Business Frameworks

Since the dawn of doing business, leaders have been refining their analysis of where and how to compete, grow, and manage their organisations.?

Business frameworks have been integral in both the development of strategy and the execution of it, because they help inform key decisions and offer scenarios and insight on what options to adopt.

In simple terms, a business framework is a system of rules that are used to govern a process or decisions. They help ensure that the output of decisions or processes is consistent, of a high standard, and aligned with an organisation's principles, values, and goals.

There is an abundance of business frameworks available and top professionals in their field become highly proficient in using those that are relevant to their particular line of work.

Framework Adoption

While many people have their favourites, there is no one best business framework and often you may find that you need to use several during the course of your work. Frameworks save you time by providing a starting point for information gathering and analysis. That said, no framework can replace the need for experience and common sense. Business frameworks are time-savers, but ultimately it is your business insight and your ability to work well with others that will deliver value to an organisation.

While some organisations find themselves using ambiguous or unclear frameworks, the best managers and leaders understand the importance of well-documented frameworks that everyone can read about and understand. It's now common, particularly among larger organisations, to see these well-documented frameworks widely adopted and taught across the enterprise. As business frameworks have become more integral to the way organisations operate, they are also frequently mentioned in job ads and in the CVs and resumes that respond to them.

Half a Dozen Framework Flavours

There is an extensive range of business frameworks available. In this article I've decided to mention six of them. Feel free to introduce the frameworks you work with in the comments below.

Strategy Frameworks

A strategy framework is a tool that can help structure business thinking and guide businesses as they grow and accomplish their missions. They demonstrate how a business or department plans to use projects and other initiatives to uphold the overall vision of executive stakeholders.?They can also be used to analyse business issues and develop strategies that are appropriate for a particular organisation.

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Innovation Frameworks

Innovation frameworks are a strategic structure designed to give organisations the ability to tap into ideas, evaluate the strengths and weakness of each, make informed decisions and build strategies to turn ideas into value-generating opportunities for the business.

Whether it's sustaining innovation, disruptive innovation, incremental innovation, or radical innovation, without a clear innovation framework, businesses could be simply collecting ideas without realising they were sitting on a goldmine.

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Business Transformation Frameworks

A business transformation management framework enables transformation managers and leaders to take a holistic and process driven approach to creating new business outcomes. Whether an organisation's definition of business transformation involves big bold moves, minor performance improvements, managing this is a complex undertaking.

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Digital Transformation Frameworks

A digital transformation framework helps managers and leaders future-proof their business by shifting legacy customer, business and operating models into a new normal. It's when innovative people leverage technology and data to enable completely new ways to create value for the business, customers, employees and partners.

While for some organisations digital transformation is limited to digitising existing processes, others are fundamentally transforming their business models and establishing themselves as digital economy leaders.

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Customer Centricity Frameworks

A customer centricity framework enables a company to continuously understand and anticipate the needs of the customer. Then, as a matter of process, they deliver on those needs. It's common for companies to announce how they are focused on the customer and that they put the customer first. But the number of companies that do this is fairly limited.

Customer expectations and behaviours have changed dramatically over the past decade. Organisations are expected to meet customers’ needs and expectations at every interaction, in return for customer loyalty. The ability to deliver this depends on the extent to which ‘customer-centricity’ is embedded within every single person in your business.

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Project Management Frameworks

A project management framework is a set of standard project management processes, templates and tools that can be used to initiate, plan, execute, control and close a project. Using a project management framework facilitates decision making, communication, and coordination, and ultimately produce the required outputs on time and budget.?

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In Summary

There are thousands of articles, videos and podcasts suggesting innovative and useful business frameworks. Some frameworks are very high level, while others are underpinned by their own rich body of knowledge.

The choice of a business framework depends on the business, its goals, and often the personal preferences of key decision makers. Regardless of the business goals you are aiming to achieve, the use of frameworks can be very helpful, and often expected of the highest paid professionals in their field.