Which Way Should You Grow

Paper Topic:

Crafting Strategy

Mintzberg 's Crafting Strategy : Position and Approach

on Strategizing and Whittington 's Four Schools of Strategy Henry Mintzberg 's "Crafting Strategies " is based on conclusions from decades of research that tracked 11 organizations through important moves they made in the observed period . Patterns were marked and lumped as strategies , graphically showing distinct periods of stability flux , or global change (Mintzberg :75

His thesis : strategizing is more of "crafting a strategy "-- a potter shaping clay aware of her past experience and her future prospects as she performs her craft . In contrast

, the popular notion of bosses rationally and precisely plotting "strategy " in corporate meetings is an inaccurate depiction of strategizing-- and therefore misguides those who adhere to this notion uncritically

The article only seems to tilt towards an "emergent " approach to strategy . The author argues that a key to managing strategy is the ability to detect emerging patterns and to help them take shape . A manager 's job is not merely to see ahead but to detect patterns and get involved when the time is ripe (Mintzberg :74 ,75

But Mintzberg also clarifies that all strategy making walks on two feet : deliberate and emergent ' Purely deliberate precludes learning and purely emergent has no control . Neither approach makes sense , which explains why strategy means emergent and deliberate behavior (69

Mintzberg 's theory therefore also aptly captures the ideal mix of the four archetypes of Richard Whittington 's classical , evolutionary systemic , and processual schools of strategy . These archetypes are in fact meant as conceptual reference points , set up in descriptive archetypal quadrants that are not necessarily exclusive of each other

In his interpretive article , William Sheridan aptly applied Whittington 's conceptual framework . His summary of Whittington is this : that strategic thinking requires...