Henry Mintzberg
Business Strategy
A review of Henry Mintzberg ‘Crafting Strategy’
1.0 Introduction
In the recent years the views of ‘strategic management’ has changed significantly. It has been critically studied and classified as a field of managerial practice that should have been given more thought. (Knights and Morgan, 1991) There are two essential parts to strategy, actions that are planned ahead and developed carefully according to many factors once implemented. A proper strategy created and implement to a company would give a competitive advantage over other companies. This report will address the position of the article in a wider debate as different scholars have different opinions in strategy. It will discuss about the theoretical underpinnings, strengths and weakness in Henry Mintzberg’s article “Crafting Strategy.”
2.0 Position and Theoretical Underpinnings
According to Levy, Alvesson and Willmott most of the “current thinking is anchored by the work of Michael Porter and Henry Mintzberg.“ (Levy, Alvesson and Willmott, 2003) Henry Mintzberg’s Crafting Strategy is based on research that was conducted over numerous years that focused on several organisations that have taken various decisions over a period of time. The decisions made by organisations were taken into account and put together as different types of strategy. His thesis was “the crafting image better captures the process by which effective strategies to come to be.” However “the planning image, long popular in the literature, distorts these processes and thereby misguides organisations that embrace it unreservedly.” (Mintzberg, 1987)
The article appears to focus on an emergent approach to strategy. Mintzberg states, “a key to managing strategy is the ability to detect emerging patterns and help them take shape.” This is suggested through the fact that the role of a manager “is not just to preconceive specific strategies but also to recognize their emergence elsewhere in the
A review of Henry Mintzberg ‘Crafting Strategy’
1.0 Introduction
In the recent years the views of ‘strategic management’ has changed significantly. It has been critically studied and classified as a field of managerial practice that should have been given more thought. (Knights and Morgan, 1991) There are two essential parts to strategy, actions that are planned ahead and developed carefully according to many factors once implemented. A proper strategy created and implement to a company would give a competitive advantage over other companies. This report will address the position of the article in a wider debate as different scholars have different opinions in strategy. It will discuss about the theoretical underpinnings, strengths and weakness in Henry Mintzberg’s article “Crafting Strategy.”
2.0 Position and Theoretical Underpinnings
According to Levy, Alvesson and Willmott most of the “current thinking is anchored by the work of Michael Porter and Henry Mintzberg.“ (Levy, Alvesson and Willmott, 2003) Henry Mintzberg’s Crafting Strategy is based on research that was conducted over numerous years that focused on several organisations that have taken various decisions over a period of time. The decisions made by organisations were taken into account and put together as different types of strategy. His thesis was “the crafting image better captures the process by which effective strategies to come to be.” However “the planning image, long popular in the literature, distorts these processes and thereby misguides organisations that embrace it unreservedly.” (Mintzberg, 1987)
The article appears to focus on an emergent approach to strategy. Mintzberg states, “a key to managing strategy is the ability to detect emerging patterns and help them take shape.” This is suggested through the fact that the role of a manager “is not just to preconceive specific strategies but also to recognize their emergence elsewhere in the
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