The Fall and Rise of Strategic Planning

Mintzberg, H. (1994, January-February). The fall and rise of strategic planning. Harvard Business Review, 107-114.

How Strategic Planning is Not Strategic Thinking

Reminiscent of Michael Porter’s famous maxim, “operational effectiveness is not strategy,” Henry Mintzberg maintains in this article that “strategic planning is not strategic thinking”.  He states that the strategic planning process can actually impinge upon strategic thinking because strategic planning often is driven solely by the numbers.  The most successful strategies are visions, not plans, Mintzberg contends, and there is a better way to do strategic planning

For Mintzberg, strategic thinking is about synthesis; it involves intuition and creativity.  He states, “The outcome of strategic thinking is an integrated perspective of the enterprise, a not-too-precisely articulated vision of direction.”  This integrated perspective reflects Mintzberg’s orientation as a follower of the emergent school of strategy thought. 

For this genuine strategy to emerge and for real strategic change to be enacted, Mintzberg argues for inventing new categories, not simply rearranging old ones.  In the process of inventing new categories, the power of creating strategy remains in the hands of the managers, not the planners.

“Strategy making needs to function beyond the boxes,” Mintzberg recommends, “to encourage the informal learning that produces new perspectives and new combinations.”  He also states that the problem with planning is that planning represents a calculating style of management, not a committing style.  He believes emergent strategies enjoy the greatest amount of continued buy-in and investment from those enacting the strategies.

Are planners completely obsolete, then, in Mintzberg’s view?  Not necessarily.  Planners should be seen as analysts.  Effective planners should spend a majority of their time carrying out an analyses of specific issues.  Planners, then, are more strategy “finders” than strategy makers.

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