Strategy

according to
Henry Mintzberg
The Strategy Concept I :
Five Ps for Strategy,
California Management Review
Vol. XXX, No.1, Fall 1987

Henry Mintzberg
McGill University

Strategy can mean a
Plan
Conscious, purposeful consideration in
advance of future actions.

Strategy => future actions

Does that mean any plan is a strategy?
Planning Tools
PEST Analysis ,
SWOT Analysis
Brainstorming
What makes a plan
strategic

The time horizon it covers?

Its purpose?

The type of future actions it covers?

The type of choices it implies?
Strategy can mean a
Ploy
Short-term specific plan designed to
achieve a specific (usually competitive)
result

For example, a negotiation strategy
Ploy by
Mintzberg says that getting the better of
competitors,
by plotting to disrupt,
dissuade,
discourage,
or otherwise influence them.

Ploy tools
Futures Wheel
Impact Analysis
Scenario Analysis
Game Theory
Strategy can mean a
Pattern!
Consistency whether intended or not in
a pattern of past actions!

Past actions => implicit strategy!
Strategies are both plans for the future
and patterns from the past
- Henry Mintzberg, Crafting Strategy
Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1987
Tools
USP Analysis
and
Core Competence Analysis
Planning and Realization
Strategies as plans are not always
realized

Realized strategies are not always the
result of a plan!
Strategy can mean a
Position
Organizations relationship to its
environment (markets and competitors)
What an organization stands for, wants to
become, or just is

Air India Indias National Airline
Amazon.com the Internet-retailing portal
Wal-Mart the lowest price place to buy things
Tools
PEST Analysis
Porter's Diamond
Porter's Five Forces
to analyze your environment these tools will
show where you have a strong position.
Strategy can be a
Perspective
An organization-wide view of the
organization itself and how the world
around it works

For example:
The University of Delhi is a liberal arts institution.
Access and Excellence are compatible goals.
Tools
Cultural Web
Deal and Kennedy's Cultural Model
Congruence Model
Interrelating the Five Ps
An emerging Pattern can be recognized,
and formalized into a Plan for the future
Strategy as Plan or Pattern can lead to a
Strategy as Position and / or Perspective
A sequence of Ploys can become a Pattern

Perspective can constrain all the others
The Strategy Concept I I :
Another look at why
Organizations need Strategies
California Management Review
Vol. XXX, No.1, Fall 1987


Henry Mintzberg
McGill University

Organizations need Strategies
to Set Direction
Strategy determines where an organization
is going

but shouldnt become a straightjacket which
precludes interesting side trips!

Organizations need Strategies
to Focus Effort
and promote Coordination
Strategy helps to get everybody on the
same page pulling together

but shouldnt preclude individuals from
experimenting with new ideas!

Organizations need Strategies
to Define themselves
Strategy helps to make an organization
comprehensible

but can something as complex as a (large)
organization really be well understood,
especially by those outside it?
Organizations need Strategies
to Provide Consistency
Strategy helps an organization to make
sense of its environment, and protects it
against distraction so that it can get on
with what it has decided to do

which can be a bad thing if the environment
changes!
In summary..
Organizations need
Strategies..
To set direction
To focus effort and promote
coordination
To define themselves
To provide consistency

but too much of strategys benefits
can be a bad thing!
Strategy according to
Henry Mintzberg
What seems to be
the fundamental
purpose of an
organization in
this approach to
strategy?