Business Models and Information Systems“A business strategy is a well-articulated vision of where a company seeks to go and how it expects to get there” (Pearlson & Saunders, 2004 ). An organization's decisions regarding both organizational and information systems strategies must be governed by this overall business strategy. The IT strategy must adapt to the business strategy and be constantly re-evaluated to ensure the company achieves its strategic objectives. Information systems strategy will influence and be influenced by business strategy. Pearlson and Saunders (2004) discuss two important business models: Porter's generic strategies framework and D'Aveni's hyper-competition model. Porter's generic strategies framework can be a useful tool to help managers identify and understand the strategic options available in the search for competitive advantage. Porter (1985) identified three main strategies that enable a company to achieve this advantage: cost leadership, differentiation, and focus. I believe this competitive advantage depends as much on the strategy and execution of the competition as it does on the organization's position in the market relative to those competitors. Porter (1985) argues that the objective of a cost leadership strategy is to be the lowest cost producer in a particular market. By minimizing the costs associated with doing business, the organization is able to achieve above-average performance. “To be successful, this strategy usually requires a significant market share advantage or preferential access to raw materials, components, labor, or some other important input. Without one or more of these advantages, the strategy can be easily imitated by competitors” (Wikipedia.org, n.d.). The organization must also offer a product or service of comparable quality to the competition at higher costs. It is only when the quality of two competing products is comparable that a customer will be able to realize the relative value of the product made by the cost leader. For an organization to successfully execute a cost leadership strategy, it must streamline operations and reduce overhead while decreasing the time it takes to take products from idea to customer stages. Proper design and use of information systems enables an organization to distribute information, coordinate efforts, share resources, automate processes and analyze data in order to make cost leadership strategy a market reality. “Through differentiation, the organization qualifies its product or service in a way that allows it to appear unique in the market” (Pearlson & Saunders, 2004). The organization identifies the characteristics that are most important to its customers and then attempts to add value by improving or augmenting those aspects.