Synopses & Reviews
Strategy making is considered the high point of managerial activity. But bombarded by fads and fixes, most managers have been groping blindly to get their arms around the proverbial elephant. Now Henry Mintzberg, author of the award-winning
The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, has teamed up with Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel to create a powerful antidote: a comprehensive and illuminating -- as well as colorful -- tour through the fields of strategic management. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel have shaped each of ten different approaches into a coherent school of strategy formation. In the process, the authors clarify the enormous amount of confusion that exists.
The result is a tour de force: a brilliant, penetrating primer on business strategy that is, at the same time, immensely readable and fun. The authors provide a thorough critique of the contributions and limitations of each school -- from the design, planning, positioning, entrepreneurial, and cognitive schools to the learning, power, cultural, environmental, and configurational schools -- culminating in how they might combine to reveal that elephant.
Unique, insightful, and essential, Strategy Safari is the indispensable guide for the creative manager.
Review
"Read the book. Let Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, and Joseph Lampel guide you on an enlightening and entertaining excursion through the field of strategy making." andlt;BRandgt; -- Lawrence Bennigson, Senior Fellow of the Executive Development Center of the Harvard Business School
Review
"andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Safariandlt;/Iandgt; makes a convincing case for juggling several approaches at once. This book furnishes the complete tool set for every manager involved in strategy formation." andlt;BRandgt; -- andlt;Iandgt;Report on Businessandlt;/Iandgt;
Synopsis
Strategy Safari, the international bestseller on business strategy by leading management thinker Henry Mintzberg and his colleagues Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel, is widely considered a classic work in the field. No other book synthesizes the entire history and evolution of strategic management in so lively and entertaining a fashion. Since the initial publication of Strategy Safari, managers, consultants, and academics all over the world have found this book an indispensable and delightful tool--it has been translated into more than ten languages, including Chinese, Russian, and French, and has been used in top MBA programs worldwide.
Strategy Safari makes sense of a field that often seems to make no sense. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel pair their sweeping vision of strategy making with an authoritative catalog in which they identify ten schools of strategy that have emerged over the past four decades.
Why struggle through the vast, confusing terrain of strategy formation? With clarity and depth, Strategy Safari maps the strategic landscape and facilitates intelligent, informed strategy formation.
Synopsis
andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Safari,andlt;/Iandgt; the international bestseller on strategy by leading management thinker Henry Mintzberg and his colleagues Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel, is widely considered a classic work in the field. andlt;BRandgt; No other book synthesizes the entire history and evolution of strategic management in so lively and entertaining a fashion. Since the initial publication of andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Safari,andlt;/Iandgt; managers, consultants, and academics all over the world have found this book an indispensable and delightful tool -- it has been translated into more than ten languages, including Chinese, Russian, and French, and has been used in top MBA programs worldwide. andlt;BRandgt; andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Safariandlt;/Iandgt; makes sense of a field that often seems to make no sense. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, and Lampel pair their sweeping vision of strategy making with an authoritative catalog in which they identify ten schools of strategy that have emerged over the past four decades. andlt;BRandgt; Why struggle through the vast, confusing terrain of strategy formation? With clarity and depth, andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Safariandlt;/Iandgt; maps the strategic landscape and facilitates intelligent, informed strategy formation.
About the Author
Henry Mintzberg, author of several seminal books, including Mintzberg on Management and The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, is the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University and professor of organization at INSEAD, in France.
Table of Contents
andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;Contentsandlt;/Bandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Embarkationandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;1andlt;/Bandgt; "And Over Here, Ladies and Gentlemen:andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;The Strategic Management Beast" andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;2andlt;/Bandgt; The Design Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Process of Conceptionandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;3andlt;/Bandgt; The Planning Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Formal Processandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;4andlt;/Bandgt; The Positioning Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as an Analytical Processandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;5andlt;/Bandgt; The Entrepreneurial Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Visionary Processandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;6andlt;/Bandgt; The Cognitive Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Mental Processandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;7andlt;/Bandgt; The Learning Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as an Emergent Processandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;8andlt;/Bandgt; The Power Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Process of Negotiationandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;9andlt;/Bandgt; The Cultural Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Collective Processandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;10andlt;/Bandgt; The Environmental Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Reactive Processandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;11andlt;/Bandgt; The Configuration Schoolandlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Strategy Formation as a Process of Transformationandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Bandgt;12andlt;/Bandgt; "Hang On, Ladies and Gentlemen,andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;You Have Yet to Meet the Whole Beast"andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Referencesandlt;/Iandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;BRandgt;andlt;Iandgt;Indexandlt;/Iandgt;
Reading Group Guide
Discussion Group Questions 1. What is "strategy"? What are some possible different definitions/interpretations of the word? What do you think might be the key influences that have shaped your personal definition/understanding of strategy? (Chapter 1, pages 9-15)
2. Strategy Safari has identified 10 different schools of thought on strategy formation (the Design, Planning, Positioning, Entrepreneurial, Cognitive, Learning, Power, Cultural, Environmental, and Configurational Schools). Each school looks at strategy in different ways and provides different insights on the construct. Can you develop one word and one sentence definitions of strategy in accordance with each of these ten schools of thought? (page 5 and rest of the book)
3. Why has the Design School and the basic SWOT model been so long lasting and resilient? In what ways has the Design School influenced the other schools of thought identified in Strategy Safari? (pages 42-45)
4. In what ways do the "descriptive schools" of strategic management (the Entrepreneurial, Cognitive, Learning, Power, Cultural, Environmental, and Configurational Schools) have more to offer the practitioner than the "prescriptive schools (Design, Planning, and Positioning Schools)? (See Context and Contribution section of each chapter)
5. What are some limitations/problems with highly formalized strategic planning? (pages 63-67)
6. Why is it better to "learn" than to "plan"? (pages 176-321)
7. Which of the strategy schools are most alike? Which are most unlike?
8. Which of the ten schools of thought have you come across as a manager and practitioner? Do you agree with the assessment of these schools laid out in Strategy Safari? (See Critique and Context and Contribution section at the conclusion of each chapter)