Value Disciplines by Treacy and Wiersema
Tracy and Wiersema gave a model called Value Disciplines model that describes three generic values disciplines. According to them the market strategy is based on one of these disciplines. A company will choose one of the value disciplines. The corporation will have to act and work according to that discipline over and over again.
The three value disciplines are:
a) Operational excellence: the companies that pursue this discipline provide the customers with products at low cost. Standardized, limited but good quality products are provided. Mac Donald’s, Dell, FedEx are some companies that pursue this discipline. IT companies that focus on this consider computing as a utility.
b) Customer intimacy: the companies that focus on customer intimacy continually provide products and services that fulfill the demands and needs of the customers. Often it includes understanding the problem from technical and political perspective.
c) Product Leadership: the companies that focus on this discipline are risk oriented and are considered for their future. They provide solutions to their customers. The companies focus on that area where the companies are ready to invest in high risk ventures. They produce very high quality products and services in a competitive environment.
According to Treacy and Wiersema any kind of corporation must choose a single discipline. They also said that doing so will form every succeeding operational decision. In an environment where fewer resources are present, the choice of discipline is very crucial. It would determine the technology which has been emphasized and also its implementation. It also provides a baseline for the customers. University environments are not homogeneous in their IT requirements and they are not monolithic structures. IT companies may have to vary their focus of disciplines from one to another and this creates a difficulty for them. The importance of this model can be understood by considering three decisions which are hiring staff, front-end for information system and implementing a management system.
Written by: Matt
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Tagged as baseline, choose one, competitive environment, customer intimacy, dell, discipline, fedex, generic values, high quality products, mac donald, market strategy, monolithic structures, operational decision, operational excellence, political perspective, product leadership, risk ventures, university environments, value disciplines, wiersema + Categorized as Business, Economy articles, Ladership & Management, Marketing & PR