LDRLB

MARCH 23, 2011

This post is the third in a series about the various schools and models of making organizational strategy. Strategy is an emergent process. For proponents of the learning school, any attempt to reduce the complex world into clear positions and plans is futile. Therefore strategy cannot be a formal planning process.

Survey 104

Survey Strategy Planning Information 104

Harvard Business Review

MAY 16, 2012

So you need a plan, right? One of our most striking findings was that of the entrepreneurs we surveyed who had a successful exit (that is, an IPO or sale to another firm), about 70% did NOT start with a business plan. It's not that all planning is bad. It's not that all planning is bad. You want to start a business.

Planning 18

Planning Mintzberg IPO Entrepreneur 18

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 3, 2015

However, that you are very busy all the time is actually a bit of problem when you are in charge of your company or unit’s strategy, and responsible for organizing it. And thinking is in fact quite an important activity when it comes to assessing and developing a strategy. It is my job to carefully think about our strategy.”

Strategy 8

Strategy Long-term Short-term Mintzberg 8

Harvard Business Review

NOVEMBER 13, 2013

Managers routinely claim that their strategic planning process creates large, detailed documents, but often little else. It’s as if the process serves no purpose other than to create the plan, and execution is somehow separate. An approach that we think might work better would be to treat strategy making as if it were a design process.

Strategic Planning 10

Strategic Planning Mintzberg Planning Document 10

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 9, 2012

Let real customers use the product and learn from their feedback (Henry Mintzberg dubbed this process "emergent strategy" in an influential 1985 article [PDF] ). An even bigger warning sign is when there isn't any plan to introduce an upgraded offering. Instead, put something "good enough" in the marketplace.

Productivity 14

Productivity Products Ries Mintzberg 14

Harvard Business Review

SEPTEMBER 13, 2018

Planning has long been one of the cornerstones of management. Early in the twentieth century Henri Fayol identified the job of managers as to plan, organize, command, coordinate, and control. The capacity and willingness of managers to plan developed throughout the century. The future could be planned.

Agility 15

Agility Planning Fayol Strategic Planning 15

Harvard Business Review

APRIL 24, 2017

According to McGill’s Henry Mintzberg , it’s just another influencing process along with norms, formal authority and expertise. But conversely, the sharp edges of hard power can wreck a plan. Consider a mid-sized advertising agency that was implementing a new growth strategy. Yes, it can be self-serving.

Politics 12

Politics Bureaucracy Long-term Short-term 12