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Summary Strategy Safari - Organization and Environment
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Complete summary of the book Strategy Safari by H. Mintzberg (chapters 1 -12). Course; Organization and Environment
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By: maudvhelvoirt • 4 year ago
Too many different heads making it cluttered. Some models are not described but refer to the book
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Strategy SafariChapter 1. ‘And over here, ladies and gentlemen: the strategic
management beast’
The next ten chapters describe ten parts of our strategy-formaton beast. Each represents one
‘school of thought’.
Why ten?
In reviewing a large body of literature, ten distnct points of view did emerge, most of which are
reflected in management practce. Each has a uniuue perspectve that focuses on one maoor aspect
of the strategy formaton process.
The schools
The schools, together with the single adoectve that seems best to capture its view of the strategy
process, are listed below:
The Design School Strategy formaton as a process of concepton
The Planning School Strategy formaton as a formal process
The Positoning School Strategy formaton as an analytcal process
The Entrepreneurial School Strategy formaton as a visionary process
The Cognitve School Strategy formaton as a mental process
The Learning School Strategy formaton as an emergent process
The Power School Strategy formaton as a process of negotaton
The Cultural School Strategy formaton as a collectve process
The Environmental School Strategy formaton as a reactve process
The Confguraton School Strategy formaton as a process of
transformaton
The frst three schools are prescriptve in nature p more concerned with how strategies should be
formulated than with how they necessarily do form. The frst of these (Design School), which in the
1960s presented the basic framework on which the other two were built, focuses on strategy
formaton as a process of informal design. The second school, which developed in parallel in the
1960s and peaked in the 1970s, formalized that perspectve, seeing strategy making as a more
detached and systematc process of formal planning (planning school). That school was displaced in
the 1980s by the third prescriptve school, less concerned with the process of strategy formaton
than with the actual content of strategies (positoning school), because it focuses on the selecton of
strategic positon in the economic market place.
The six schools that follow have been concerned less with prescribing ideal strategic behavior than
with describing how strategies do, in fact, get made. Strategy was long associated with
entrepreneurship. But if strategy can be personalized vision, then strategy formaton has also to be
understood as the process of concept atainment in a person’s head. Accordingly, a small but
important cognitve school has also developed that seeks to use the messages of cognitve phycology
to enter the strategist’s mind. Each of the four schools that follows has tried to open up the process
of strategy formaton beyond the individual, to other forces and other actors. For the learning school,
strategies must emerge in small steps, as organizaton adapts or learns. Similar to this but with a
different twist, is the power school, which treats strategy formaton as a process of negotaton. In
contrast to this is another school of thought that considers strategy formaton to be rooted in the
culture of the organizaton. ence the process is viewed as fundamentally collectve and cooperatve.
,And then there are the proponents of an environmental school, organizaton theorists who believe
strategy formaton is a reactve process in which the initatve lies not inside the organizaton, but
with its external context. Finally, is one school which it could be argued really combines the others;
confguraton.
Five Ps for strategy
Strategy reuuires a number of defnitons, fve in partcular (based on Mintzberg, 1987):
Strategies as plans and paterns. rganizatons develop plans for their future and they also
evolve paterns out of their past. We can call one intended strategy and the other realized
strategy;
Strategies as deliberate and emergent. Intentons that are fully realized can be called
deliberate strategies. Those that are not realized at all can be called unrealized strategies.
There is a third case, which we call emergent strategy (where a patern is realized that was
not expressly intended). Strategies have to form as well as be formulated. An umbrella
strategy means that the broad outlines are deliberate, while the details are allowed to
emerge en route;
Strategies as positons and perspectve. To some people strategy is a positon, namely the
locatng of partcular products in partcular markets. Strategy looks down to the x that marks
the spot where the product meets the customer, as well as out to the external marketplace.
To others, strategy is a perspectve, namely an organizaton’s fundamental way of doing
things. Strategy look inside the organizaton, inside the heads of the strategists, but also
looks up to the grand vision of the enterprise;
Strategy as a ploy. A ploy is a specifc manoeuvre intended to outwit an opponent or
compettor (the threat to the compettor).
Plan planning school
Patern learning school
Positon positoning school
Perspectve entrepreneurial school
Ploy power school
Combining plan and patern with positon and perspectve, we can derive four basic approaches to
strategy formaton. Strategic planning (planning, design and positoning schools), strategic visioning
(entrepreneurial, design, cultural and cognitve schools, strategic venturing (learning, power and
cognitve schools) and strategic learning (learning and entrepreneurial schools). Figure 1.5 page 16.
Strategies for better and for worse
Any discussion of strategy inevitably ends on a knife-edge. For every advantage associated with
strategy, there is an drawback or disadvantage.
1. Strategy sets directon
Advantage: chart the course of an organizaton in order to it to sail cohesively through its
environment;
Disadvantage: directon can also serve as a set of blinders to hide potental dangers.
2. Strategy focuses effort
Advantage: promotes coordinaton of actvity.
, Disadvantage: groupthink arises when effort is too carefully focused.
3. Strategy defnes the organizaton
Advantage: provides people with a shorthand way to understand their organizaton and to
distnguish from others.
Disadvantage: to defne an organizaton too sharply may also mean to defne it too simply
(stereotyping).
4. Strategy provides consistency
Advantage: strategy is needed to reduce ambiguity and provide order.
Disadvantage: creatvity thrives on inconsistency.
All this leads to the conclusion that strategies can be vital to organizatons by their absence as well as
their presence.
Chapter 2. The design school: strategy formation as a process of
conception
The design school represents, without uueston, the most influental view of the strategy-formaton
process. As its simplest, the design school proposes a model of strategy making that seeks to atain a
match or ft, between internal capabilites (uualifcatons) and external possibilites (opportunites).
‘Establish ft’ is the moto of the design school.
Origins of the design school
The real impetus for the design school came from the arvard Business School, beginning especially
with the publicaton of its basic textbook, Business Policy: Text and cases. This text book was one of
the few lef that represented the ideas of the design school in their pure form.
The basic design school model
The model places primary emphasis on the appraisals of the external and internal situatons, the
former uncovering threats and opportunites in the environment, the later revealing strengths and
weaknesses of the organizaton.
Figure 2.1 (page 27), shows two other factors believed important in strategy making. ne is
managerial values p the beliefs and preferences of those who formally lead the organizaton, and the
other is social responsibilites, specially the ethics of the society in which the organizaton functons.
nce alternatve strategies have been determined, the next step in the model is to evaluate them
and choose the best one. A DBA from the arvard General Management group, has provided a
framework for making this evaluaton, in terms of a series of tests:
Consistency. The strategy must not present mutually inconsistent goals and policies;
Consonance. The strategy must represent an adaptve response to the external environment
and to the critcal changes occurring within it;
Advantage. The strategy must provide for the creaton and/or maintenance of a compettve
advantage in the selected area of actvity;
Feasibility. The strategy must neither overtax available resources nor create unsolvable
subproblems.
All of the writngs of this school make clear that once a strategy has been agreed upon (formulaton),
it is then implemented.
, This school has not developed so much as provide the basis for developments in other schools.
People took some of these ideas and elaborated them in terms of other assumptons about the
strategy process.
Premises of the design school
Seven basic premises underlie the design school.
1. Strategy formaton should be a deliberate process of conscious thought. Effectve strategies
derive from a tghtly controlled process of human thinking;
2. Responsibility for that control and consciousness must rest with the chief executve ofcese
that person is the strategist. There is only one strategist, and that is the manager who sits at
the apex of the organizatonal pyramid;
3. The model of strategy formaton must be kept simple and informal. The idea of corporate
strategy consttutes a simple practtoner’s theory;
4. Strategies should be one of a kinde the best ones result from a process of individualized
design. Strategies have to be tailored to the individual case/ specifc situaton;
5. The design process is complete when strategy appears fully formulated, a perspectve. This
school offers litle room for incrementalism views or emergent strategies, which allow
formulaton to contnue during and afer implementaton;
6. These strategies should be explicit, so they have to be kept simple. Strategies must be
simple and understandable for others in the organizaton;
7. Finally, only afer these unique, full-blown, explicit and simple strategies are fully
formulated can they be implemented. Thinking separated from actng.
Critique of the design school
Assessment of the strengths and weaknesses: bypassing learning
This school’s promoton of thought, strategy formaton above all as a process of concepton rather
than as one of learning. We can see this most clearly in the formulaton process, the assessment of
strengths and weaknesses. This school determines their strengths and weaknesses by conscious
thought expressed verbally and on paper. But can any organizaton really be sure of its strengths
before it tests them? The discovery of ‘what business are we’ in cannot be undertaken merely on
paper; it has to beneft from the results of testng and experience.
Structure follow strategy… as the left foot follows the right
The design school promotes the dictum of Chandler, that structure should follow strategy and be
determined by it. Claiming that strategy must take precedence over structure amounts to claiming
that strategy must take precedence over the established capabilites of the organizaton, which are
embedding its structure. Structure cannot be altered at will oust because a leader has conceived a
new strategy. Strategy and structure both support the organizaton, as well as each other.
Making strategy explicit: promoting infexibility
rganizatons must functon, not only with the strategy, but also during periods of the formaton of
strategy, which can endure for long periods. During periods of uncertainty, the danger is not the lack
of explicit strategy but the opposite p premature closure. Explicit strategies are blinders designed to
focus directon and so to block out peripheral vision. In conclusion, certainly strategies must ofen be
made explicit, for purposes of investgaton, coordinaton and support.
Separation of formulation from implementation: detaching thinking from acting
The formulaton-implementaton separaton is central to the design school. If the school has
encouraged managers to detach thinking from actng, remaining in their headuuarters instead of
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