Introduction
The Strategic Response Model provides a formalised structure for capturing how an organisation responds to external triggers, internal performance insights, and proactive strategic initiatives. It links these drivers to organisational reasoning (rationales) and defines the actions taken across strategic, policy, capability, and initiative domains. By making these relationships explicit, the model supports traceability, alignment, and accountability across the business architecture.
Each strategic response includes references to the triggers that prompted the change or the strategic intents that initiated it, along with the rationales that explain the basis for the response. Responses are associated with affected domains and are monitored through linked performance indicators, which define what success looks like and how progress is measured. These indicators support ongoing evaluation by including target values, baseline comparisons, timeframes, and data sources, enabling continuous assessment of strategic effectiveness.
This model supports continuous strategic alignment by documenting why a change occurred, how it was rationalised, and what was impacted and by how much—across strategies, capabilities, initiatives, policy, and organisational units.
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 field.
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