To succeed professionally, a technology manager in higher education must align institutional goals with the skill set of campus technologists and the resources available for information technology (IT) support. Getting a firm grasp on any of these parameters is not easy. Resources are often committed to multiyear projects or hidden by opaque budget accounting practices. Skills are not easy to assess, particularly when they exceed the bare minimum required to set up and administer IT services. Yet understanding institutional goals often presents the most daunting challenge, even for experienced IT managers. The author suggests that the three value disciplines described by Michael Treacy and Fred Wiersema (operational excellence; customer intimacy; and product leadership) provide a lens to analyze and align institutional goals in higher education with critical IT decisions. After describing the three value disciplines and how each could shape IT decisions, he suggests how a technology department might select a particular value discipline, then notes the complications unique to this selection in an academic environment. A demonstration follows on how a technology department operating within a value discipline might apply the discipline to hiring a new staff member, implementing a Web front end for a student information system, and purchasing a learning management system. (Contains 17 endnotes.)