Final answer:
In a hyper-competitive market, architecture must be designed with maximum flexibility and scalability to cope with business changes. Scalability ensures the architecture can handle growth and adapt to new demands.
Step-by-step explanation:
Hyper-competition in business environments suggests that companies must be able to adapt quickly to market changes. In the context of architecture design, this implies a need for both flexibility and scalability. Scalability refers to the ability of an architecture to handle growing amounts of work or to be expanded to accommodate that growth. This attribute is essential in hyper-competitive markets where businesses need to respond rapidly to increasing customer demands or changes in technology. Therefore, when designing any architecture to handle imminent business changes, maximum flexibility and scalability are key considerations.