Safari

STRATEGY SAFARI
A GUIDED TOURTHROUGH THE WILDS OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT HENRY MINTZBERG BRUCE AHLSTRAND JOSEPH LAMPEL

There are some people who begin the Zoo at the beginning, called WAYIN, and walk as quickly as they can past every cage until they come to the one called WAYOUT, but the nicest people go straight to the animal they love the most, and stay there.
—A. A. Milne, in the Introduction to Winnie-The-Pooh

We dedicate this book to such people who are more interested in open fields than closed cages.

CONTENTS

Embarkation 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

ix

1 23

47

81

5

The Entrepreneurial School Strategy Formation as a Visionary Process

123

6

The Cognitive School Strategy Formation as a Mental Process

149

7

The Learning School Strategy Formation as an Emergent Process

175

8

The Power School Strategy Formation as a Process of Negotiation

233

9

The Cultural School Strategy Formation as a Collective Process

263

10

The Environmental School Strategy Formation as a Reactive Process

285

I I

The Configuration School Strategy Formation as a Process of Transformation

301

12 "Hang On, Ladies and Gentlemen, You Have Yet to Meet the Whole Beast" References 375 Index 397

349

EMBARKATION

T

his trip began with a paper by Henry called "Strategy Formation: Schools of Thought," published by Jim Fredrickson in a collection entitled Perspectives on Strategic Management (HarperCollins, 1990). Bruce used the paper in a course at Trent University and found that it worked well. "Why don't you do a book on it?" he suggested. "Why don't we do it together?" Henry replied. They both thought that Joe would make an excellent member of the team. So the