Enterprise Architecture and Business-IT Alignment

The concept of three “Value Disciplines” of “Operational Excellence,” “Product Leadership” and “Customer Intimacy” was introduced by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema in 1993. It defines the value creation strategy of the organization. It provides a focus point for strategic planning exercise. It provides a context for the efforts of the whole organization to excel in the selected discipline. It provides a differentiating factor among the competition. It is a way of directing limited resources to excel in the selected discipline. Each organization should carefully select one of the value disciplines and then concentrate their efforts on it. On the other hand, it does not mean that you ignore the other two value disciplines totally.