Chapter 1 Introduction Flashcards
(31 cards)
Prescriptive Schools
more concerned with how strategies should be formulated
Schools: Design, Planning, Positioning
The Design School
Strategy formation as a process of conception, informal design
(60s)
The Planning School
Strategy formation as a formal process
60s-70s
The Positioning School
Strategy formation as an analytical process.
Focuses on the selection of strategic positions in the economic marketplace
(80s)
Descriptive Schools
Consider specific aspects of the process of strategy formation, they focus on describing how strategies are actually made
Schools: Entrepreneurial, Cognitive, Learning, Power, Cultural, Environmental, Configuration
The Entrepreneurial School
Strategy formation as a visionary process
Describes the process in terms of the creation of vision by the great leader
The Cognitive School
Strategy formation as a mental process
Seeks to use the messages of cognitive psychology to enter the strategist’s mind
The Learning School
Strategy formation as an emergent process
The world is too complex to allow strategies to be developed all at once as clear plans. Strategies are emergent in small steps as the organization adapts or learns
The Power School
Strategy formation as a process of negotiation
Focus is on conflicting groups within an organization or in their external environment
The Cultural School
Strategy formation as collective / cooperative process
The Environmental School
Strategy formation as a reactive process
Focus is on understanding the pressures imposed on organizations from the external context
The Configuration School
Strategy formation as a process of transformation
Combines the other schools; The focus in on clustering various elements into distinct stages (i.e. life cycles of organizations)
Also describes the process as transformation which resembles strategic change
Five Ps
Plan, Pattern, Position, Perspective, Ploy
Plan
a plan, direction, guide or course of action into the future. strategy as plans means looking ahead
AKA Intended strategy
Pattern
a consistency in behavior over time
strategy as a pattern means looking at past behavior
AKA Realized strategy
Deliberate strategy
Intentions that are fully realized
Unrealized strategy
Those intentions that are not realized at all
Emergent strategy
Where a pattern is realized that was not expressly intended. Actions were taken which converged over time to some sort of pattern
Umbrella strategy
The broad outlines are deliberate, while the details are allowed to emerge en route
Position
Locating of particular products in particular markets - strategy looks down to the customer and out to external marketplace
Perspective
an organization’s fundamental way of doing things - strategy looks in (inside org and the heads of the strategists), and up to the grand vision of the enterprise
It is easier to change … than…
It is easier to change position within perspective, than changing perspective while trying to maintain position
Ploy
a specific manoeuvre intended to outwit an opponent or competitor; the real strategy is the threat
4 basic approaches to strategy formation
Strategic planning
Strategic visioning
Strategic venturing
Strategic learning
