Sustained value from strategy and architecture work

The world is full of people who say they can do strategy and architecture work - maybe they can, maybe they can't.

I don't believe it can done in a such a way as to produce sustained value and lead to self-sufficient organisations unless it is done in the right way, with the right tooling. I have never seen anyone, anywhere do this.

Giving some point advice e.g. a list of programmes to be initiated, a list of changes required etc. - no matter how pertinent and correct isn't quite the same thing. Where point means relating to this problem, with these goals, in this situation at this point in time.

What I mean by sustained value is a strategy and architecture that can be kept current, used to analyse what should be done as circumstances change (regulatory, market, technology etc.) and what I mean by self-sufficient is the organisation can maintain, integrate, extend etc. the knowledge of their enterprise and its environment represented in the strategy and architecture. Albeit that they may call on some expertise for extending the scope of depth of its application. (Cf. "give a man a fish and you feed him for a day, but teach him how to fish and you feed him for a lifetime").

If we compared this to a town plan - what I am say is:
Giving some point advice (e.g. build this infrastructure or don't build the airport there) - no matter how pertinent and correct the advice may be - is not the same thing as providing a city a mechanism for maintaining information that will allow them to make these types of decisions in future. In the 1st case maybe I don't need a co-ordinate system (a framework), a map, sets of building codes and standards, places to record information on the existing situation (assets, features) and expected changes (demographics, technology, projects) etc. - I can all this in my head, articulate the relevants aspects in my report and make my recommendations. The problem is that most of critical knowledge wouldn't be available for the next decision. What I would have done is made myself more valueable - good for me, not so good for the client.

Few would mistake the giving of this point advice as establishing a strategic and architecture capability. However this mistake seems commonly made in IT.