Well – imagine you’ve taken over some middle-ranking football club. You stand in the locker room and roar: “I want to win the championship title!” Is that enough? I’m going to assume you agree that this strategy is about as likely to succeed as a campaign where you take to the streets with a banner demanding “Christmas, but now!” Because becoming championship winners is a complex task. “We started the ‘winning the title’ company 3 years ago” – you’re sure to have heard something like that before. A great deal goes into such an enterprise: The team has to be strengthened on a targeted basis; the environment and structures have to be in alignment; individual players’ attitudes have to be worked on; the sponsors have to collaborate; the squad has to be big enough to avoid burnout and cover absences; talent development of younger players needs to be improved and expanded; and much more. Then, at the latest after the title is won, the media retrospectives make it clear: “The architect behind FC X’s success in winning the title is…” or “The person responsible for transforming this mid-level team into a championship winner was…” In other words, there had to be a person or a team that understood how to translate the mission of winning the title into a vision for the team, to plan a path for this, and to also guide the club along this path in order to finally – in the truest sense of the word – take home the cup. Then back to business. You have an idea – a new product, a new service, new business model, or a massive expansion – that you are trying to make a success? Then consider this your championship title! The digital business world is extremely competitive and, not unlike winning a football championship, the successful implementation of a new business idea is a highly complex challenge that requires transformation in a range of dimensions: The product has to be designed and developed; its profitability determined; customer feedback collected; investors brought on board; processes defined and implemented; applications developed and adjusted; and personnel found, motivated, trained and organised. Customers are unforgiving, the competition is breathing down your neck, and daily operations are accompanied by the uncertainties of innovation – the line between success and failure is thin. The bottom line? You need to find the “champion maker” for your business idea: You need a team that can accurately map each stage and dimension that contributes to the ultimate goal, and also knows how to put all those components together again. One that creates a lingua franca for all participants, brings them on board for the project, and builds them up then guides them in implementation. A team that understands how to work with you to design a convincing path and which is ready to successfully guide you along it. Expertise in business architecture and transformation facilitates exactly these things, and is part of the indispensable toolkit of successful champion makers in the digital business world – together with the ability to appropriately contribute and apply this expertise to your challenge, in your organisation, and in your corporate culture. After all, the only thing that counts is the business result you actually achieve. Strict arrangement and application of a particular architectural or transformational framework is no benefit to you and far from a guarantee of success. Otherwise anyone who completed a football trainer course could become a champion… And as a final point: The designing of business architecture and transformation is not a one-time matter. Validating, adjusting and focusing are constant tasks in the implementation of a business idea. Or as they say in football: “Think from game to game!” But always keep your eye on the goal and the architecture of the big picture. Lorenz Brügger is owner and Senior Consultant at ALCEDO & PIÙ Consulting AG. He has around 25 years of international and cross-industry experience. His expertise is focused around business planning, business architecture, process management, automation, digital & cyber risk management, IT strategy and governance, and program & project management.