Strategy Safari

MINTZBERG, AHLSTRAND, LAMPEL

Introduction
Strategy making is considered the high point of managerial activity. Aims to visualize the knowledge network in ten schools of strategic management. Certainties and uncertainties are interlinked Bombarded by fads and fixes Solution to the problem - Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel Shaped each of ten different approaches into a coherent school of strategy formation.

1. AND OVER HERE, LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: THE STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT BEAST

Ancient Sufi tale the blind man & the elephant analogy of the blind men trying to describe an elephant Ten schools - groupings

Ten schools
Design School Planning school Positioning school Entrepreneurial school Cognitive school Learning school Power School Cultural School Environmental school Configuration process Strategy formations as a process of conception Strategy formation as formal process Strategy formation as an analytical process Strategy formation as a visionary process Strategy formation as a mental process Strategy formation as a emergent process Strategy formation as a negotiation Strategy formation as a collective process Strategy formation as a reactive process Strategy formation as a process of transfrmtion

Five Ps For strategy

Strategy as a Plan course of action Strategy as a pattern High end strategy Strategy as a position - Location Strategy as perspective particular philosophy Strategy as a poly gaining market share

Strategies for better and worse

1) Strategy as direction Pros :- Beneficial Cons :- set of blinders 2) Strategy focuses effort Pros :- Coordination of activity Cons :- other possibilities

3) Strategy defines the organization Pros :- understand the organization Cons:- rich diversity , stereotyping 4) Strategy provides consistency Pros :- facilitates action Cons :- misrepresenting or distorting effect

2 .The Design School

Strategy formation as a process of conception

strategy that seeks to attain a match or fit, between

internal capabilities and external possibilities. Two stage approach 1. from close examination (case study) internal capabilities 2. External possibilities

Major Criticisms

Strategy formation should be deliberate process of conscious thought. Responsibility for that control and consciousness must rest with the chief executive officer: that person is the strategist. The model of the strategy formation be kept simple and informal Strategies should be one of a kind: the best ones result from a process of individualized design The design process is complete when strategies appear fully formulated as perspective These strategies should be explicit, so they have to be kept simple Only after theses unique, full-blown, explicit, and simple strategies are fully formulated can they then be implemented

Critique Of design school

Assessment of strengths and Weakness Bypassing Learning Structure follows strategy Making strategy explicit.

Encouragement towards design school model

One brain can, in principle, handle all of the information relevant for strategy information. That brain is able to have full, detailed, intimate knowledge of the situation in question. The relevant knowledge must be established before a new intended strategy has to be implemented in other words, the situation has to remain relative stable or at least predictable. The organization in question must be prepared to cope with a centrally articulated strategy.