A summary of the ten schools of thought by Henry Mintzberg

1. STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT
MODELLING STRATEGY: THE
CONCEPT OF MINTZBERG
PRESENTED BY;
THUGURI MURIUKI
OCTOBER 2014

2.  Introduction
 Schools of thought
 Conclusion
 Recommendation

3. INTRODUCTION:
 Strategy is a high level plan to achieve
one or more goals under conditions of
uncertainty.
 It is a combination of competitive moves
and business approaches employed to
satisfy customers, compete successfully
and achieve organizational objectives.
 Strategy doesn’t only have to position; it
also has to inspire.

4. IMPORTANCE OF STRATEGY:
 Sets direction
 Focuses effort and promotes coordination
 Defines the organization
 Provides consistency
‘‘strategies also have their drawbacks’’

5. SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT:

6. 1. DESIGN SCHOOL
 This approach regards strategy formation as
a rigorous and rational process of conception
to create the best fit by matching the internal
environment to the external environment.
 The most appropriate tool for this analysis is
SWOT analysis where the internal strengths
and weaknesses are examined as well as
the external opportunities and threats.
‘‘look before you leap’’

7. 2. PLANNING SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as a formal
process in which a given set of steps are
taken from the analysis of the organizations
situation, exploration of various alternatives
to the execution of the strategy it can use to
achieve its objectives.
 It involves using scenario analysis
techniques to evaluate strategic options so
as to enable effective decision making.
‘‘a stitch in time saves nine’’

8. 3. POSITIONING SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as an
analytical process that examines how an
organization can improve its competitive
edge within its industry.
 Michael Porters generic strategies and
value chain model; BCG growth share
matrix and experience curve or the Game
theory can be used in this approach.
‘‘nothing but facts’’

9. 4.ENTREPRENEURIALSCHOOL
 This approach regards strategy formation as
a visionary process, especially by the
organizations founder.
 Entrepreneurs are actively searching for new
opportunities to explore and they take
dramatic leaps forward in the face of
uncertainty, with growth as their main goal.
 The limitation here is that there is no real
understanding of how a vision is created and
the organization may not be able to carry on
the vision once the visionary leader is gone.
‘‘take us to your leader’’

10. 5. COGNITIVE SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as a mental
process that analyses how people perceive
things and how they process information.
 It focuses on strategy formulation as an
individual rather than a collective process,
which makes it more difficult to understand
and manage.
 The limitation of this approach is that
strategies emerge as concept maps or
frames of reality which hinder the
creativeness of the process.
‘‘i’ll see it when i believe it’’

11. 6. LEARNING SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as an emergent
process where focus is placed on what
works and what doesn’t and incorporates the
lessons learnt over time into the overall plan
of action i.e. trial and error.
 It offers a solution to deal with the complexity
and unpredictability of strategy formation
through intuition, integration, interpretation,
institutionalization and knowledge
management.
 The limitation of this school is that it lacks a
sense of urgency and discipline, which could
be costly to the organization in terms of the
time it takes to learn.
‘‘if you don’t succeed, try and try again’’

12. 7. POWER SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as a process
of negotiation between shareholders and
the other stakeholders of an organization
because of their power struggles within
the organization.
 It involves bargaining, conflict and conflict
resolution, stakeholder analysis, ploys
and counter-ploys to deal with the power
struggles.
‘‘look out for number one’’

13. 8. CULTURAL SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as a
collective process that reflects the
organizational culture within various
groups and departments in a company i.e.
a social interaction that takes place within
the context of the beliefs and
understandings shared by members of an
organization.
 It looks at values, beliefs, and corporate
myths and recognizes them as important
variables that can influence the corporate
culture.
‘‘an apple doesn’t fall far from the tree’’

14. 9.ENVIRONMENTAL SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as a reactive
process to the challenges imposed by the
external environment.
 This approach examines the stability,
complexity, market diversity, adaptability
of an organization and its industry as an
ecosystem.
‘‘it all depends’’

15. 10. CONFIGURATION SCHOOL
 It regards strategy formation as a process
of transformation from one type of
decision making structure to another.
 It is appropriate in organizations where
the status quo approach will not suffice in
the future because of major changes in
the organization.
‘‘to everything, there is a season’’

16. CONCLUSION:
 There is a relationship between strategy formulation, strategy
implementation, and organizational performance.
 Organizations begin strategy formulation by carefully specifying
their vision, mission, goals, and objectives, and then engage in
SWOT analysis to choose appropriate strategies.
 In order to achieve its objectives, an organization must not only
formulate but also implement its strategies effectively.
 To implement the strategies formulated, an organization must
determine how much it would have to change; analyze its formal
and informal structures; analyze its culture; select an appropriate
approach to implementing the strategy; implement the strategy and
evaluate the results.
 None of the ten approaches are complete by themselves, as each
offers some useful concepts and some strong points to aid
understanding. There is often a disconnect between an
organizations realized strategy and the originally intended strategy.
This is due to the execution process because different people
interpret the organizations strategic direction differently.

17. GOOD
SUCCESS TROUBLE
POOR
ROULETTE FAILURE
GOOD POOR
STRATEGY IMPLEMENTATION
STRATEGYAPPROPRIATENESS

18. RECOMMENDATIONS:
 Strategic planning is not necessarily regarded as a
good thing in all cases; there are dangers that an
overly rational or overly rigorous approach can pose.
 While academics focus on these narrow perspectives,
business managers are better served if they strive to
look at the bigger picture.
 The ‘learning school’ is most preferred because of the
emphasis it places on an organization incorporating
input from its environment, and adapting over time.
“Strategies are both plans for the future and
Patterns from the past” - Henry Mintzberg,
Crafting Strategy Harvard Business Review, July-
August, 1987