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Summary: An enlightened and illuminating synthesis of a complex field
Review: A concise summary and synthesis of a wildly divergent field, written in a clear straightforward style. The book is punctuated by examples that illustrate the strengths and weakness of each school of strategy and leavened by that rarest of gifts in a book by serious academicians, humor. As a professor and researcher in the strategic uses of information technology, I found that the book sharpened my thinking about how management strategy has evolved. It will enlighten and inform my work for years to come.
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Summary: Great Book
Review: a must read for all business managers!!!!!
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Summary: Useful in a limited sense
Review: Academic stuff made friendly by good writing. It's a survey of the schools of thought in strategy research. IT WILL NOT TELL YOU HOW TO DEVELOP STRATEGIES. It is useful in that it will help you determine the weaknesses inherent in the foundation of a strategy prescription IF you are aware of the foundations employed by the strategy prescriber. Got it?
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Summary: A pretty darn good book
Review: Although some chapters are tough slogging, most are at least decent, and some are outright brilliant. Mintzberg's perspective is stunning... reading the book may have spared us years of muddling through overhyped approaches de jour.
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Summary: A safari worth taking
Review: An elaboration of concepts that Mintzberg has been writing about for a decade: how different mental models of strategy can be classified. This is NOT a how-to-run-a-company book. This is an intellectual exercise in the taxonomy of schools of thought about strategic management. If you are a strategic planner, read this book for its own sake. It is the antithesis of MBA texts; it is about epistemology and competing perspectives, not about a single "truth". After reading this, the obscure academic literature on management will be more accessible.
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Summary: Excellent book
Review: An excellent overview of the field of strategy. If you arelooking for a 'how to' book, this is probably not the best choice, however if you want to understand the breadth of the discipline and gain perspective this book it worth its weight in $$$.
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Summary: This one is a bit of a sleeper, but highly valuable.
Review: Contrary to the book flap, this book is more fitting for people with a business education or strategic management experience. The book goes through the various schools of strategy and is very valuable for those practicing strategy or in management consulting. Otherwise, it can be a real sleeper. Although the book contains small bits of humour, the exposition is still very rigid and academic.
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Summary: Great view on art (not science)
Review: Everyone is looking for the 'right' way to do strategy, and there are scores of academics willing to give it to you. Mintzberg (and team) guide you through all of it, the history, the pros and cons, and how to use it. If you can hold all of these schools of thought in your head at once, you can practice the art because you understand it ... you won't be at the mercy of consultants selling you the 'magic process.'
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Summary: The Roots of Strategy Science
Review: I am a master student studying Strategic Management. This book was very useful for me, helped me to better understand the ideological postures of varied writers in the strategic management field. With a great detail this book is very attractive for people who know basic principles of the field ( I think this book would seem very complex for beginners ). An illuminating tour to the roots of strategic management ..... Have a good safari......
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Summary: Depth makes it slightly heavy but very worthwhile reading
Review: I first came across Mintzberg (one of the 3 authors of this book) over 10 years ago while doing my MBA in Europe. At the time I thought his thinking was dead on target. Having spent most of the years since growing a company (learning things that one has difficulty learning in a classroom) and working with people and organizations from all over, I read this book. Almost immediately I found myself agreeing with what is written (easy enough as they start in with explanation and critique of the design and planning approaches to strategy which though part of the game are dangerous if focused on too rigidly).I found this book to be very comprehensive and it certainly has a lot to offer anybody who wishes to learn about corporate strategy. Being largely a literature review with commentary, it has too much information for people to simply take away a few simple messages to apply in a work situation but I vastly prefer this to "fondue books" that have a single concept which barely justifies a magazine article but which get padded out to be sold as a book. With a little thought, the book can help some very valuable ways of seeing things form in your mind and you can - to use their imagery - get a picture of what an elephant might be. For readers doing research, I feel you will need to either know or read much of the material referred to in the text to get a high resolution grasp of what the elephant is. For readers looking to use elephants in their business, I recommend that you use a highlighter and, after reading the book, use the highlighted points to form an image of your image and remember that just as there are different kinds of elephants (Indian, African, Female, Male, Adult, Baby) - each one an elephant - so too are there different approaches to strategy. Armed with the thoughts that you can take away from this book you will be able to infuse them into your business and benefit from them. Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel have done managers a great service by publishing this book. They don't present a magic wand or a silver bullet but they do lead us to water where we can drink.
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