Editorial Review:
In this definitive and revealing history, Henry Mintzberg, the iconoclastic former president of the Strategic Management Society, unmasks the press that has mesmerized so many organizations since 1965: strategic planning. One of our most brilliant and original management thinkers, Mintzberg concludes that the term is an oxymoron -- that strategy cannot be planned because planning is about analysis and strategy is about synthesis. That is why, he asserts, the process has failed so often and so dramatically.Mintzberg traces the origins and history of strategic planning through its prominence and subsequent fall. He argues that we must reconceive the process by which strategies are created -- by emphasizing informal learning and personal vision -- and the roles that can be played by planners. Mintzberg proposes new and unusual definitions of planning and strategy, and examines in novel and insightful ways the various models of strategic planning and the evidence of why they failed. Reviewing the so-called "pitfalls" of planning, he shows how the process itself can destroy commitment, narrow a company's vision, discourage change, and breed an atmosphere of politics. In a harsh critique of many sacred cows, he describes three basic fallacies of the process -- that discontinuities can be predicted, that strategists can be detached from the operations of the organization, and that the process of strategy-making itself can be formalized. Mintzberg devotes a substantial section to the new role for planning, plans, and planners, not inside the strategy-making process, but in support of it, providing some of its inputs and sometimes programming its outputs as well as encouraging strategic thinking in general. This book is required reading for anyone in an organization who is influenced by the planning or the strategy-making processes.
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Customer Reviews
Average Customer Rating: 
strategic planning  2008-02-06
the more important book about the right concept of strategy. This book break the wrong idea of strategic planning like a panacea.
A real sleeper  2007-04-10
Mintzberg goes back and forth on the issue of Stratgic planning. Basically, he quote's about 50 other authors thoughts on planning. I didn't find this book helpful and it was borning to read so many quotes from other authors.
Profoundly Insightful 2006-07-02
Henry Mintzberg provides a panoramic overview of the history of strategic planning. He uses this backdrop to offer powerful insights into strategy development.
Mintzberg carefully examines the vexing question of how strategy is formed. His clear differentiation between strategy formation and strategic planning are helpful in understanding the actual creation of strategies vs. the planning for those strategies. He contends strategic planning should be called strategic programming based on the fact that it has little if anything to do with the formation of strategy. He clearly delineates the difference between deliberate and emergent strategy formation while explaining the need to respect both methods. His "black box" of strategy creation, where human intuition works in yet unknown ways, provides insights in how to support and improve a process one cannot hope to fully understand.
Mintzberg creates useful and memorable constructs which help sort out strategy's key aspects. First he addresses how strategy is actually formed in the real world, as opposed to how planners think it should be formed. On that foundation he reviews the pitfalls and fundamental fallacies of planning, such as assuming strategy will appear spontaneously out of a planning process not specifically equipped to create strategy. Lastly, he proposes remedies for how strategy creation can actually be fostered to improve results and be integrated into strategic planning.
Mintzberg's constructs and perspectives will help business leaders make sense out of the flurry of strategy information which continually bombards them.
The Other View 2004-05-03
Henry Mintzberg is, as always, the iconoclast. It is well worth reading any book he writes because, invariably, he presents an alternative perspective on how business and how organisations work, generally one which drives from the combined power of both a theoretician and an experimentalist - a rare breed indeed. The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning is no exception. It is a book about finding a general theory of strategic planning which, given that the search is rooted in Mintzberg's observations of what actually happens in the real world, has the potential for practical application. His perspectives make one's understanding of the subject more complete; they promote one's ability to balance a potentially narrow view of the world with something richer. It doesn't really matter whether you think Mintzberg right or wrong, spot-on or off-beam, at least you have an alternative view. There are so many tidbits in his books that you invariably pick up something of worth. From my own perspective, having read through (and intending to continue to read) the book on many occasions in my own attempts to implement some strategic planning concepts, I draw my own conclusions about two of Mintzberg's perspectives which I feel are worth commenting on. Firstly, he takes the unique view of dividing the conventional planning model vertically along budget, objective, strategy and program lines (rather than cascading traditionally through corporate, business and functional lines down to actions). I have found, after much toying with this perspective, that it amounts to an hypothesis on how strategic planning actually works, and nothing more. His book focuses on expounding that exploratory hypothesis and, to some extent, because he focuses so heavily on it and because it is such a novel way of looking at things, it actually tends to make one forget that it is only a hypothesis. After many readings, I'm not sure how much the perspective enlightens and how much it obscures - that is the nature of hypotheses. Secondly and finally, Mintzberg provides his own outline of how to pursue strategic planning using a three step model. Alas, and disappointingly, the model provides little practical guidance at the end of the day. It is far too vague, far too removed from everyday requirements. It also suffers from the absence of an actual example of its application. Then again, that's not what the book was about - although I was hoping. Thank you Henry Mintzberg for the insight. The book is worth every cent for that alone.
"Must" Reading for Executives 2003-07-09
Even if you don't agree with Henry Mintzberg, this is "must" reading for executives. It is thought-provoking for the individual reader; and it is a great discussion starter for a management team. I highly recommend it! Dr. Michael Beitler
Author of "Strategic Organizational Change"
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