System
A system so that the company works as a whole.
It is not a new ERP or another system of record. It connects the systems that already exist to what they exist for, and coordinates people and tools with the important decisions in human hands.
What this folder holds
Each system knows its own job. None knows what it is all for.
The sales system knows the customers; the operations system, the orders; the quality system, its records. When one piece puts another at risk, nobody sees the whole of it. A workflow says: when X happens, do Y. What is missing is something else: we have objective Z and something is holding it back; find out what, propose a response, coordinate the right people and systems, and assess the result.
Source in the workspace: system/docs/charter/
Seven linked questions. From why we exist to how we learn.
It is the Integrated Strategy Architecture: a synthesis of established ideas (Porter, Kaplan and Norton, Hoshin Kanri), not a new framework. The seven questions repeat at every level of the company, from management to operations, and run through a cycle: formulate, design, deploy, execute, measure and adapt.
Purpose and directionOpen at AKRIBIS
Why do we exist?
Strategic ambition
What do we want to achieve?
Strategic choices
Where will we play and how will we win?
Operating model
How will the organisation work?
Management methodology
How do we make strategy happen?
Execution
Who does what, and when?
Performance and learning
How do we know, learn and adapt?
Six rules connect them.
They are working hypotheses: part of the research is testing whether they hold.
- Every objective rests on explicit choices.
- Every choice requires capabilities.
- Every capability has an operating model that delivers it.
- Every initiative traces back to a choice or a necessary operating requirement.
- Every measure informs a decision, not just a report.
- Every level stays aligned without losing its autonomy.
Federate, don't absorb. Each system remains the owner of its records.
The core replaces no one. It holds the context, the decisions and the coordination that connect the specialised systems. When two systems hold the same customer, the core keeps one shared identity and the rules on which system governs each piece of data; it does not create a third record to compete with them.
CoreContext, decisions and coordination
- Customers and sales
- Operations and finance
- Quality
- Documents and workspace
- People
- Projects
- Data and measures
- Control and instrumentsProposed
What we want, what is, and what we believe. Three kinds of knowledge, kept apart.
- Normative
- What the organisation wants and allows: objectives, policies and rules.
- Descriptive
- What the organisation is, does and experiences today: processes, systems and results.
- Causal
- What we believe produces the results, with its evidence and its uncertainty.
A causal hypothesis is never stored as a fact.
And three states of the company: as it is, as it should be, and the transition between them.
Autonomy is set one decision at a time. It is not a permission given to artificial intelligence.
Advise
The system observes and proposes; a person decides and acts.
Assist
The system prepares the action; a person approves it.
Execute under control
The system acts within limits, with a record and a way back.
Always in human hands: changes of strategy, significant spending, commitments to customers, decisions about people and regulated approvals.
Nothing is assumed permanent. A capability matures in stages.
An example: quality management, which today may be a set of documents. The originals stay as controlled records, what does not work is replaced step by step, and sometimes integrating a good external application is the best answer.
1
Unstructured
Documents and records exist.
2
Discovered
Its types, owners, relationships and versions are known.
3
Structured
Key concepts become objects: a nonconformity, a corrective action.
4
Operated
It has states, workflows, permissions, approvals and traceability.
5
Integrated
It connects to customers, products, orders, suppliers, measures and objectives.
Source in the workspace: system/docs/research/
What we are still researching. Before we claim the model is new.
To what extent do existing strategic management theories integrate the organisation's levels, its decisions, operating model, methodology, execution and learning into one system? A systematic review of the literature answers four questions.
- RQ1Coverage: which parts of an integrated system existing frameworks address.
- RQ2Integration: how they explain the relationships and dependencies between those parts.
- RQ3Gaps: which parts or relationships remain underdeveloped.
- RQ4Synthesis: whether a more complete architecture can be built from what exists.
The literature must be allowed to challenge the seven-layer model, not be made to fit it.
What it is not. Saying so is a decision too.
- A new ERP or another system of record.
- Another strategy framework for its own sake.
- An autonomous platform in its first version.
- An artificial intelligence that runs the company without human governance.
- A generic configuration that solves every domain.
- An original idea: it will only be one if a review of prior work shows it.