A Critical Review of "The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning"

Contents

Page Introduction Placing the article in wider literature debate Underlying theoretical assumptions Strengths and Weaknesses Concluding remarks References 2 2 3 4 5 6

Introduction In today’s modern society shaped by economic and social challenges, business strategy has never been more important. A rethink of theoretical management practices is ‘fundamental’ to establishing innovative strategic design to cope with these challenges. (Hahn et al, 2010). This is not a new idea, in fact, in 2009, Guerrera challenged Michael Porter’s underlying premise that businesses are there to make money while Figge and Hahn (2008) go as far as to accuse such strategies of ‘aggravating’ the current economic situation. Henry Mintzberg’s assessment of strategic planning can be associated with Whittington’s Processual school of strategy (2002). This literature review places the article in the wider context of the prescriptive – emergent debate and compares Mintzberg’s arguments with those of other influential strategists including Michael Porter and Peter Drucker. Secondly, by identifying Mintzberg’s theoretical underlying assumptions, we present a critical assessment of the underpinning arguments and challenge the drawn conclusions. By looking at the overall strengths and weaknesses of the article, we will critically review its position amongst wider academic literature. We will conclude with some managerial implications and proposals for the ongoing research agenda.

The debate Mintzberg’s article contributes to a well documented academic debate about the formulation of successful business strategy. Porter (1979) and Ansoff (1968) are known for their support for prescriptive methods: analysing the current business environment for opportunities of competitive advantage and developing a structured plan to achieve these goals. The challenging view, of course, is the idea of strategy emerging from within the organisation as it interacts with its environment. Mintzberg

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