"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
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