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“Henry Mintzberg’s views are a breath of fresh air which can only encourage the good guys.” The Observer

 â€śMy favourite management book of the last 25 years? No contest. The Rise & Fall of Strategic Planning.” Tom Peters, managment guru

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.

Strategy Safari: The complete guide through the wilds of strategic management

Contents

Acknowledgements / ix          

Embarkation / xi                                                                    

1          â€?And over here, ladies and gentlemen: the strategic management beast

Why ten?

A field review

Five Ps for strategy

Strategies for better and for worse

Strategic management as an academic discipline

2          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

3          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

4          The positioning school: strategy formation as an analytical process

            Enter Porter

            Premises 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

5          The entrepreneurial school: strategy formation as a visionary process

            Origins in economics

            The literature of the entrepreneurial school

             Visionary leadership

            Premises of the entrepreneurial school

    &nbs