"My favourite
management book of the last 25 years? No contest. The Rise & Fall of Strategic
Planning by Henry Mintzberg." Tom Peters
In this definitive and
revealing history, Henry Mintzberg unmasks the process that has mesmerised so many
organisations since 1965: strategic planning.
Table of Contents
Acknowlegdements xv
A Note to the Reader xvii
Introduction: The
"Planning School" in Context 1
Planning and Strategy
What is planning anyway?
Why plan (According to
Planners)?
Jelenik's Case for Planning
And what is Strategy?
Planners, Plans and Planning
A Plan for this book
2.Models of the Strategic
Planning Process
The Basic Planning Model
The core 'design school'
model
Premises of the Design
School
Premises of the Planning
Literature
The Initial Ansoff Model
The Mainline Stiener Model
Decomposing the Basic Model
The Objective Setting Stage
The External Audit Stage
The Internal Audit Stage
The Strategy Evaluation
Stage
The Strategy
Operationalization Stage
Scheduling the Whole Process
A Missing Detail
Sorting out the Four
Hierarchies: Objectives, Budgets, Strategies, Programs
Heirarchy of Objectives
Heirarchy of Budgets
Heirarchy of Strategies
Heirarchy of Programs
The "Great Divide"
of Planning
Forms of Strategic Planning
A.Conventional Strategic
Planning
B."Strategic
Planning" as numbers game
C.Capital Budgeting as Ad
Hoc Control
3. Evidence on Planning
Survey Evidence on
"Does Planning pay?"
Anecdotal Evidence
The Generic Electric FIFO
Experience
Some Deeper Evidence
Sarrazin's Study of
Exemplary Planning
Gomer's Study of Planning
Under Crisis
Quinns findings on
Planning Under "Logical Incrementalism"
The McGill Research on
"Tracking Strategies"
Koch's study of the
"Facade" of French Government Planning
Some Evidence on the PPBS
Experience
Some Evidence on Capital
Budgeting
Concluding the Deeper
Evidence
Planners' Responses to the
Evidence
Faith "There is no
problem"
Salvation "Its the
process that counts"
Elaboration "Just you
wait"
Reversion "back to
basics"
Pitfalls "Them not
us"
4. Some Real Pitfalls of
Planning
Planning and commitment
Commitment at the Top
Commitment Lower Down
"Decentralized"
Planning
Planning And Freedom
Commitment Versus
Calculation
Planning And Change
The Inflexibility of Plans
The Inflexibility of
Planning
Planned Change as
Incremental
Planned Change as Generic
Planned Change as Short Term
Flexible Planning: Wanting
Things Both Ways
Planning & Politics
The Bases of Objectivity
The Goals Implicit in
Planning
The Politics of Planning
Politics over Planning
Planning and Control
Obsession with Control
"Our Age is turbulent,
Chicken Little"
Strategic Vision and
Strategic Learning
Illusion of Control?
Planning as Public Relations
5.Fundamental Fallacies of
Strategic Planning
Some Basic Assumptions
Behind Strategic Planning
Missing Taylor's Message
The Fallacy of
Predetermination
The Performance of
Forecasting
The Forecasting of
Discontinuities
Forecasting as Magic
Forecasting as Extrapolation
Forecasting and
"Turbulence" 237
The Dynamics of Strategy
Formation
Forecasting as Control (and
Planning as Enactment)
Secenarios's Instead of
Forecasts
Contingency Planning instead
of Deterministic Planning
The Fallacy Detachment
Seeing the Forest and The
Trees
The Soft Underbelly of Hard
Data
The Detachment of Planners
from Strategy Making
The Detachment of Managers
who Rely on Planning from Strategy Making
Learning about Strengths and
Weaknesses
"Marketing Myopia"
Myopia
Attaching Formulation to
Implementation
Connecting Thinking and
Acting
The Fallacy of Formulation
The Failure of Formalization
Was Formalization ever
tried?
The Analytical Nature of
Planning
Intuition Distinguished
Do the Hemispheres Have
Minds of Their Own?
Simon's Analytical View of
Intuition
Flipping Intuition Across
Analysis
Planning on the Left Side
and Managing on the Right
The Image of Managing
The Grand Fallacy
6. Planning, Plan, Planners
Coupling Analysis and
Intuition
The Planning Dilemma
Comparing Analysis and
Intuition
Analysis and Intuition in
Strategy Making
"Soft" Analysis
Role of Planning: Strategic
Programming
Step 1: Codifying the
Strategy
Step 2: Elaborating the
Strategy
Step 3: Converting the
Elaborated Strategy
Conditions of Strategic
Programming
First Role of Plans:
Communication Media
Second Role of Plans:
Control Devices
Strategic Control
First Role of Planners:
Finders of Strategy
Logic in Action
Desperately Seeking
Strategies
Unconventional Planners
Second Role of Planners:
Analysts
Strategic Analysis for
Managers
External Strategic
Analysis
Internal Strategic Analysis
and the role of Simulation
Scrutinization of Strategies
Third Role of Planners:
Catalysts
Opening Up Strategic
Thinking
Role for Formalization
The Formalization Edge
Simon's Interactive Control
Playing the Catalyst Role
The Planner as Strategist
A Plan for Planners
A Planner for Each Side of
the Brain
Planners in Context
Forms of Organizations
Strategic Programming in the
Machine Organization
Right and Left Handed
Planners in the Machine Organization
Strategic Programming Under
Other Conditions
Strategic Analysis in the
Professional Organization
Planning & Analysis in
the Adhocracy Organization
Minimal Roles in the
Entrepreneurial Organization
Performance Control in the
Diversified Organization
Planning Under Politics and
Culture
Planning in Different
Cultures
458 pages