Excellence in Enterprise Architecture

In a recent post by Nick Malik, he details how he was asked a question about whether or not Microsoft provides “internal support to create an Enterprsie Architecture program.” Upon reflection, Malik felt that, yes Microsoft does support the EA team. He also remarked on his definition of what constitutes excellence:

Excellent, to me, means that the effort is tailored to the needs of the business. That includes business strategy, business structure, and corporate culture.

His opinion is that this definition of excellence is different for everyone. Do you think there is a common way to define it? And what would you define as attaining excellence for an enterprise architecture program?