Value Disciplines Model
The Value Disciplines Model says you can lead the market on operational excellence, customer intimacy or product leadership, but only one - the other two just need to clear the industry bar.
Three cards line up in a single column, top to bottom, one discipline per card with a line of detail below its name.
Reach for this when…
- Your strategy tries to be cheapest, most innovative and most personal at once, and nothing quite lands.
- A new competitor is winning on a dimension you've never prioritised.
- Leadership disagrees on what 'good' means here because each person is defending a different discipline.
How to run it
- Map where you currently sit on each of the three disciplines against your real competitors.
- Choose one discipline to lead the market on, the one your capabilities and economics actually support.
- Define the threshold you must still clear on the other two: credible, not excellent.
- Redirect investment, hiring and process design behind the chosen discipline.
- Say no to work that pulls you toward a discipline you didn't choose.
A worked example
Situation. Elin Bergstrom's home-goods retail chain in Gothenburg, Sweden, was trying to match a discount rival on price while also promising personal styling advice in every store, and losing money on both.
Applied. She ran her stores against the three disciplines, saw the price war was unwinnable against a bigger rival's logistics, and committed the chain to customer intimacy instead, with prices held merely adequate.
Result. She dropped the price-matching guarantee and retrained staff around long-term customer relationships. Margin per customer rose as price-shoppers went elsewhere without being missed.
The catch
Real businesses rarely fit cleanly into one box, and the model can be used to justify neglecting things customers actually care about. 'Threshold' is a judgement call that ages badly as the market moves. And picking a discipline is a five-year commitment dressed up as a one-meeting decision.
If every department names a different discipline as 'obviously ours', you haven't chosen one yet.
Origin: Michael Treacy & Fred Wiersema