Opening Thoughts - Innovation

Greetings, and welcome to our sixth issue of Architecture & Governance Magazine. With over 7000 subscribers across more than 20 countries, A&G has become one the most widely circulated and most influential publications dedicated to advancing the knowledge of Enterprise Architecture and IT Governance issues.

Many of you will be receiving this magazine in PDF format for the first time. As we expand our global presence, we are adopting a digital distribution model for many subscribers. Feel free to share your PDF copy with colleagues and point them to our website at www.architectureandgovernance.com to get a personal copy. If you would like to continue receiving a print copy of the magazine, drop us a note at editor@architectureandgovernance.com and we will tell you how you can continue to do so.

This issue also represents a turning point for us as we have dedicated much of this issue to a single topic: Innovation. Following the dot-com crash, the outsourcing era and the wave of merger-mania (all in the last 10 years), corporate America now seems poised to embrace innovation as the next grand avenue to fiscal success. Early adherents like Google, Apple and Jet Blue are setting the tone and others must now figure out how to innovate or die!

In fact, the realms of Innovation and Enterprise Architecture are inexorably linked and this linkage must be exploited across the enterprise to capitalize on future opportunities and succeed against future competitive threats. As Jeanne Ross (profiled in this issue) and her colleagues from MIT's Sloan Center for Information Systems Research note in their new book Enterprise Architecture as Strategy, “Enterprise Architecture in many companies refers to a detailed blueprint of IT systems, data, and technology. It is now clear that Enterprise Architecture is instead a business vision - it shapes the strategic opportunities a company can respond to in the future.”

In addition to lessons on business execution from MIT, Larry R. DeBoever covers the amazing pace of innovation at Apple Computer, Bruce Stewart discusses the challenge of managing innovation as an enterprise architect and I write about the coming wave of technological advancement that will make today's innovation dilemmas look like mere ripples in an ocean of change. Finally, you will want to catch George Paras' “The Last Word” column as he summarizes EA leadership in the quest for Innovation.

We hope you enjoy this issue, and we always welcome comments, criticisms, and ideas for future articles. You can contact George Paras or me at the email addresses listed on the Staff page.

by Jonas Lamis, Founding Editor, Architecture & Governance Magazine