Business architect is a person that initiates new business ventures or leads business innovation, designs a winning business model, and builds a sustainable balanced business system for a lasting success.

Business architects can be found in a multitude of business settings: corporate change leaders, initiators of joint ventures, managers of radical innovation projects, in-company ventures, spin-outs, or new start-up ventures. Although the settings in which business architects act are different, they all design and run a new venture to achieve its sustainable growth.

The integrated business systems approach to business development and the management process is what distinguishes modern cross-functionally excellent business architects from functional managers. As a business architect and an extremely effective leader, you must have a broad view to be able to link together – synergistically! – the key components of corporate success – from functional planning to cross-functional cooperation, from supply chain management to customer value creation, from the art of continuous learning to the practice of effective communication and influencing people – and bundle them in an intellectual, innovative and pragmatic package that can be used to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and business growth, both top-line and bottom-line.

At the heart of the inclusive approach is the belief that understanding stakeholder needs – the needs of customers, employees, suppliers, shareholders and society, and the environment – and incorporating them into enterprise strategy and sustainable value creation activities are central to the achievement of sustainable growth and competitiveness.