What is Business Architecture and why should I be interested in it? This point of view from Slalom Consulting explains why Business Architecture improves strategy execution through the use of capability definition and assessment.

1. Capabilities before
Initiatives
ImprovingStrategyExecution through
Capability Definition and Assessment
When developing the list of initiatives required to execute your
company’s strategy, neglecting to assess the business capabilities
required to support that execution can lead to failure. Business
capabilities define what your business does, so it is critical to
understand how well your company’s capabilities are functioning
before committing to a plan of activities that rely on them.
Most corporate planning efforts follow a four-step cycle:
1. Strategy
2. Objectives
3. Initiatives
4. Key Performance Indicators
The portfolio of initiatives that result from this model, does not fully consider which business capabilities will be
crossed, and whether those capabilities are strong enough to support successful execution. These initiatives are
more likely to fail due to incorrect or missing scope, change conflicts between initiatives, underestimation of the
investment required, or schedule conflicts.
While these four basic planning steps are integral to defining corporate strategy and a plan for execution,
incorporating business capabilities into the planning process creates a tighter linkage between “what” you want to
achieve and “how” you will accomplish your goals. Additionally, defining your business capabilities creates a shared
understanding of your business and the changes that are necessary accomplish your strategic objectives.
Strategy
Objectives
Initiatives
Key
Performance
Indicators
Traditional Corporate Planning Framework

2. CAPABILITIES BEFORE INITIATIVES | SLALOM CONSULTING | 2
Three Key Business ArchitecturePrinciples
A deeper understanding of your business capabilities will help you identify your company’s
strengths and weaknesses, and point you towards business opportunities that may not have
been apparent. Below are three key principles we use to help companies align their business
capabilities to their strategic objectives.
1. Capabilities are Stable for any Particular Business
There is a fundamental set of capabilities required for a particular organization to conduct
business, and these capabilities only change when the underlying business model changes.
While the business capabilities are stable, the components that comprise the capabilities –
people and organizations, business processes, information, technology, and partnerships -- are
frequently changing:
 Organizations change shape and personnel
 Processes are redefined and modified
 Information quantity and delivery mechanisms are increasing
 Technology is constantly changing and advancing
 Partnerships are created and terminated
Focusing first on what your business does to satisfy customers allows you to identify your key
capabilities and assess their health.
2. Strategy Feasibility Depends on the Business Capabilities
Linking strategic objectives to the related business capabilities is the first step in determining if
your strategy is feasible. By understanding the capabilities required to meet an objective, you
can then assess the specific elements of those capabilities - are they developed enough to
support the objective or is investment required? Reviewing the linkage between objectives and
business capabilities also illustrates where multiple objectives require improvements to the
same capability, allowing for more efficient and cost-effective initiative planning and definition.
3. Successful Initiative Planning Requires Understanding Capabilities
Your business capability map and assessment are critical inputs into your initiative planning
effort because they provide a complete picture of what needs to be done – what investments
need to be made to strengthen the people, process, information, and technology components of
your business capabilities. The understanding created from defining your capabilities,
assessing their strengths and weaknesses, and linking capabilities to objectives gives you a
complete portfolio view of what you need to execute to achieve your strategy.

3. CAPABILITIES BEFORE INITIATIVES | SLALOM CONSULTING | 3
Capabilities Drive Strategy and Execution Success
Successful strategy execution comes from understanding your business capabilities and then
aligning the changes that are required to your initiative planning process. By applying this
approach we have helped clients successfully drive their strategy execution by:
 Building capability maps to create a
clear mental model of how business
satisfies customer needs
 Creating cross-cutting views of the
strengths and weaknesses of
business capability, technology and
strategy components
 Understanding current and future
states and the gap in between
 Establishing agreement across
stakeholders about what needs to
be done
We Can Help
If you want to improve your strategy execution planning activities, call us. We can help you
understand your business capabilities and the improvements they require, working with you to
create a roadmap of initiatives necessary to implement your strategy.
About Slalom
Slalom Consulting brings together business and technology expertise to help companies drive
enterprise performance, accelerate innovation, enhance the customer experience, and increase
employee productivity. The firm delivers award-winning solutions in areas such as information
management and analytics, sales and marketing, organizational effectiveness, CFO advisory,
mobility, and cloud through a national network of local offices and major alliance partners,
including Microsoft, Salesforce.com, and Amazon Web Services.
Founded in 2001 and based in Seattle, WA, Slalom has organically grown to more than 2,200
consultants. The company has been ranked as a Top 10 Best Firms to Work For by Consulting
Magazine four times, and earned recognition from Microsoft as a Partner of the Year five times.
For more information, visit slalom.com.
For more information,
contact
Annie Ezell Cave
Business Architecture
anniee@slalom.com
206-349-5669
Sue Alemann
Business Architecture
suea@slalom.com
425.829.2465
Business Capability Components