Strategy Safari: The Complete Guide Through the Wilds of Strategic Management

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 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 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.--jacket. 1. And Over Here, Ladies And Gentlemen: The Strategic Management Beast -- 2. The Design School: Strategy Formation As A Process Of Conception -- 3. The Planning School: Strategy Formation As A Formal Process -- 4. The Positioning School: Strategy Formation As An Analytical Process -- 5. The Entrepreneurial School: Strategy Formation As A Visionary Process -- 6. The Cognitive School: Strategy Formation As A Mental Process -- 7. The Learning School: Strategy Formation As An Emergent Process -- 8. The Power School: Strategy Formation As A Process Of Negotiation -- 9. The Cultural School: Strategy Formation As A Collective Process -- 10. The Environmental School: Strategy Formation As A Reactive Process. Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand, Joseph Lampel. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 375-395) And Index. You could read 100 books on corporate strategy and not find any of them as informative or as pleasant as this one. While no one would read a discussion of the core precepts of different corporate strategy schemes for entertainment, this book's three authors come reasonably close to providing just that. Using a sprinkling of witty quotes and cartoons to spice up their text, Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel explain 10 strategy theories without ever making you feel like you're eating sand. They offer a chapter on each "school" of strategic management, an introduction and a final chapter that affirms that no strategic model can replace your connection to the realities of your business. getAbstract finds that while the discussions are not deep enough to allow you to implement any of the strategic models, they will give you a feel for what may make sense in your situation. General readers with an interest in strategy will also find this text accessible and educational Based on comprehensive research into strategic planning literature and its military antecedents, the successor to The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning offers a penetrating analysis of the ten dominant schools of strategic thought. Reprint. 15,000 first printing.