The FieldBook: A Strategist's Handbook (Part 1)

The FieldBook: A Strategist's Handbook

This article is part of "The FieldBook" series. To know more about it, read this.

The Fieldbook is lean and mean: pure signal, no noise.

• Phase 0: Readiness & Data Foundation (Prerequisites)
• Phase 1: Portfolio Health & Rationalization
• Phase 2: Financial Architecture
• Phase 3: Innovation Steering Logic
• Phase 4: Pilot-to-Production Pipeline
• Phase 5: Transition & Debt Control

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Phase 0: Readiness & Data Foundation (Prerequisites)

P0.01 Section: Quickstart

P0.01.01 Objective

Establish a unified map that represents a bird’s-eye view of the organization to link strategy, cost and execution.

P0.01.02 Why

The unified map is the materialization of an Enterprise Architecture (EA) Map. This is the topography of your “operations theatre”. Without it you are only able to make tactical decisions with a short-sighted perspective. 

Without it, you cannot:

• Identify inefficiencies or hidden dependencies between organizational processes;

• Ensure that every process is aligned with and contributes to the strategic intent;

• Validate if assets (Resources) are maximizing process effectiveness;

• Make data-driven decisions on asset replacement or decommissioning;

• Quantify spending and investment ratios between Core and Non-Core activities;

• Clearly identify and protect your market differentiators.

Its aim is not to represent the organizational structure, but to map what your organization does and how it does it.

P0.01.03 Expected Outcomes

• Strategic Clarity: Immediate identification of “Functional Muscles” (Capabilities) that drive the core business.

• Structural Visibility: Transparency on the intricate interdependencies between processes.

• Financial Granularity: Clear sight of the internal cost of production / service and where that cost resides.

• Common Language: A single taxonomy that can be used by the CFO (Finance), the CIO/CTO (Tech) and the COO (Operations).

P0.01.04 Execution Steps

Construct the Enterprise Architecture map:

1. Trace Value Chains (VC): 

Use a dual-lens approach to identify the macro-flows:

• Primary Value Chains (market-facing): Follow the Customer Journeys:
• Customer Need » Result: Product/Service delivered

• Support Value Chains (internal /lifecycle): Follow the Resources Lifecycles:
• People: Joiner (onboarding) » Mover (Growth/Payroll) » Leaver (offboarding)
• Money: Record (transactions) » Report (compliance)
• Assets: Procure (buy) » Maintain (uptime) » Retire (dispose)

Pro-tips:

• Name each Value Chain individually;

• Identify the specific “need” that triggers the chain and the final “outcome” that closes it (the product or service delivered);

• When identifying the chains, you will identify end-states but also links between chains. These sets of interconnecting Value Chains are called Value Streams;

• Some of these streams may enter in infinite loops;

• The infinite loops in the Value Chains may be a sign of a problem (death spirals) but may also be desirable (Customer Lifecycle Loops). At this stage, simply focus on identifying them;

2. Deconstruct Value Chains into Processes

A Value Chain is a sequence of Processes. A Process is a sequence of Activities. Zoom-in on each Value-Chain:

• Map all the Activities on the Value Chain. The first activity is usually triggered by an action associated to the need;
• Follow the sequence of Activities. When an Activity produces a fundamental State-Shift, a Hand-off or a Temporal Break, that is a Result, the end of a Process; 
• Name that Process. A Process has a trigger and a result. Document that. The Result of a Process is the trigger for the next Process. Move onto the next Process;
• The mapping of activities ends when the result of an Activity is the expected result of the Chain (positive or negative);

Pro-tips: 

• Activities are verbs that describe what happens at a specific point, a “step” (e.g. Verify Customer Identity);

• Processes are nouns that represent a dynamic sequence, a “movement” (e.g. Customer Onboarding);

• The Result of a Process can trigger more than parallel processes;

3. Extract Business Capabilities (BC) from Activities: 

A Business Capability is a stable ability that allows the organization to execute an activity. 

• Every activity must be anchored to a Business Capability (e.g. Activity: Verify Customer Identity; Process: Customer Onboarding; Business Capability: Identity Verification);

Pro tips:

• Business Capabilities are nouns and they represent the underlying muscle that allows a given activity to happen. They are the foundational responsibilities of the organization to execute its core business;

• Processes change with technology shifts, Business Capabilities remain constant;

• Multiple activities across different Processes often use the same Business Capability;

4. Resource Inventory (RI): 

Identify all Assets (software, hardware, data) and Human Resources (FTEs) that enable (that are used or participate in) each Capability:

• Identify the human and technical resources required to execute each activity;
• Consolidate those resources per Business Capability to remove duplicates or, to name them individually to distinguish one from another;

Pro-tip:

• Define a materiality threshold: don't go after pennies, go after pounds;
• Do not rely solely on interviews. Go to the field. Observe the activity in the real world. People are often so familiar with their tasks that they "edit out" the fine details when interviewed;

5. Cost Baselining (CB): 

Attribute every Euro in the P&L to a Resource to establish a "Fully Burdened" TCO (Total Cost of Ownership). 

Pro-tips:

• Use Annual Depreciation for owned assets and Lease/Subscription costs for services to maintain an OpEx view for comparability;
• Exclude indirect costs (e.g. office space, utilities) to maintain speed. Pro-rate shared resources by percentage;
• For human resources, use a normalized hourly rate of the function or team that should represent the internal cost and should reconcile with the total people expenditure;

Final execution Pro-Tips

• When mapping Activities, Processes and Business Capabilities there are industry-specific frameworks to guide you. It is improbable that your organization's sector of activity is not already covered dby some framework. These catalogs help you to ensure a pragmatic nomenclature:

• BIAN: Banking; ACORD: Insurance; eTOM: Telecom; SCOR: Logistics; HL7 FHIR: Healthcare; HTNG: Hospitality; ARTS: Retail; IFC: Construction;

• These frameworks also guide the identification of Strategic Domains (SD) – the high-level buckets for your Capabilities;

P0.01.05 Examples

• Banking:
• VC: Loan Origination > SD: Credit Concession > BC: Credit Risk Scoring;
• RI: Core Banking System, Credit Bureau API integrations, 5 Risk Analysts;
• CB: SW license (150k€) + Cloud Services (100k€) + API fees (50k€) + Labour (400k€);

• Retail:
• VC: Order-to-Cash > SD: Order Management > BC: Real-time Inventory Visibility;
• RI: Order Management System, RFID hardware, 3 Maint Ops.
• CB: SW license (150k€) + RFID HW (50k€) + Labour (250k€).

P0.02 Section Fundamentals: 

P0.02.01 OKRs

• O: Achieve 100% visibility into the Enterprise Value Chains.
• KR1: 100% of Value Chains are cataloged (Primary and Support);
• KR2: 100% of Value Chains are linked to Resources and Business Capabilities;
• KR3: 100% of major assets and total labor (FTEs) are mapped to Business Capabilities.

P0.02.02 Artifacts

• Enterprise Architecture Map: The multi-dimensional repository.
• Categorized Business Capability Catalog: The "functional menu" of the organization. All Business Capabilities are classified as Primary or Support (through the relation to Value Chains).
• TCO Baseline Dashboard: The financial visualization of capability costs (annualized).

P0.02.03 Frameworks

• EVC (Enterprise Value Chain) / EBC (Enterprise Business Capability map): For activity breakdown and functional modularity (Source: BIZBOK®);
• ABC (Activity-Based Costing) / TBM (Technology Business Management): For financial transparency and activity-based costing (Source: TBM Council).
• TOGAF 9.2: The structural standard for enterprise mapping (Source: The Open Group).
• Core vs Context (Geoffrey Moore): For sourcing strategy and investment priority.

P0.02.04 Profiles and Roles:

• Executioner (Business Architect): Aligns functional "muscles" with strategic intent.
• Validator (Enterprise Architect): Ensures structural integrity and technical mapping.
• Clients: CIO/CTO (manage efficiency), CFO (manage transparency), COO (manage flow).

Conclusion: The Strategic Baseline

Phase 0 is not an academic exercise in documentation. The Enterprise Architecture is the mapping of the “operations theatre” and the construction of the Command Center. By completing this prerequisite, we have successfully transitioned from strategic ambiguity to operational reality:

• The Unified Map: We have moved beyond organizational charts to map the "What" and the "How" - the true topography of the business.

• Functional Muscles: We identified the Business Capabilities (the stable muscles) and separated them from the Processes (the transient movements), ensuring that technology shifts don't break our strategic understanding.

• Financial Truth: We established a Fully Burdened TCO, attributing every Euro in the P&L to a specific Resource. Where the organization is actually investing is no longer a blurry scenery, it is now visible and correlates to the balance sheet.

• Common Language: The CFO, CIO, and COO can now share a single taxonomy. This is now the Rosetta Stone that transforms the "gibberish" of department-specific jargon into the “Lingua Franca” of the organization.

Without this foundation, any further strategic move is a blind gamble. With it, we have the "pure signal" required to make surgical decisions.

Pro-Tips (the operating model for the EA map):

• Avoid the Rabbit Hole: Do not succumb to gathering excessive detail on every task - remember that time and attention is your scarcest resource;

• Establish Thresholds: Define a minimum level of detail required and do not go below that threshold;

• Capture Context: Focus on representing processes and principal milestones clearly, but include side notes from field observations as unstructured data to preserve "the grit".

• Value-Driven Iterations: Start with the minimum baseline. Deepen the detail only when a specific decision signal requires it;

• Prioritize Breadth over Depth: Completeness of coverage for Primary Value Chains is of more value than deep knowledge of one specific, isolated process

• If you have a dedicated team to do this, after ensuring the completeness, they can focus on increasing the level of granularity in antecipation of future needs;

• Live Maintenance: Update the map with every process change to keep it relevant (maintaining the minimum threshold);

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Moving Forward: The Scalpel and the Engine

Having established where we are and what it costs to stay there, The Fieldbook moves from Preparation to Optimization.

In Part 2, we will deploy the map to identify what is worth keeping and what is weighing us down. We will cover:

• Phase 1 - Portfolio Health & Rationalization: Pruning the dead wood and identifying "Toxic Waste" capabilities.

• Phase 2 - Financial Architecture: Engineering the financial engine to ensure that capital flows toward strategy, not just maintenance.

The march continues. The path is becoming clear.

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"The Fieldbook: A Strategist's Handbook":

• Part 1 - You are here
• Part 2
• Part 3

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