StrategyStrategyaccording toaccording to

Henry MintzbergHenry Mintzberg

Business StrategyBusiness & AdministrationThe University of Winnipeg

The Strategy Concept I:Five P’s for Strategy,

California Management Review Vol. XXX, No.1, Fall 1987

Henry Mintzberg– McGill University

“Strategy” can mean aPlan

Conscious, purposeful consideration in advance of future actions.

Strategy => future actions

– Does that mean any plan is a strategy?

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 aPloy

Short-term specific plan designed to achieve a specific (usually competitive) result

– For example, a negotiation strategy

“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 futureand patterns from the past”- Henry Mintzberg, Crafting Strategy

Harvard Business Review, July-August, 1987

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

Organization’s relationship to its environment (markets and competitors)– What an organization stands for, wants to

become, or just “is”

• Air Canada – Canada’s National Airline• Amazon.com – the Internet-retailing portal• Wal-Mart – the lowest price place to buy things

“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 Winnipeg is a liberal arts institution.

Access and Excellence are compatible goals.”

Interrelating the Five “P’s”

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 II: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 shouldn’t become a straightjacket which precludes interesting side trips!

Organizations need Strategies

to Focus Effortand promote Coordination

Strategy helps to get everybody “on the same page” pulling together …

– but shouldn’t 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 Define themselves

BCE Graphic

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 strategy’s benefits can be a bad thing!

Strategy according toHenry Mintzberg

What seems to be the fundamental purpose of an organization in this approach to strategy?