Customer Reviews
One of the finest books on strategic thinking and models - By: Philip Jones, 01 Jun 2008 
This book should be essential reading for anybody involvedin strategy. It clearly breaks out ten diffent models of how strategy is thought about & managed. These 10 models explain why so often one person's view of what is the right way to go about thinking & planning strategy will differ from another person's view: they are coming from different camps or schools, with different beliefs & different understandings of how strategy should be developed, thought about, evolve & managed.
Just being clear how the "Strategy formulation as a process of conception" school differs from "Strategy formulation as a formal process" school will help many readers. Then understanding startegy as an analytical process, startegy as a visionary process, strategy as a mental process, etc., will further help you to understand what is going on around you, how others are thinking & how you can thinkin their way. This is a book I wish I had read 10 years ago when it first came out. I continuously refer back to it & it will remain useful for a very long time.
“Lions and tigers and bears....Oh my!” - By: Robert Morris, 25 Feb 2006 Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel are knowledgeable & congenial tour guides for those who have not as yet explored “the wilds of strategic management.” Such expert assistance is especially valuable, given the the fact that -- the last time I checked -- Amazon & its online partner Borders sell more than 53,000 different books on the general subject of strategy. Oh my! Following an apt quotation from A.A. Milne’s introduction to Winnie-the-Pooh, the authors dedicate their book to those “who are more interestedin open fields than closed cages.” They carefully organize their material within 12 chapters which begin with “And Over Here, Ladies & Gentlemen: The Strategic Management Beast” & conclude with “Hang On, Ladies & Gentlemen, You Have Yet to Meet the Whole Beast.” The focus of the authors’ lively as well as enlightening narrative is on ten different “schools” of strategy formation:
Three are Prescriptive:
Design as a process of conception
Planning as a formal process
Positioning as an analytical process
Six are Descriptive:
Entrepreneurial as a visionary process
Cognitive as a mental process
Learning as an emergent process
Power as a process of negotiation
Cultural as a collective process
Environmental as a reactive process
With regard to the last school, “We call it configuration. Peoplein this school are seeking to be integrative, cluster the various elements of our beast -- the strategy-making process, the content of strategies, organizational structures & their contexts -- into distinct stages or episodes, for example, of entrepreneurial growth or stable maturity, sometimes sequenced over time to describe the life cycles of organizations.” The authors devote a separate chapter to each of these ten “schools” & it remains for each reader to determine which school offers the most relevant guidance to the formulation of an appropriate strategy. The authors acknowledge that it can be argued that the last school, one which views strategy formation as a process of transformation, “really combines the others.” Read the book & then decide for yourself.
A stimulating intro to 10 different strategic approaches - By: Fabio Moioli, 22 Sep 2005 
The most valuable characteristic of this book is the concise but nevertheless stimulating way it describes & compares 10 overly different strategic approaches. Its reading can be very valuable to kick-off a more complete investigation of each of these "strategy schools". This book on its own, however, is not sufficient to really use any of these strategic approaches, as it mainly describe their "context" or "philosophy" & not their detailed application.
Invaluable Guide to Employing Strategic Management Themes - By: Donald Mitchell, 07 Sep 2004 This is the most valuable book ever written on strategic management. Be sure to read & apply its lessons well!
I have workedin the field of strategic management since before it was called that, both as a practitioner & as a consultant. One of my favorite complaints about booksin the field is that they emphasize one facet of developing & implementing stratgies & ignore the others. This book is the outstanding exception to that problemmatic standard of tunnel vision. There's no stalled thinking here about strategic management.
If you are like me, you would like to get better results from strategic management. Solving one part of the task & ignoring the others leads to failure just as surely as ignoring strategic managment does. Imbalancein perspective can be equally dangerous. As the authors point out, " . . . The greatest failings of strategic management have occurred when managers took one point of view too seriously."
Mintzberg, Ahlstrand, & Lampel start out by pointing out that there are five different kinds of strategy definitions (as plan, pattern, perspective, position, & ploy). When you read books about strategy, keep thesein mind.
They begin with the tale of the six blind men & the elephant. Each can grasp one element of the elephant, but cannot grasp the whole. That's the situation the authors are warning you against.
They define this work as "a field review not a literature review" so you don't find every book's details. Whew! That's a relief. On the other hand, they are clearly familiar with the literature & cite it where appropriate. The book is designed for managers, consultants, professors & students. The style is also designed to be easily accessible. And these goals are well achievedin my view.
Although recognizing that the human mind boggles past 7 items (which seems to be the limit of what short-term memory can retain), they found 10 themesin the field. The first three emphasize traditional left-brained thinking of the sort that dominatesin business schools: Design, Planning, & Positioning. The next six are other aspects of strategic management that are more right-brained: Entrepreneurial, Cognitive, Learning, Power, Cultural, & Environmental. The final one is focused on transformation, the school of Configuration. Each one receives its own chapter & its weaknesses are displayed.
In chapter 12, the reader is encouraged to synthesize the 10 themes into integrated use. There is a table (12.1) that neatly summarizes each theme, a figure (12.2) that shows how they are mutually related, & a remarkably useful figure (12.3) that effectively shows how they can be integrated from perspective &in sequencing.
You may be wondering what all of the fuss is about. Basically, strategic management is one of those fields that has yet to emerge with an integrated perspective on the firm. In fact, the problem is poorly perceived because most people are unaware of the areas they are ignoring. In fact, I always create syntheses of these areasin my writing & am often criticized for dealing with subjectively perceived nonissues that the readers do not see the importance of. Strategic myopia seems to be a common problem, not just among the scholars.
I feel very indebted to the authors for developing such a wonderful overview that I can recommend to others (including my clients). I also appreciate their clarifying that the important question now for strategic management is creating a useful synthesis. My personal view is that this must be done by creating one simple, effective mindset that encompasses all ten perspectives, without requiring anyone to learn each one directly.
I strongly urge you to read & apply the lessonsin this seminal work on strategic management. I also hope you will find your own novel integrations of these perspectives & share them.
Good luckin expanding your perceptions of strategic management & its potential to help you & your organization succeed!
After you have finished this book, ask yourself which of the perspectives are missing from or underrepresented todayin your organization. Then begin to think of ways to add those perspectives.
If you would like to learn more about strategy, you should also read Mintzburg's outstanding book, The Rise & Fall of Strategic Planning, which I have also reviewed.
Ambitious overview on Corporate Strategy - By: Erwin Kuntze, 28 Dec 2003 Mintzberg is one of the pioneers of corporate strategy & has a pragmatic view on the subject. Having devoted a couple of decades on researching the subject, few persons could be better equipped to provide an overview of the subject than he.
The book contains a meta level presentation of the different schools of corporate strategyin an accessible & inspiring way. It also points out the strengths & weaknesses of each school.
After having read the book you will bein a better position to put corporate strategies you run intoin perspective & know what the strength/weaknesses are for the chosen school of strategy.
