Content Comparison

Introduction

The strategic response model connects the Strategic Response Model connects an organisation’s awareness of environmental internal or internal triggers external conditions to structured decision-making. By linking triggers—whether reactive events or proactive strategic intents—to clearly justified actions, the model ensures that responses are purposeful, traceable, and measurable. 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.reasoning, supports performance evaluation, and allows decisions to be revisited and refined over time.

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:

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Trigger – An initiating event or insight, such as a regulatory change or stakeholder feedback.

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Rationale(s) – The reasons behind action, which may reflect policy compliance, reputation management, equity, public trust, or operational necessity.

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Strategic response – The initiative or program launched in response to the trigger, guided by one or more selected rationales.

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Performance indicator(s) – Metrics used to evaluate the effectiveness of the strategic response.

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. Each one is grounded in an articulated rationale and initiated by a defined trigger, such as regulatory change, stakeholder concern, operational need, or long-term strategic ambition. The model provides a consistent structure for translating these drivers into coordinated action.

Purpose

Strategic governance of the organisation is the primary purpose of the Strategic Response Model. It provides a structured foundation for aligning decisions with organisational priorities, ensuring that:

• Strategic responses are explicitly connected to organisational 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

Strategic Intent

Strategic intents define proactive, forward-looking initiatives that drive organisational change. Unlike reactive triggers, they represent deliberate choices to pursue innovation, growth, efficiency, or strategic advantage. They provide essential direction and context to the response model, influencing what kinds of actions are prioritised. Intents ensure that each response is aligned to broader organisational ambition. Intents may span multiple domains and units, and the Strategic Response Model explicitly references them to maintain strategic alignment.

Orthogramic context:
In the Orthogramic Metamodel, strategic intent is implicitly expressed through high-level strategies and their alignment with stakeholder needs, market forces, and policy obligations. It anchors the Strategy domain (e.g. long-term goals, key activities, and business objectives) and informs the Strategic Response Model, which maps triggers and rationale to structured responses such as policy changes or new initiatives.

Characteristics:

• Long-term and directional rather than tactical

• Anchored in the organisation’s mission and vision

• Translated into measurable strategies and objectives

• Reinforced through cross-domain alignment (e.g. with Capabilities, Initiatives, and Performance)

Example:
An agency’s strategic intent might be “to achieve zero rail-related fatalities within a decade”, which would cascade into initiatives, stakeholder engagement plans, technological investments, and policy shifts—all modelled and aligned in Orthogramic.

Components of the Strategic Response Model

The Strategic Response Model is built around four core components that form a structured sequence—starting from identifiable triggers and rationales and ending with measurable, aligned responses. These components ensure that strategic action is justifiable, traceable, and adaptable over time.

• Trigger – A specific event, condition, or insight—internal or external—that initiates a response. This may include regulatory changes, stakeholder demands, environmental shifts, or performance deviations.

• Rationale – The reasoned justification for taking action in response to a trigger. Rationales ensure responses are deliberate—grounded in compliance needs, risk mitigation, equity goals, reputational concerns, or strategic alignment.

• Response – The initiative, program, policy, or capability change implemented to address the trigger, guided by the chosen rationale(s). These responses are formalised across business architecture layers to ensure integration and traceability.

• Performance Indicators – Quantifiable metrics used to evaluate the effectiveness, efficiency, or broader impact of a strategic response. These indicators feed into the evaluation process, which systematically compares actual outcomes to intended objectives. When a response falls short, the evaluation process may generate a new trigger—creating a feedback loop that supports continuous improvement, organisational learning, and adaptive strategy.

Example 1: regulatory-driven strategic response

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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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• 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

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Properties of the strategic response

Each Strategic Response includes properties to capture the strategic context and relationships:

• Strategic Themesthemes: Identification of which organizational strategic priorities the response supports, enabling portfolio-level analysis of strategic coverage.

• Alignment Strengthstrength: A quantitative assessment (1-5) of how closely the response aligns with organizational strategy, supporting prioritization decisions.

• Adjacent Initiativesinitiatives: Related initiatives that complement this response, facilitating coordination and preventing duplication.

• Strategic Leverslevers: The primary business mechanisms being utilized (e.g., scale, scope, differentiation), providing insight into how the response creates value.

• Strategic Horizonhorizon: 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 catalog 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 catalog 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

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catalog reference

Responses reference a trigger selected from a standardised catalogue standardized catalog of events, trends, or insights. This ensures consistency in classifying causes of change and enables systemic analysis across responses.

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