Strategy Safari

Strategy Safari
gives you the `big ten in the strategy jungle

In this revised edition of the original, ground-breaking
Strategy Safari
, Henry Mintzberg, described by Tom Peters as `perhaps the world s premier management thinker and his equally maverick co-authors continue to blaze a trail through the jungle of strategy. This provocative, jargon-free and readable guide clearly sets out and critiques each of the ten major schools of strategic management to help you grasp what you really need to know. Whether you are an ambitious manager or a bewildered student,
Strategy Safari
is your indispensable guide to strategy.

Take the strategy safari your business will thank you for it

"Henry Mintzberg s views are a breath of fresh air which can only encourage the good guys. ” The Observer

"My favourite management book of the last 25 years? No contest. The Rise & Fall of Strategic Planning. ” Tom Peters, managment guru

Strategy is the most prestigious but also the most confusing part of business. Managers are constantly bombarded with new jargon and the latest fads promising the magic bullet for every strategic problem. The world of strategy can seem to be an impenetrable jungle. Strategy Safari presents a powerful antidote to the dilemma of needing to know about strategy and yet not being able to find any comprehensible guidelines. This revised edition is a comprehensive, colourful and illuminating tour through the wilds of strategic management.

In this provocative, jargon-free and extremely readable guide, top strategy authors Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel clearly set out and critique each of the ten major schools of strategic management thinking to help you grasp what you really need to know.

Take the strategy safari - your business will thank you for it.

Contents

Acknowledgements / ix

Embarkation / xi

1 ‘And over here, ladies and gentlemen: the strategic management beast

Why ten?

A field review

Five Ps for strategy

Strategies for better and for worse

Strategic management as an academic discipline

2 The design school: strategy formation as a process of conception

Origins of the design school

The basic design school model

Premises of the design school

Critique of the design school

The design school: contexts and contributions

3 The planning school: strategy formation as a formal process

The basic strategic planning model

Sorting out the hierarchies

Premises of the planning school

Some more recent developments

Planning s unplanned troubles

The fallacies of strategic planning

The context and contribution of the planning school

4 The positioning school: strategy formation as an analytical process

Enter Porter

Premises of the positioning school

The first wave: origins in the military maxims

The second wave: the search for consulting imperatives

The third wave: the development of empirical propositions

Critique of the positioning school

Contribution and context of the positioning school

5 The entrepreneurial school: strategy formation as a visionary process

Origins in economics

The literature of the entrepreneurial school

Visionary leadership

Premises of the entrepreneurial school

& nbs