Strategy is the most prestigious but also the most confusing part of business. Managers are constantly bombarded with new jargon and the latest fads promising the magic bullet for every strategic problem. The world of strategy can seem to be an impenetrable jungle. Strategy Safari presents a powerful antidote to the dilemma of needing to know about strategy and yet not being able to find any comprehensible guidelines. This revised edition is a comprehensive, colourful and illuminating tour through the wilds of strategic management. In this provocative, jargon-free and extremely readable guide, top strategy authors Mintzberg, Ahlstrand & Lampel clearly set out and critique each of the ten major schools of strategic management thinking to help you grasp what you really need to know. Take the strategy safari - your business will thank you for it.

Acknowledgements	p. ix
Embarkation	p. xi
And over here, ladies and gentlemen: the strategic management beastWhy ten?
A field review
Five Ps for strategy
Strategies for better and for worse
Strategic management as an academic discipline
The design school: strategy formation as a process of conception
Origins of the design school
The basic design school model
Premises of the design school
Critique of the design school
The design school: contexts and contributions
The planning school: strategy formation as a formal process
The basic strategic planning model
Sorting out the hierarchies
Premises of the planning school
Some more recent developments
Planning's unplanned troubles
The fallacies of strategic planning
The context and contribution of the planning school
The positioning school: strategy formation as an analytical process
Enter PorterPremises of the positioning school
The first wave: origins in the military maxims
The second wave: the search for consulting imperatives
The third wave: the development of empirical propositions
Critique of the positioning school
Contribution and context of the positioning school
The entrepreneurial school: strategy formation as a visionary process
Origins in economics
The literature of the entrepreneurial school
Visionary leadershipPremises of the entrepreneurial school
Contribution, critique, and context of the entrepreneurial school
The cognitive school: strategy formation as a mental process
Cognition as confusion
Cognition as information processing
Cognition as mapping
Cognition as concept attainment
Cognition as construction
Premises of the cognitive school
Critique, contribution, and the context of the cognitive school
The learning school: strategy formation as an emergent process
Formation vs formulation
Emergence of a learning model
New directions for the learning school
From organizational learning to the learning organization
Critique of the learning school
Contribution and context of the learning school
The power school: strategy formation as a process of negotiation
Micro power
Upper echelons theory: strategic management at the top
Macro power
Conclusion
The cultural school: strategy formation as a collective process
The nature of culture
Premises of the cultural school
Culture and strategy
The Swedish wing of the cultural school
Resources as the basis of competitive advantage
Critique, contribution and context of the cultural school
The environmental school: strategy formation as a reactive process
Premises of the environmental school
The contingency view
The population ecology view
Institutional pressures to conform
Critique, contribution, and context of the environmental school
The configuration school: strategy formation as a process of transformation&nbsonfiguration and transformation
Splitters and lumpers
Premises of the configuration school
Researching configuration
Transforming organizations
Critique, context, and contribution of the configuration school
Hang on, ladies and gentlemen, you have yet to meet the whole beast
Of tails and tusks, plans and patterns
Taming the wilds of strategic management
Toward seeing the whole beast
The hunt for strategic management
References
Index
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