ICS , Graduate School of International Corporate Strategy
[Term 3] Business Architecture (K. Kusunoki) (2009/Term 3&4 (Spring&Summer))
Business Architecture is positioned as an advanced course on strategy with the assumption that students who take this elective course already have some knowledge of Competitive Strategy and Organizational Capability.
Business Architecture is about “system consistency” as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Both perspectives on strategy (the SP-based view and the OC-based view) assume that the essential source of sustainable advantage lies in the consistency of a “system” of activities (SP) or resources (OC). In the SP-based view, if a company can establish a consistent system of activities, it is difficult for competitors to imitate that system because of the existence of trade-offs. The idea of the system-based sustainability of competitive advantage is more salient in the OC-based view. Fundamental concepts concerning costly-to-imitate capability, such as interconnectedness, social complexity, causal ambiguity, and path dependency, are all related to the idea that what is truly difficult to imitate is not each individual element of capability, but the way in which elements are combined to create a whole system of capability. In a modern competitive environment, a consistent system of activities and capabilities often lies at the heart of sustainable advantage.
For instance, Dell has outperformed its competitors, not because it has excelled in two or three particular elements, but because it has created a unique system (Dell Direct Model) that contains and combines dozens of elements. Thus, the business system as a whole shapes Dell’s competitive advantage. In many other industries and companies, the real competitive dimension has been shifting from element-level to system-level advantage. That is the reason why the “business models” has come into fashion in the business world. Although it is popular and easy to say that achieving consistency across activities, capabilities, and other boundaries is a linchpin of sustained advantage, business architecture and the architectural aspect of competitive advantage are poorly understood, underdeveloped subjects.
Shaping such system consistency needs deep insight and knowledge about the interdependence, interaction, and integration of individual activities and capabilities. This course, Business Architecture, focuses on these three aspects of system consistency (interdependence, interaction, and integration), which result in sustainable advantage.
Course Structure
This course is divided into three parts:
• Architectural perspective of strategy
• Modularity of business models
• Evolution of business models
It is quite difficult to characterize and analyze business models because they shape a complicated pattern, including many activities and capabilities with interdependence and interactions. Based on recent developments in these studies, the third part of this course uses the concept of “modularity,” i.e., the dimension ranging from modular architecture to integral architecture, as a key dimension of analyzing business models. Both modular and integral architecture have strengths and weaknesses, depending on the competitive environment and product/industry characteristics. Using this dimension as a key to understanding system-based advantage, this course will provide students with perspective on the integration of a firm’s strategic parts into a harmonious whole.
As an emerging arena of strategy thinking, this course is not about clearly defined tools and techniques to achieve architectural consistency of strategy. Instead, the primary objective of this course is to give a heuristic perspective and logic to view strategies in a holistic way.
Teaching Method
Business Architecture is primarily case-based. Most cases will be discussed in the traditional manner of case discussion, but some will be used for case-based lectures. There is no textbook for this course, but we will use some articles and book chapters. This course will include a couple of presentation sessions by student groups on assigned topics.