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Practical insights, fresh research, relevant case studies, and hard-won lessons from the work we do with leaders and organizations
The Cost of Standing Still
Standing still feels safe until customers quietly choose a different path. This article examines the recurring historical pattern in which new channels of commerce are first dismissed, then rapidly adopted—leaving unprepared businesses behind—and shows how the same dynamic is now unfolding as customers begin discovering and transacting through AI conversations. Drawing on current traffic data and market forecasts, it argues that the real cost of inaction is the gradual migration of volume toward whoever makes the interaction easiest, and that the practical response is to evaluate and upgrade the underlying flows of information, product, and service so the business remains reachable as behavior continues to change.
Enterprise Architecture as an Approach to Anything
nterprise Architecture is typically seen as a technical practice for aligning business strategy with technology, yet its core methods—especially the Zachman framework’s structured interrogatives (What, How, Who, When, Where, Why) and disciplined modeling—provide a highly transferable lens for analyzing and solving almost any problem. By systematically cataloging motivations, actors, processes, data, locations, and events at progressively detailed levels, this approach uncovers hidden requirements, reveals connections between people and work, reduces blind spots, and clarifies whether and how technology should support the desired outcome. Whether applied to designing a ride-sharing platform or opening a restaurant, it transforms ambiguous challenges into clear, shareable architectures that improve decision-making and execution. Leaders and teams who adopt this structured thinking gain sharper insight and confidence when decomposing complex problems, even in non-technical domains.