Rating: 
Summary: A must read for novices and experts alike.
Review: I use this book as the main reference in my MBA lectures on Corporate Strategy.
The idea behind this is that Mintzberg puts strategy on perspective by showing ten diferent views of it instead of the standardized and biased tool-centered paradigm.
In a world of permanent change there is no substitute for a thinking decison maker. Mintzberg challenges the reader to think by presenting a multi-faceted view of the problem letting the reader decides which school is better for his problem.Mintzberg evades the cake-recipe pattern that plagues business texts and opens room in the minds of the reader for a non-biased (or at least a less-biased) judgment.
The text is plenty of references so the reader can find his prefered authors and follow the path that call his attention or is focused on its particular problem or better suit its world-view.
Mintzberg excelled at creating a Tour de force on The field of Strategy. Even experts on the field will be forced to rethink its own concepts and paradigms.
You'll be challenged to think.
Rating:
Summary: One of few strategy books worth reading
Review: If you will have to read ONE strategy book in your life, this is it. Excellent overview and introduction to different schools with pros and cons. Sometimes a bit sarcastic, but that only makes it readable. If you're an aspiring MBA student; read this and you'll even find the strategy courses funny and easy. If you're an practitioner; read this and learn how to see through all your quick-fix consultants that shows up with a new strategy model every now and then. In Short: an extremely useful and interesting book.
Rating: 
Summary: A must read if you're a student of strategic management.
Review: If you're tired of approaching the topic of strategy piecemeal, seminar by seminar, bouncing from concept to concept, read this book. You might read this book after sifting through the assumed absolutes of decades old strategic planning procedures, in an effort to retrofit and contextualize early schools of thought. Or you may read it as a preface to understanding the fashionable strategic development theories emanating from today's academic and consulting leaders. Whatever the motivation, if you are a student of strategic management, read this book. The authors paint the clearest picture of the strategic landscape you will find in print. They've done a tremendous job of describing, comparing, contrasting and critiquing the premises and accomplishments of ten prominent schools of thought on strategic development. The book's final chapter provides an excellent summary and an overview framework for engaging in, observing or studying the strategy development process in organizations.
Rating:
Summary: Offers great insights to the complex nature of Strategy.
Review: In many aspects, the book has adequately potrayed the struggle to define what Strategy is all about. Some would agree that it deals a lot with systematic analysis while others see the emergent process as the dominating factor. But Mintzberg et al has offered a new insight. That Strategy is something else. Something that is beyond what the present schools of thought holds true. The premises that were laid down illustrates both the strengths and weakness of those ideas and breaks down all the argument as to which school has it right. And among all the literature proliferation on this subject, the Strategy Safari will definitely help readers to get clearer idea in finding the true essence of Strategy.
Rating:
Summary: Alein
Review: It's a misstary story and a good one at that if you have read the book the older son had gone out on a rainy night to watch a paper boat float down the stream he lost his arm and was found dead his brother always went back every 4 years to face the creature who took his brother and faced worst fears everytime he went there. He was in the drain as I recall. He took a Life of one every year and his Younger brother studder He Learned how to talk slow without studdering, and went on into his own business so that he could make sure he was there every 4years to face the creture that took his big brothers life. He won the first go round I really can't remember the rest it has been awhile since I have read the book You ought to get it if you have not read it. By Kathy Truman
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to many management philosophies
Review: Mintzberg et al have done an incredible job of summarizing ten different schools of business management thought. From the more conservative case-management approaches through the learning organization to the multiple-approach configuration school, they present business philosophy in a consistent and well-developed format. Particularly valuable are the charts in the final sections of the book that compare the different schools, where they are most commonly found, and how to recognize them. The perspective gained from considering ten different approaches to management is invaluable. This book is a recommended reading in the Athabasca University (Canada) MBA program I am enrolled in, but it fact it has essentially summarized the content of the Strategic Management course entirely. Highly recommended reading for any manager who would like a broader prespective on business strategy.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent introduction to many management philosophies
Review: Mintzberg et al have done an incredible job of summarizing ten different schools of business management thought. From the more conservative case-management approaches through the learning organization to the multiple-approach configuration school, they present business philosophy in a consistent and well-developed format. Particularly valuable are the charts in the final sections of the book that compare the different schools, where they are most commonly found, and how to recognize them. The perspective gained from considering ten different approaches to management is invaluable. This book is a recommended reading in the Athabasca University (Canada) MBA program I am enrolled in, but it fact it has essentially summarized the content of the Strategic Management course entirely. Highly recommended reading for any manager who would like a broader prespective on business strategy.
Rating:
Summary: Real life Strategy
Review: Mintzberg has done in previous books a superb analysis of planning as well as management processes (Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning and Mintzberg on Management). This new book is a absolutely necessary for anyone interested on strategy, be it from a conceptual point of view or day-to-day building / developing strategies in real life. In a time when people emphasize changes brought by the internet, e-commerce etc to every company's operations, the book offers a complete review of each strategic school strengths & weaknesses. This sort of view develops one's capabilities of integrating these changes into the strategy process without buzzwords (exception the strategy safari title...). Managers do not need formulas, but a full grasp of all available techniques that can bring superior performance to an organization. The book shows some pitfalls of over-emphasizing certain aspects that are always the cornerstone of formal companies - some processes that are more conceptual than real life. And it brings real life processes back into the strategy process and how to understand and manage them proactively.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent book for overview and most important literature
Review: Mintzbergs Strategy Safari is an excellent book for getting an overview on current schools of strategic management and for getting the ability to distinguish between them in reading about strategic management. Schools are portrayed with their most important premises and authors together with critical opinion at the end of each chapter. Great book!
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Summary: Lucky school, Strategy Formation as a very difficult process
Review: The book is very comprehensive and still, at a glance, simple and fun to read. However, after reading and re-reading, I realized that strategy formation had been a very difficult process. As the author(s) wrote,""The test of a first-rate intelligence is the ability to hold two opposed ideas in the mind at the same time and still retain the ability to function." To function as a strategist, of course, means not just to hold such opposing views, but... to be able to synthesize them. We ask you, the reader, to hold ten such views!" WOW!
Perhaps, with such complex schools, Manager (s) who are able to make strategies (as plans, patterns, persectives, positions, and ploys) and able to implement it succesfully on their organization in any environtment (stable/dynamic, complex/simple, low/high market diversity, hostile/not hositle) must be very tallented, and ,certainly, be very lucky.
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