbridled enthusiasm for EA then you may be disappointed in this straightforward, business focused discussion.

The book is organized clearly and presents a well structured argument that can lead executives to better understand the value of an enterprise level design.

Chapter 1: To execute your strategy, first build your foundation. This chapter discusses the factors that underpin a well designed organization that is agile and efficient.

Chapter 2: Define your operating model. This chapter covers the missing piece for many company strategies and plans -- how are we going to operate. This section includes an analysis of four major operating model types and what makes them successful.

Chapter 3: Implement the operating model via enterprise architecture. This chapter is among the most important as it puts EA in its proper place as a tool for strategy realization rather than as an end to itself.

Chapter 4: Navigate the states of Enterprise Architecture Maturity. This is a look at the benefits executives should expect as they invest in and realize results from EA

Chapter 5: Cash In on Learning. This chapter discusses the use of management practices and the ability to improve the enterprise because it has an explicit detailed design in the EA.

Chapter 6: Build the foundation one project at a time. With the rational and value of EA understood the book now turns to how you establish an EA and realize its value.

Chapter 7: Use Enterprise Architecture to guide outsourcing. Outsourcing is a big issue that will not go away and one that is subject to abuse, unless it is part of an enterprise design and therefore part of the EA.

Chapter 8 Now- exploit your foundation for profitable growth. This chapter should be read early by executives to understand what is possible for the business, top and bottom line growth.

Chapter 9 Take Charge! The Leadership Agenda discusses the actions and principles needed to make the enterprise successful through EA. This chapter is pretty standard, but it does a great job of showing how EA fits with what executives already know about leadership and growth.

41 of 46 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to achieve and then sustain superior execution , August 15, 2006

By	Robert Morris (Dallas, Texas) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

I do not recall reading another business book in recent years which I found more intellectually stimulating...and practical. Where to begin? Perhaps the most appropriate approach would be to quote the authors. In their Preface, Ross, Weill, and Robertson suggest that, until now, research and executive education have failed to make a breakthrough in understanding and improving IT architecture efforts. They then recall Albert Einstein's observation, "The significant problems we face cannot be solved by the same level of thinking that created them." What do the authors recommend? "The focus needs to be higher - on [in italics] enterprise architecture [end italics], the organizing logic for core business processes and IT infrastructure reflecting the standardization and integration of a company's operating model...[Therefore] enterprise architecture boils down to these two concepts: business process integration and business process standardization. In short, enterprise architecture is not an IT issue - it's a business issue."

Ross, Weill, and Robertson arrived at their conclusions after rigorous and extensive research which revealed what certain top-performing organizations do and how they do it. In this volume, they share what they learned so that other organizations can be guided and informed in their efforts to improve their own performance. More specifically, they respond to questions such as these:

1. What are the most common symptoms ("warning signs") of an inadequate foundation for execution?

2. Which three disciplines must be mastered in order to build one which is solid?

3. What are the key dimensions of an appropriate business model?

4. How to implement the operating model via enterprise architecture?

5. What are the four stages of enterprise architecture development and how must each be navigated?

6. What are the specific benefits during the implementation of the enterprise architecture?

7. When establishing a foundation for execution, why is it best to build it "one project at a time"?

8. How can - and should - enterprise architecture be helpful when outsourcing?

9. How to leverage its foundation for profitable growth?

10. What are the "Top Ten Leadership Principles" for creating and exploiting a foundation for execution?

With regard to the last question, it is important to keep in mind that Ross, Weill, and Robertson's recommendations refer to enterprise-wide initiatives. Therefore, there must be effective leadership at all levels and in all areas of a given organization while creating a foundation for business execution. Everyone involved must be committed to the foundation, help to identify and remove barriers to progress, "feed the core" with continuous experimentation, use the architecture as a "compass and communication tool," and collaborate with others while proceeding through each stage. These are the capabilities of exemplary companies such as Merrill Lynch Global Private Client, Dow Chemical, JM Family Enterprises, and TD Bankworth. "And what makes [these capabilities] a competitive advantage is that only a small percentage of companies do it well - we estimate 5 percent of firms or less." I presume to suggest that the material in this book is relevant to all organizations, regardless of size or nature. Even with their differences in terms of scale and available resources, they face the same challenge: effective application of the principles recommended by the authors.

In the final chapter, Ross, Weill, and Robertson identify and briefly discuss a number of pressures that will make a foundation for execution even more important in the coming years. They explain why companies which have learned how to implement and manage standardized and integrated processes are best prepared for the realities of the marketplace. "A foundation for execution allows a company to automate predictable processes so management can focus on higher-value tasks like innovating, partnering, and identifying new opportunities. The foundation empowers employees and enriches jobs by reducing redundant and tedious tasks while providing the information needed to innovate and customize."

After reading this brilliant book, many executives will conclude that their organization lacks a solid foundation for business execution. They will have become convinced by Ross, Weill, and Robertson of the importance of enterprise architecture as strategy. Now they are not only willing but eager to enlist the support of others to engage their organization in what is certain to be a difficult (albeit essential) "design and construction" process. However, people need to be convinced. They usually have the same two questions: "Why must we do this?" and "What's in it for me?" Fortunately, everything needed to answer these two questions is provided in the final chapter and the same material will also be invaluable during the preparation of a formal proposal to obtain institutional support throughout the given enterprise.

To Ross, Weill, and Robertson, I offer "Bravo!"

Those who share my high regard for this book are urged to check out James O'Toole and Edward E. Lawler III's The New American Workplace, Lawler and Christopher G. Worley's Built to Change, Richard Boyatzis and Annie McKee's Resonant Leadership, and George S. Day and Paul J.H. Schoemaker's Peripheral Vision.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Great Framework Got Lost in the Verbage, November 17, 2006

By	A. W. Sparks - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

The subject of this book is right in the middle my area of professional work as an IT consultant to multinationals.
The framework the authors have provided really is excellent - no other word for it. I did feel that the presentation of the material in the book was a little denser than I would have liked. You can get lost in the verbage. This means you need to take more time and take repeated dips to assimilate the overall framework of the thinking and the key messages.