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Introduction
The strategic response model in the Orthogramic Metamodel provides a structured, traceable way to represent how an organisation prepares for and reacts to specific events or conditions—referred to as triggers. These may be internal or external in origin and include changes such as new legislation, technological shifts, workforce disruptions, or emerging stakeholder expectations.
By defining strategic responses through the lens of business architecture domains, the strategic response model enables organisations to systematically assess the impact of a trigger across capabilities, value streams, services, policies, information assets, and stakeholders. It supports alignment of initiatives with strategic objectives and helps clarify the roles of organisation units in responding to change.
This composable artefact strengthens enterprise resilience, supports compliance, and informs forward planning by establishing a consistent format for understanding and managing business strategic responses.
Structure of the artefact
This section outlines how the strategic response model is composed within the Orthogramic Metamodel. It highlights the relationships between the trigger, the impacted organisational domains, and the strategic response artefact that provides a reusable and structured representation of the organisation's response.
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Section
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Description
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Strategic response model trigger
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A defined external or internal event. Example: Proposed national safety legislation for hazardous freight.
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Impacted strategic drivers
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One or more strategic objectives tagged as relevant to the trigger.
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Key organisation units
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Units tagged as responsible, dependent, or impacted based on capability and service roles.
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Affected capabilities
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Filtered based on alignment with strategic objectives or dependency relationships.
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Service dependencies
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Services required to respond to or deliver the desired outcome of the strategic response.
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Value streams engaged
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End-to-end business processes likely to be activated or altered.
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Information requirements
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Information assets needed to inform decisions or satisfy compliance.
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Stakeholders
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Primary stakeholders affected, mapped to expectations, engagement plans, or risks.
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Policies and compliance
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Policies that apply or must be created/updated.
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Performance measures
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KPIs that will demonstrate strategic response readiness or success.
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Initiative/program links
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Existing or proposed initiatives addressing the strategic response.
What is a Trigger?
A trigger is defined as a catalyst event—internal or external—that compels an organisation to adapt. It is not a standalone structural element but a contextual stimulus that prompts changes to strategy, activates capabilities, or demands cross-functional coordination. Triggers may include legislative changes, customer demands, or performance breaches.
A Trigger is not a standalone structural element of an organisation but an external or internal event, condition, or hypothesis that causes the organisation to:
Mobilise capabilities,
Evaluate policies,
Adjust strategies,
Initiate new initiatives,
Coordinate across services and information flows.
In the Orthogramic Metamodel:
Trigger is a supporting artifact, not a domain.
It is only relevant in the context of a
strategicResponseModel.
Example: Strategic Response Model Artefact
This section presents a detailed example of a strategic response model, illustrating how a specific trigger—such as the mandated use of AI in compliance reporting—activates relevant strategies, units, capabilities, and initiatives. It demonstrates the practical application of the artefact in real-world organisational strategic responses.
Strategic response model trigger: Mandatory introduction of AI-enabled safety compliance reporting
Strategic drivers:
Reduce regulatory breach risk
Improve transparency in safety inspections
Key units:
Safety Technology Division (owning unit of AI capability)
Operations (utilising unit for inspection automation)
Legal & Risk (dependent on compliance datasets)
Capabilities:
AI-driven compliance reporting (owned by Safety Tech)
Digital field inspection (provided by Operations)
Safety data analytics (supported by Risk & Legal)
Services:
Compliance assurance service
Safety incident triage
Value streams:
Rail infrastructure incident response
Annual compliance certification
Information:
Real-time safety telemetry
Historical incident database
Stakeholders:
Federal Transport Regulator
Union of Track Workers
Policies:
Data transparency policy
AI auditing standards
Performance KPIs:
% of safety incidents auto-classified
Mean response time to compliance events
Initiatives:
AI for Safety Program (current)
Transparent Audit Framework (proposed)
Strategic Response Model trigger catalogue
The trigger catalogue provides a curated and expanding set of predefined triggers that can be used to initiate strategic responses. Each trigger is tagged to relevant business architecture domains, enabling efficient strategic response planning and alignment across organisational activities.
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Trigger Category
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Example Triggers
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Regulatory or compliance
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New legislation, compliance audit mandate, data sovereignty changes
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Technological change
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AI rollout, cybersecurity breach, platform deprecation
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Environmental & safety
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Natural disaster preparedness, climate risk disclosures, workplace injury reform
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Operational transformation
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Business process outsourcing, shared services implementation, lean redesign
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Strategic re-alignment
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Mergers and acquisitions, board-level strategic pivot, budget realignment
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Customer & stakeholder
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Community expectations shift, digital service demand surge, key account loss
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Workforce & skills
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Critical skill shortage, union action, remote work policy adoption
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Performance response
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KPI threshold breach, repeated incident occurrence, audit fail
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Political or social
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Public inquiry, ministerial intervention, social licence erosion
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Innovation-led opportunity
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Grant funding availability, pilot program success, ecosystem partnership offer
Each strategic response triggered using this catalogue links back to relevant Orthogramic Metamodel domains—such as capabilities, services, initiatives, and stakeholders—to produce a dynamic view of organisational readiness and response.
Definition of strategicResponseModel as a composable artefact
This section formalises the strategic response model as composable within the Orthogramic Metamodel. It outlines the attributes required to define a model, including associated triggers, organisational roles, information dependencies, and KPIs, supporting reuse and integration across governance and planning tools.
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Attribute
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Type
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Description
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id
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UUID
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Unique strategic response model ID
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title
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Text
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Human-readable name of the strategic response model
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description
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Text
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Summary of the strategic response model’s purpose and scope
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trigger
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Link to Trigger entity
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Source event or condition
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relatedDrivers
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List of StrategyDriver
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Strategy elements influenced
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affectedCapabilities
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List of Capability
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Impacted capabilities
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relatedValueStreams
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List of ValueStream
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Value streams engaged
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impactedUnits
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List of OrganisationUnit
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Units with strategic response model-specific roles
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servicesInScope
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List of Service
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Services required or affected
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dataDependencies
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List of InformationAsset
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Key information entities involved
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policiesInScope
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List of Policy
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Applicable rules or regulations
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stakeholders
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List of Stakeholder
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Stakeholders affected or involved
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kpis
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List of PerformanceMetric
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Metrics used to assess strategic response model success
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linkedInitiatives
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List of Initiative
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Programs or projects implementing the response
This format ensures that the strategic response definition is:
Declarative (not procedural or UI-specific),
Traceable (everything points to reusable metamodel entities),
Reusable (across tools, audits, planning activities).
Strategic Response Model JSON Schema
{ "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema", "$id": "https://orthogramic.org/schema/strategicResponseModel.json", "title": "strategicResponseModel", "type": "object", "required": ["id", "title", "trigger"], "properties": { "id": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid", "description": "Unique identifier for the strategicResponseModel" }, "title": { "type": "string", "description": "Short name for the strategicResponseModel" }, "description": { "type": "string", "description": "Narrative summary of the strategicResponseModel purpose and context" }, "trigger": { "$ref": "https://orthogramic.org/schema/trigger.json", "description": "Trigger event or condition linked to this strategicResponseModel" }, "relatedDrivers": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Strategic drivers impacted by the strategicResponseModel" }, "affectedCapabilities": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Capabilities involved or stressed by the strategicResponseModel" }, "relatedValueStreams": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Value streams that must operate under the strategicResponseModel" }, "impactedUnits": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "object", "required": ["unitId", "role"], "properties": { "unitId": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "role": { "type": "string", "enum": [ "Owning unit", "Utilising unit", "Providing unit", "Consuming unit", "Custodian unit", "Dependent unit", "Supported unit" ] } } }, "description": "Organisation units involved and their sstrategicResponseModel-specific roles" }, "servicesInScope": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Services affected, needed, or transformed by the strategicResponseModel" }, "dataDependencies": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Information assets or datasets involved" }, "policiesInScope": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Policies that govern the strategicResponseModel or require updating" }, "stakeholders": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Stakeholders directly impacted or involved" }, "kpis": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Performance metrics to track strategicResponseModel success or readiness" }, "linkedInitiatives": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Projects or programs that respond to the strategicResponseModel" }
"justification": { "type": "string", "description": "Describes the business rationale for the strategic response, including reference to the trigger, affected capabilities or domains, and expected business impact." } }}
Definition of trigger as a new open entity
Triggers are defined as a new open entity within the Orthogramic Metamodel, enabling them to be referenced independently and reused across strategic responses. Each trigger includes a unique identifier, category, description, and links to strategic responses in which it plays a role.
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Attribute
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Type
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Description
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id
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UUID
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Unique ID
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label
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Text
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Short name (e.g. “Cybersecurity Incident”)
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category
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Enum
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From defined set (e.g. Technological, Regulatory, etc.)
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description
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Text
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Explanation of why this trigger matters
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examplestrategicResponseModels
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List of strategicResponseModel
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Optional reverse reference
Trigger JSON Schema
{ "$schema": "http://json-schema.org/draft/2020-12/schema", "$id": "https://orthogramic.org/schema/trigger.json", "title": "trigger", "type": "object", "required": ["id", "label", "category"], "properties": { "id": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid", "description": "Unique identifier for the trigger" }, "label": { "type": "string", "description": "Short, human-readable name of the trigger" }, "category": { "type": "string", "enum": [ "Regulatory or compliance", "Technological change", "Environmental & safety", "Operational transformation", "Strategic re-alignment", "Customer & stakeholder", "Workforce & skills", "Performance response", "Political or social", "Innovation-led opportunity" ], "description": "Classification of trigger context" }, "description": { "type": "string", "description": "Expanded explanation of the trigger’s relevance" }, "examplestrategicResponseModels": { "type": "array", "items": { "type": "string", "format": "uuid" }, "description": "Optional references to related strategicResponseModel artefacts" } }}connects the organisation’s awareness of environmental or internal triggers to structured decision-making. It enables traceable, multi-perspective justification for strategic initiatives, ensuring that performance can be evaluated and further decisions made with confidence. This model is foundational in operationalising strategy across federated or complex organisations.
Strategic responses are not ad hoc reactions. They are anchored in clearly articulated rationales and driven by triggers that can arise from regulatory, stakeholder, operational, or environmental sources. This structure ensures initiatives are not only justifiable, but measurable, and, if necessary, repeatable or adaptable through cyclical learning.
Model flow
The model follows a standardised pattern:
Trigger – An initiating event or insight, such as a regulatory change or stakeholder feedback.
Rationale(s) – The reasons behind action, which may reflect policy compliance, reputation management, equity, public trust, or operational necessity.
Strategic response – The initiative or program launched in response to the trigger, guided by one or more selected rationales.
Performance indicator(s) – Metrics used to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategic response.
Evaluation – An assessment process that compares actual performance to target thresholds. This can itself become a new trigger if performance is insufficient.
Example 1: regulatory-driven strategic response
This example demonstrates how a regulatory update triggered a strategic initiative. The rationale was multi-dimensional—compliance, reputation, and efficiency all played a role. Evaluation of the performance indicator revealed a gap, leading to a new trigger.
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Example 2: selective rationale application
In this example, a drop in commuter confidence led to the identification of multiple potential rationales. However, only one was selected—public trust—and this guided the strategic response. This illustrates the model’s flexibility: not all rationales need to be acted upon, but all are considered.
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Benefits
Strategic clarity – Clearly documents why a response was initiated.
Transparency – Enables others to trace decisions back to their rationale.
Evaluation-ready – Built-in performance measures support iterative improvement.
Federated usability – Designed for complex organisational structures with diverse stakeholder needs.
Components of the strategic response model
The Strategic Response Model (SRM) links both proactive intentions and observed conditions—external and internal—to formal responses across Strategy, Capabilities, Policy, Initiatives, and other domains. It is comprised of four core elements:
Strategic Intent: Proactive, forward-looking strategic initiatives that drive organizational change.
Triggers: Events, insights, or conditions that prompt a response. See: Trigger
Rationales: The reasoned justification for responding to a trigger or pursuing a strategic intent. See Rationale
Responses: The aligned changes or activities, captured in other business architecture domains.
Performance Indicators: The quantifiable metrics used to evaluate the success, efficiency, or impact. See: Performance indicators
This structured model enables traceable, auditable, and adaptive decision-making throughout the organisation.
Purpose
The SRM strengthens strategic governance by ensuring that:
Business responses are traceable to defined triggers or strategic intents
Rationales are explicitly captured and consistently structured
Impact across domains and organisational units is recorded
Organisational learning and auditability are enhanced
Proactive strategic planning is integrated with reactive responses
Structure
Each Strategic Response includes:
A trigger or strategic intent: drawn from the shared trigger catalogue or strategic intent register
A rationale object: structured and detailed, replacing simple references
One or more affected domains: such as policy, initiatives, or capabilities
Impacted organisational units: using defined role types
Response actions: steps taken or planned
Expected outcomes: anticipated benefits or changes in performance
A performance indicator measuring a response
Affected domains
Strategic responses typically impact one or more of the following domains:
Strategy: adjustments to goals or strategic direction
Capabilities: development, enhancement, or decommissioning
Initiatives: programs or projects started or stopped
Policy: introduction or amendment of rules and frameworks
Performance: redefinition or reweighting of KPIs
Information: changes to how data is used or governed
Value Stream: refinements in end-to-end value delivery
Customer: changes to customer experience, segmentation, or journeys
Market: responses to competitive threats or market opportunities
Finance: adjustments to financial structures or investments
Risk Management: implementation of new controls or mitigation approaches
Supply Chain: changes to supplier networks, logistics, or inventory approaches
Innovation: adjustments to innovation processes, portfolios, or capabilities
Sustainability: changes to environmental, social, or governance approaches
People: modifications to workforce, culture, or competency frameworks
Technology: updates to applications, infrastructure, or technical standards
Channel: changes to distribution networks, partners, or integration approaches
Impacted organisational units
The impactedUnits array uses standardised relationship roles (as defined in the Inter-unit Domain Relationships model). See: Inter-unit domain relationships
Strategic intent model
The Strategic Intent Model provides a structured approach for capturing proactive, forward-looking strategic initiatives that drive organizational change. Unlike triggers which are reactive in nature, strategic intents represent deliberate organizational choices to pursue opportunities for innovation, growth, efficiency, or other strategic advantages.
Relationship with strategic responses
Strategic Intents have a one-to-many relationship with Strategic Responses. A single intent can spawn multiple coordinated responses across different domains and organizational units. This relationship is bidirectional, as Strategic Responses reference the Strategic Intent that initiated them through the intentReferences property.
Intent register
The organization maintains a Strategic Intent Register that catalogs all proactive strategic initiatives. This register enables:
Tracking of intent-to-response relationships
Assessment of strategic alignment
Evaluation of intent completion and effectiveness
Analysis of organizational proactivity vs. reactivity
Strategic context and relationships
Each Strategic Response now includes these properties to capture the strategic context and relationships:
Strategic Themes: Identification of which organizational strategic priorities the response supports, enabling portfolio-level analysis of strategic coverage.
Alignment Strength: A quantitative assessment (1-5) of how closely the response aligns with organizational strategy, supporting prioritization decisions.
Adjacent Initiatives: Related initiatives that complement this response, facilitating coordination and preventing duplication.
Strategic Levers: The primary business mechanisms being utilized (e.g., scale, scope, differentiation), providing insight into how the response creates value.
Strategic Horizon: Categorization using the Three Horizons Framework:
Horizon 1: Core business optimization (0-18 months)
Horizon 2: Emerging opportunities (18-36 months)
Horizon 3: Creating viable options for future business (36+ months)
Purpose - Enhanced Benefits
The enhanced Strategic Response Model further strengthens strategic governance by ensuring that:
Strategic responses are explicitly connected to organizational strategic themes
The degree of strategic alignment is quantifiably assessed
The portfolio of initiatives is coordinated through explicit adjacency relationships
Value creation mechanisms are clearly identified
Time horizons are explicitly considered in strategic planning
Relationship with rationales
Rationales play an important role in classifying and organising strategic responses and intents. Ensure that the trigger catalogue and strategic intent register—which lists common environmental or operational triggers and proactive intentions prompting strategic responses—are up to date. Reference to the trigger catalogue and strategic intent register within this page ensures that rationales are accurately categorised based on their initiating context, improving traceability from external or internal stimuli through to strategic objectives, initiatives, and performance metrics.
Trigger catalogue reference
Responses reference a trigger selected from a standardised catalogue of events, trends, or insights. This ensures consistency in classifying causes of change and enables systemic analysis across responses.
Domain-Specific Response Models
The Strategic Response Model has been extended to address domain-specific needs in Customer, Market, Finance, Risk Management, Supply Chain, Innovation, Sustainability, People, Technology, and Channel domains. These extensions provide specialized properties and enumerations to capture the unique aspects of strategic responses in each domain.
Customer-Related Strategic Responses
Customer-related strategic responses focus on addressing customer needs, behaviors, and journeys. They include specialized properties such as:
Customer segments targeted by the response
Customer outcomes resulting from the response
Customer experience changes implemented
Customer feedback mechanisms
Market-Related Strategic Responses
Market-related strategic responses address competitive positioning, market opportunities, or industry shifts. They include properties such as:
Markets targeted by the response
Competitors addressed by the response
Competitive advantage created or enhanced
Market position changes implemented
Competitive monitoring approaches
Finance-Related Strategic Responses
Finance-related strategic responses focus on financial structures, investments, or resource allocation. They include properties such as:
Financial outcomes resulting from the response
Required financial resources
Financial risk assessment
Financial review mechanisms
Risk Management-Related Strategic Responses
Risk-related strategic responses address risk prevention, mitigation, or transfer. They include properties such as:
Risk elements addressed by the response
Implemented controls
Risk monitoring approaches
Residual risk assessment
Supply Chain-Related Strategic Responses
Supply chain-related strategic responses focus on network design, supplier relationships, or logistics optimization. They include properties such as:
Supply chain elements addressed by the response
Supply chain changes implemented
Supply chain risks associated with the response
Stakeholder engagement approaches
Innovation-Related Strategic Responses
Innovation-related strategic responses focus on idea generation, experimentation, and innovation capabilities. They include properties such as:
Innovation elements addressed by the response
Innovation outcomes resulting from the response
Experimentation approaches implemented
Portfolio impact assessment
Innovation capability changes
Sustainability-Related Strategic Responses
Sustainability-related strategic responses focus on environmental, social, and governance dimensions. They include properties such as:
Sustainability elements addressed by the response
Environmental and social outcomes targeted
Stakeholder expectations being addressed
Compliance requirements being met
Climate scenario considerations
People-Related Strategic Responses
People-related strategic responses focus on workforce, culture, and organizational capabilities. They include properties such as:
Workforce elements addressed by the response
Cultural changes implemented
Talent development approaches
Knowledge management strategies
Competency framework adjustments
Technology-Related Strategic Responses
Technology-related strategic responses focus on systems, infrastructure, and technical standards. They include properties such as:
Technology elements addressed by the response
Architecture changes implemented
Technical debt impacts
Security enhancements
Integration approaches
Channel-Related Strategic Responses
Channel-related strategic responses focus on distribution networks, partners, and customer touchpoints. They include properties such as:
Channel elements addressed by the response
Channel configuration changes
Partner strategy adjustments
Omnichannel integration approaches
Distribution network optimizations