When CEOs rise to the top, they don’t get there overnight. Top CEOs typically spend decades deeply understanding every facet of their organization—its finance, operations, market dynamics, workforce culture, regulatory landscape, and customer interactions. A successful CEO may invest 15-25 years understanding their enterprise’s true anatomy before they're trusted with strategic decisions.

Now, consider TOGAF-certified architects, who claim to practice "Enterprise Architecture" yet spend most of their professional life in the IT domain. How can architects, trained narrowly in IT systems and governance, possibly offer strategic value equal to a CEO who has spent decades deeply understanding their enterprise?

This is the fundamental flaw in TOGAF—it starts with IT rather than enterprise-wide strategic understanding.

1. The Dangerous Misconception: IT as the Center of Enterprise Architecture

TOGAF assumes that IT integration is the foundation of enterprise architecture, treating IT as if it were the entire enterprise. This flawed assumption creates serious strategic misalignment:

CEOs spend years (often 20+ years) learning enterprise complexities—finance, operations, HR, sales, risk management, customer experience, compliance, and beyond.
TOGAF-certified architects, however, typically spend their entire careers focused narrowly on IT, systems, and technology governance. Their limited scope creates deep structural blind spots.

Remember clearly: Enterprise Architecture demands years of comprehensive enterprise-wide strategic knowledge—not just IT systems expertise.

2. The CEO’s Advantage: Years of Enterprise-Wide Understanding

A Harvard Business Review report highlights clearly that top-performing CEOs often spend significant time (20-25+ years) mastering every part of their enterprise before taking the lead role.