Technology Strategy Patterns

Chapter 1. Architect and Strategist

This chapter provides an overview of three different, somewhat traditional business strategy examples from different industries. We’ll then look at the role of the architect and the role of the strategist in modern business, to see how strategically minded technologists can be a catalyst for real, meaningful change in their organizations.

Business Strategies

Business strategies reveal how companies allocate resources toward a certain aim. Let’s take three examples: Michelin, a tire-company-turned-dining giant; Oracle, a dominant name in software; and Xerox and Canon, companies whose strategies set them on very different paths in the copy industry. Our brief look at these strategies will provide you with context for the concept of “strategy” and illustrate the business implications different strategies can have.

Marketing at Michelin

The Michelin Guide has been in circulation for nearly 120 years.  It is known across the globe as the gold standard for fine dining restaurant ratings and reviews. The world’s top chefs work year-round in pursuit of the coveted Michelin star, because being awarded one means that your restaurant is worth a detour, worth making a special trip just to eat there. And thousands of diners trust the guide as a well-known authority on the best restaurants. Such excitement is created in France each year upon its publication that the media frenzy it ignites has been compared to that for the Academy Awards.

But Michelin is ...