Product Description

There is a great deal of practice, discussion, and publication about strategy, but surprisingly little investigation of the processes by which strategies actually form in organizations. Henry Mintzberg, one of the world's leading thinkers and writers on management, has over several decades examined the processes by which strategies have formed in a variety of contexts, and this book collects together his findings. Defining realized strategy - the strategy an organization has actually pursued - as a pattern in a stream of actions, this investigation tracked strategies in organizations over long periods of time, usually three or four decades, and in one case, a century and a half. This revealed the patterns by which strategies form and change in organizations, the interplay of 'deliberate' with 'emergent' strategies, and the relationships between leadership, organization, and environment in the strategy formation process. An introductory chapter considers the term strategy, and the various ways it has been and can be used, and then introduces the studies. These are reported in the next ten chapters, with descriptions and conclusions about the strategies were formed over time, and how they combined to establish periods in the history of the organization. These studies range across business (six studies), government (two studies), an architectural firm, and a university, as well as one professor in that university. They include U.S. strategy in Vietnam (1950-1973), Volkswagenwrk (1937-1972), and the National Film Board of Canada (1939-1975). The final chapter, entitled 'Toward a General Theory of Strategy Formation', weaves these findings together in two themes. First is strategy formation in different forms of organization: Strategic Planning in the Machine Organization, Strategic Visioning in the Entrepreneurial Organization, Strategic Learning in the Adhocracy Organization, and Strategic Venturing in the Professional Organization. The second theme considers stages in the formation of strategies, from Initiation through Development to Renewal.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #237778 in Books
• Published on: 2007-11-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 400 pages

About the Author
Henry Mintzberg is Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at McGill University, and is the author of 13 books and about 150 articles, including ones that have won the highest academic and practitioner awards (best book for the year 2000 at the Academy of Management, for The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, and best article for the year 1975 in the Harvard Business Review, for 'The Manager's Job: Folklore and Fact'). Tom Peters has referred to Dr. Mintzberg as
"Perhaps the world's premier management thinker." He has held visiting appointments at the London Business School, INSEAD, HEC Montreal, and Carnegie-Mellon. Dr. Mintzberg has been elected an Officer of the Order of Canada, and makes his home in Montreal.

Customer Reviews

Drier than Strategy Safari, more incisive than the Strategy Formation Process
Some authors have just one big idea, and peddle it in different forms throughout their careers. Henry Mintzberg has had three big ideas, and lots of small ideas that are bigger than many other people's big ideas. This book unveils the third big idea, which is a general theory of strategy formation.

The big idea for which Mintzberg has been known the longest is the notion of emergent strategy, by contrast with a formalised, predetermined planning process. Mintzberg has never abandoned this idea, although he now has it as one end of a continuum.

Mintzberg's second big idea was the Configuration school of strategy. Simply put, look at the shape of your organisation to understand its likely strategic direction.

As part of the long research programme which led to this book, Mintzberg, with Ahlstrand and Lampel, also came up with a big-little idea, which was to review all the schools of strategy, categorising them into the ten which are found in the pages of Strategy Safari.

This book, Tracking Strategies, is the culmination of that research project. It synthesises the two previous big ideas, alongside the big-little idea, but it presents the ultimate Mintzberg conclusion.

Note that, over the years, Mintzberg has lost interest in 'what is the ideal strategy', which was at the crux of the original planning vs emergent debate. His main focus now is 'what is the process by which strategy is formed'? In coming to this conclusion, he coalesces his configuration approach into four basic types of organisation: entrepreneurial, machine, adhocracy and professional, and coalesces the Strategy Safari 10 schools into four processes, each particularly suited to one of these kinds of organisations: Visioning, Planning, Learning and Venturing.

Tracking Strategies, as its name implies, is 80% the report of the case-studies which over the years have been the Mintzberg programme. A large number of organisations are represented, and the analyses are detailed and supported by much evidence, including a large number of graphs and charts. To some extent, Mintzberg is setting out his complete stall -- all the best evidence he has amassed over many years, with detailed, technical analysis which is as dispassionate as possible.

The final chapter, though, is the place where he introduces the third big idea: this is that human learning is around the triangle of science (evidence analysed), art (intuition and creation), and craft (learning from experience), and that, crucially, strategy takes place along the line of art and craft, and has much less place for science. This is a bold conclusion -- and may explain Mintzberg's decision to include so much of the evidence. By presenting so much of the science and analysis, he is taking away the possible accusation that he is choosing for art and craft out of an inability to do science.

Mintzberg has been reaching towards this conclusion his entire career. His early aversion to the planning school of strategy, and later to the design school with its SWOT diagrams, was not so much an opposition to planned or prescriptive strategy, which he accepts is frequently a component of effective strategy, but rather the mechanical nature by which the Planners and the Designers claimed to be able to churn out a necessary strategy from the initial data.

Ultimately, this is a fairly dry book, although it is written throughout in Mintzberg's charming style. It comes alive in the final chapter -- although the penultimate chapter, where Mintzberg analyses his own journey, is also fascinating. I can't quite bring myself to accept the complete validity of the case-study approach, although I do accept that virtually all academic writing on strategy is based on case-studies. However, Mintzberg's conclusions are fresh, innovative, and, crucially, immediately applicable to the task of being a strategist in the real world.

Recommended.

Finally a real Theory for the real World
Dear Sirs

I have to gratulate Professor Mintzberg for this "fundamental work" on strategy and strategic formulation.

His hallmark is to approach this phenomenon open minded and analyze it in a "holistic way" to study it thoroughly because he (and we) think it is important.

So "why study the nature and use of strategy formulation"? The answer has been known for a long, yes, very long time and was stated in the earliest text we know about strategy that is Sun's Tzu classic work "The Art of War".

He wrote: "War is a matter of vital importance to the State; the province of life and death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied." (S. B. Griffith 1963, p.63).

This classic military text was written in Ancient China sometime around 500 - 400 B.C. (T. Hanzhag, Y Shibing, 2000, 1987, p 10) and must be analyzed in context of that time when a number of kingdoms relied on military strength to secure there existence. Military institutions are organizations and formulated their strategy so that they were able to respond to emerging threats and to grab opportunities against rival kingdoms.

If we replace the words "War and State" with "Competition and Organization" we can see with analog the relevance of this statement to the individuals, organizations that make our "modern business world" as well as "nations".

We can take this "pattern of thinking further" and replace these words with, The Environment and Clan. Then it reads; The Environment is a matter of vital importance to the Clan; the province of life and death; the road to survival or ruin. It is mandatory that it be thoroughly studied." Now we have a sentence that describes the way our ancient "hunter - gatherer clans" seem to have lived similar to the "Adhocracy Organization".

All of the three examples described before would require some form of strategy formulation to respond to ever emerging threats and opportunities. It doesn't really matter if this process is "formal or un-formal, conscious or subconscious", as long that it is "effective" and hopefully "efficient" as well. "Actions speak louder than words."

The context of strategy formulation depends of how we "define" that term and related terms. In the literature there are many different definitions of the phenomenon of strategy formulation. That in itself can be a problem when studying its nature and in a creation of theory.

It is vital to understand that in studying the formulation of strategy we are in essence trying to explore the "nature of our own human nature". We are studying our self's with our "bounded rationality" and with a limited time and scope. We are all "biased" by nature so our conclusions will most likely be affected by our shortcomings and by our own and others belief systems.

To try to overcom this likelihood of failure we have to "learn" to learn. The "accumulated knowledge of past and existing generations" has led us by "trial and error" to the "reality" we face today.

This work of Professor Mintzberg is a "must read" for all people and all organization's interstited in making "better decisions".

The text is clear and like all "great work" appears to be "common sence".

Mintzberg call his work "TOWARDS A GENERAL THEORY", well to me this IS a "THEORY". His triangle of "art (insights), craft (experiences) and science (analyses)" is a "powerful tool" to "analyse" strategic behavior of the future, the present and the long gone past of humans and their organizations.

So I gratulate Professor Mintzberg for his "outstanding contribution" to the rest of us in this "WORLD".

FANTASTIC WORK.

Best regards,
Gisli Jon Kristjansson
ICELAND