+ Chapter 1

The Information Systems

Strategy Triangle

Managing and Using Information Systems: A

Strategic Approach

by Keri Pearlson & Carol Saunders

+ Learning Objectives 2

 Determine the role general managers must take in

decisions about IS.
 Defineand explain the Information Systems Strategy
Triangle.
 Identify
and define the various business strategy
frameworks.
 Explain the information system strategy matrix.
 Understand and apply these models to different
organizations.
+ Real World Example 3

 During an ice storm in 2007 many airlines were cancelling

flights.
 Jet Blue waited to cancel flights and paid a heavy price.
 Had to cancel 1,000 flights over 5 days.
 Upto 9 planes full of passengers were stranded for up to
6 hours on the tarmac.
 Aninadequate reservation system and shoestring
communication system was blamed for the problems by
Neelman.
 Changes had to be made.
+ The Impact of IS 4

 Companies are out of alignment when their business

strategy is not supported by their IS.
 The Information Systems Strategy Triangle is a simple
framework for understanding the impact of IS on
organizations and proper alignment.
 Successful firms have an overriding business strategy.
 This business strategy drives both Organizational and
Information strategy.
 All decisions are driven by the firm’s business objectives.
+ 5

Figure 1.1 The Information Systems Strategy Triangle

+ 6

IS Strategy Triangle

 Business Strategy drives all other strategies.

 Organizational
and Information Strategy are then
dependent upon the Business Strategy.
 Changes in any strategy requires changes in the others to
maintain balance.
 IS Strategy is affected by the other strategies a firm uses.
 IS strategy always involves consequences.
+
BRIEF OVERVIEW OF BUSINESS STRATEGY
FRAMEWORKS
+ Think About IT 8

 What is a business strategy?

 Which factors influences a business strategy?

 How does a business change its strategy without losing balance or

becoming out of alignment?

 Are there specific events that induce a business to change its

strategies? What are they?
+ Strategy 9

A strategy is a coordinated set of actions to fulfill

objectives, purposes and goals.
 Strategy starts with a mission.
 Figure 1.2 shows some example mission statements.
A business strategy is a plan articulating where a
business seeks to go and how it expects to get there.
 There are several “strategies” worth examining.
+ 10

Company Statement
At IBM, we strive to lead in the creation, development and manufacture of the industry's most
IBM
advanced information technologies, including computer systems, software, networking systems,

storage devices and microelectronics. We translate these advanced technologies into value for

our customers through our professional solutions and services businesses worldwide.

Dell's mission is to be the most successful computer company in the world at delivering the best
Dell
customer experience in markets we serve.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the
Apple
personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Apple is committed to bringing the best

personal computing experience to students, educators, creative professionals and consumers

around the world through its innovative hardware, software and Internet offerings.

Figure 1.2 – Mission statements of computer companies

+ 11

Generic Strategies Framework

 Michael Porter describes how businesses can build a sustainable competitive

advantage.

 He identified three primary strategies for achieving competitive advantage:

 Cost leadership – lowest-cost producer.
 Differentiation – product is unique.
 Focus – limited scope.
+ 12

Figure 1.3 Three strategies for achieving competitive advantage.

+ 13

Porter’s Competitive Advantage

 Remember that a companies overall business strategy

will drive all other strategies.
 Porter defined these competitive advantages to
represent various business strategies found in the
marketplace.
 Cost leadership strategy firms include Walmart,
Suzuki, Overstock.com, etc.
 Differentiation strategy firms include Coca Cola,
Progressive Insurance, Publix, etc.
 Focus strategy firms include the Ritz Carlton, Marriott,
etc.
+ Differentiation Strategy Variants 14

 Shareholder value model: create advantage through

the use of knowledge and timing (Fruhan)
 Unlimited resources model: companies with a large
resource can sustain losses more easily than ones with
fewer resources (Chain Store vs Mom & Pop).
 The problem with Porter and these variants are that
the rate of change is no longer easily managed and
sustained.
+ 15

Hypercompetition

 D’Aveni developed a model that stated that sustainable competitive

advantage could NOT be sustained.

 Called the “Hypercompetition and the New 7 Ss Framework”.

 Competitive advantage is rapidly erased by competition and the

market.
+ 16

 Assumptions of D’Aveni’s Hypercompetition and the New 7 Ss Framework

model:
 Every advantage is eroded (gradually destroy).
 Sustaining an advantage can be a deadly distraction.
 Goal of advantage should be disruption, not sustainability
 Initiatives are achieved through series of small steps.
+ 17

Figure 1.4 Disruption and the new 7 Ss

+ D’Aveni’s new 7 Ss
 The7 Ss are useful for determining different aspects of a
business strategy and aligning them to make the
organization competitive in the hypercompetitive arena.
 The 7 Ss are (see Figure 1.5):
1. Superior stakeholder satisfaction

2. Strategic soothsaying

3. Positioning for speed

4. Positioning for surprise

5. Shifting the rules of competition

6. Signaling strategic intent

7. Simultaneous and sequential strategic thrusts

18
 Approach Definition
+ 19

Superior stakeholder satisfaction Understanding how to maximize customer

satisfaction by adding value strategically.

Strategic soothsaying Seeking out new knowledge that can predict or

create new windows of opportunity.

Positioning for speed Preparing the organization to react as quickly as

possible.

Positioning for surprise Preparing the organization to respond to the

marketplace in a manner that will surprise
competitors.
Shifting the rules of competition Finding new ways to serve customers which
transform the industry.

Signaling strategic intent Communicating the intended actions of a

company, in order to stall responses by
competitors.
Simultaneous and sequential Taking a series of steps designed to stun and
thrusts confuse competitors in order to disrupt or block
their efforts.
Figure 1.5 D’Aveni’s new 7 Ss.
+ 20

Application of Hypercompetition

 General Electric applied the Hypercompetition Model

to its business units in the Destroy Your Business (DYB)
project.
 GE recognized that if they didn’t understand and
recognize their own weaknesses they could not remain
competitive.
 Employees were tasked to determine ways to
“destroy their business unit”. Once they have
identified these areas of weakness they apply the
Grow Your Business (GYB) strategy to find fresh ways
to reach new customers and better serve existing
customers.
+ IS Planning and Strategic Advantage Models 21

 GeneralManagers cannot afford to rely solely on IS

personnel to make IS decisions.
 Business strategy drives IS decision making.
 Changes in IS potential should trigger business
reassessments (i.e. the Internet).
 Information
Systems Strategy Triangle shows the
proper balance of strategies.
 Themodels are helpful in discussing the role of IS in
building and sustaining competitive advantage.
 22
Framework Key Idea Application to Information Systems

Porter’s generic Firms achieve competitive Understanding which strategy is chosen by a

advantage through cost firm is critical to choosing IS to complement

strategies
leadership, differentiation, or the strategy
Framework
focus

D’Aveni’s Speed and aggressive moves IS are critical to achieving the speed needed

and countermoves by a firm for moves and countermoves. IS are in a

Hypercompetition
create competitive advantage constant state of flux or development.
Model

Figure 1.6 Summary of key strategy frameworks.

+ BRIEF OVERVIEW OF ORGANIZATIONAL 23

STRATEGIES
+ Organizational Strategy 24

 Organizational strategy includes the organization’s

design as well as the choices it makes in its work
processes.
 How will the company organize in order to achieve its
goals and implement its business strategy?
 Managerial Levers – another framework for
organizational design, states that successful execution of
the firm’s organizational strategy is the best
combination of organizational, control, and cultural
variables (Figure 1.8).
+ Business Diamond 25

 Simpleframework for identifying crucial components of

an organization’s plan (Figure 1.7):
 its business processes
 its values and beliefs
 its management control systems
 its tasks and structures.

 Useful
for designing new organizations and for
diagnosing organizational troubles.
 26

Figure 1.7 The Business Diamond

+ Managerial Levers 27

 Thisframework (Figure 1.8) suggests that the successful execution

of a business’s organizational strategy comprises the best
combination of organizational, control, and cultural variables.

 Organizational variables include:

 decision rights, business processes, formal reporting
relationships, and informal networks.

 Control variables include:

 availability of data, nature and quality of planning,
effectiveness of performance measurement and evaluation
systems, and incentives to do good work.

 Cultural variables comprise the values of the organization.

+ 28

Figure 1.8 Managerial Levers

+ Understanding Organization Strategy 29

To understand organizational strategy we must

answer the following questions:
1. What are the important structures and reporting
relationships within the organization?
2. What are the characteristics, experiences, and skill
levels of the people within the organization?
3. What are the key business processes?
4. What control systems are in place?
5. What is the culture of the organization?
+Framework Key Idea Usefulness in IS Discussions
30

Business There are 4 key Using IS in an organization will affect

Diamond components of an each of these components. Use this
organization: business framework to identify where these
processes, values and impacts are likely to occur
beliefs, management
control systems, and
tasks and structures.
Managerial Organizational This is a more detailed model than
levers variables, control the Business diamond and gives
variables, and cultural specific areas where IS can be used
variables are the levers to manage the organization and to
managers can use to change it
affect change in their
organizations

Figure 1.9 Summary of organizational strategy frameworks

+BRIEF OVERVIEW OF INFORMATION
SYSTEMS STRATEGY
+ 32

IS Strategy

 Theplan an organization uses in providing information

services.
 IS allows business to implement its business strategy.
 IS helps determine the company’s capabilities.
 Fourkey IS infrastructure components are key to IS
strategy (Figure 1.9)
 These
key components are sufficient to allow the
general manager to assess critical IS issues.
 33
What Who Where

Hardware List of physical Individuals who use it Physical location

components of the Individuals who
system manage it
Software List of programs, Individuals who use it What hardware it
applications, and Individuals who resides upon and
utilities manage it where that hardware
is located

Networking Diagram of how Individuals who use Where the nodes are
hardware and it/ Individuals who located, where the
software manage it/ wires and other
components are Company service transport media are
connected obtained from located

Data Bits of information Individuals who use it Where the

stored in the system Individuals who information resides
manage it

Figure 1.10 Information systems strategy matrix.

+
FOOD FOR THOUGHT: THE HALO EFFECT
AND OTHER BUSINESS DELUSIONS
+ 35

Halo Effect

 In
Feb 2005 Dell was ranked #1 as the most
admired company.
 But, two years later their performance slumped.
 Thehalo effect is “the basic human tendency to
make specific inferences on the basis of a general
impression” (Rosenzweig).
 This effect impacted journalists view of Dell.
+ 36

 Rosenzweig describes three misconceptions that are created by the halo

effect in general
 There exists a formula or blueprint that companies can apply and become high
performers.
 Firm performance is driven entirely by internal factors.
 Because a decision may turn out badly does not necessarily mean that it was poorly
made.
+ 37

 Rosenzweig said that “managers should be skeptical

of formulas, recognize that performance is relative,
think of business decisions in terms of probabilities, and
carefully evaluate decision making processes and not
just their outcomes”.
 Dell
was not stuck in a rut and looked for new avenues
of growth.
 HPhired a new CEO during that time period who was
very effective and directly impacted Dell.
+ Summary 38

 The Information Systems Strategy Triangle shows that

business strategy always drives organizational and
information strategies.
 Business strategy drives organizational and IS strategy.
 Includes models from Porter and D’Aveni.

 Organizational strategy must complement business

strategy.
 Models are the business diamond and managerial levers.
+ Summary 39

 IS strategy must complement business strategy.

 When IS supports business goals the business the business
appears to be working well.

 Strategic Relationships.
 Organizational strategy and information strategy must
complement each other.
 They must support, not hinder each other.
 If change is made to one area the others must be examined to
ensure balance.