March 8th, 2010
Bringing Architecture Discipline to the Cleantech Challenge
As many of you know, the challenge for companies in the cleantech sector is how to describe the benefits of their business case without being sidetracked by climate change confounders. In other words, how to make them sticky without compromising the P2P Economy value? We at the ebTDesign Forum advise readers and social media followers to consider the practice of architecture discipline.
Architecture discipline requires adhering to at least three design considerations when developing an architecture description or investment thesis. The benefit for those who choose to practice this discipline is that an architecture description is inherently sticky. The three design considerations that we at the ebTDesign Forum most often propose are:
- Is it simple?
- Is it tangible?
- Is it relevant?
Climate Change Confounders are similar to industry tourists. Confounders are industry experts for hire. They miss use science and the scientific process to lesson the threat of CO2 emissions and other man made contributors. Industry tourists are subject matter experts for hire that come baring silver bullets. Both of these so-called gurus are most distinguished by their propensity for being out of town before the crash but after the checks have been cashed.
Institutional investors and other valued stakeholders constantly suffer from information overload and most cannot tell the difference between good-science versus bad-science without help. Confounders use this knowledge like lawyers in an attempt to raise reasonable doubt. Continued adherence to the concept of architecture discipline will neutralize this strategy because the value of good design is intuitively apparent.
Zachary Alexander
Concepts: architecture-discipline, cleantech, confounders, hydrogen, touristsApril 15th, 2008
The Role of Senior Executives in the P2P Economy
The recognition by Harvard Business Review has brought in an enormous number email questions about the P2P Economy. One of the most popular is “How will the lives of senior executives change?” We advise our clients that the primary role of senior decision makers will be to become champions of the business incubation process.
In the last economic age, the role of senior executive evolved into a constant search for new funding sources and endless investor relations meetings. Students of the dotcom crash and the current subprime mortgage crisis can comment on just how well this strategy has worked. Most of these subject matter experts can go into great detail about what happens when senior management takes their eye off the ball.
Many middle managers often confuse business development with business incubation. Some were taught that sales management and business development are the same. Without proper peer-to-peer coaching, newly minted executives can cause their organizations to focus on short-term gains and deplete near-term portfolios.
Successful executive management teams will concentrate on business incubation in the next great economic age. They will be vigilant in their efforts to combat mass commoditization and maintain architecture discipline. In the P2P Economy, senior executives will see their role as stewards of the business incubation process as the key to their success and their company’s survival.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: architecture-discipline, business-development, business-incubation, mass-commoditization, P2P EconomyApril 2nd, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Portfolio Spacing
Readers have been asking what architects should do during times of recession. We, at ebTDesign Forum, suggest that they be extremely vigilant in maintaining spacing in their trust portfolios. Spacing has to do with the time horizons that serve as the foundation for strategic planning (i.e., short term, near term, long term).
During times of economic distress, stakeholders are encouraged by the mainstream media to be fearful. Architecture discipline can start to wane. The sense of impending doom can cause individuals to think only of short term profits. They start to suffer from focalism which is a psychological phenomenon which limits their ability to see the big picture.
It can be very difficult for architects to convince passionate stakeholders that there is risk in not planning for mass commoditization. As competitors shift into survival mode, they start to cannibalize their profit centers. They turn once premium services into either low-cost or no-cost features. Once this happens, architects have to be ready with plans that will shift near term projects into short term profit centers.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: architect, architecture-discipline, design, Innovation-Infrastructure, mass-commoditization, trustJanuary 23rd, 2008
Innovation-Infrastructure Design: Brittle Company Syndrome
Increasingly, economists are encouraging decision makers to adopt a recession-focused mentality. Architects will increasingly be faced with improving innovation-infrastructure designs that will not hold up under the stresses of a rapidly changing business environment. Most organizations cannot handle even a slight increase in creative output.
Once a strategic decision has been made, innovation-infrastructure assets must be engaged to facilitate execution. Unfortunately, the governance systems of most organizations are too brittle to stand up to the stresses of real-time business cycles. Generally, this is because there hasn’t been enough architecture discipline to fully implement the agreed-upon plans.
Other forms of corporate infrastructures are designed for normal business cycles. They are targeted at maintaining the status quo and limiting variance. Innovation-Infrastructure designs are re-configurable so that they can enable the unbridled creativity that crisis management requires. It is never too late to shore-up governance systems and make them less brittle. The challenge is to finding enough architecture discipline to limit the destructive oscillations that recession-focused thinking brings.
The IT Investment Architect®
Concepts: architecture-discipline, design, governance-system, Innovation-Infrastructure