Crafting Strategy- Summary's 5y264n

Summary 1 Henry Mintzberg skillfully and competently equates the process of strategy making to the process of making pottery. The strategist is similar to a craftsman, or potter in this case. Mintzberg says, “the crafting image better captures the process by which efective strategies come to be.” When compared to the planning process of strategy making, I am much more inclined to agree with Mintzberg and the image he creates. There are several key ideas that Mintzberg parallels to the potter and her craft. First, the potter may create a product that follows in the tradition of her past work, but she may also create a work that breaks away from tradition in a new direction. Similarly, stragies are patterns that are put into action over time; but strategies may emerge in a different direction than tradition has previously held. Second, strategy making must be a deliberate process-thought must precede action. But “strategies can form as well as be formulated.” Third, strategists do not necessarily have to be top management running an organization but removed from the inner-workings of that organization. Instead, like the potter is intimately connected with her work, strategists may be those most intimately connected with the company and those products/services it sells. Strategists may be those on the front lines, so to speak. Fourth, the potter may fail to make one piece, but the lump that remains may be formed into something completely different. In the same way, strategies can emerge any time and at any place; errros themselves may become chances for opportunity. The image of a craftsman is someone who is dedicated, ionate, intimately involved with the materials, has a personal touch, has mastered the detail of their art, and is experienced. The strategist must also be someone who is involved and connected with their industry and who is personally involved with the industrial processes. Finally, just as a craftsman may see things that other people miss, the strategist must be able to see emerging patterns and guide them into place as strategies.

Summary 2 Crafting strategy is an article that better captures the process by which effective strategies come to be . Mintzberg uses the analogy of a manager being a craftsman and strategy being their clay. Managers bring together knowledge from the past of corporate capabilities and a future of market opportunities. Strategies are not just the plans for the future but are also formed around the patterns from the past. The key to crafting strategy is the intimate connection between thought and action. When managers usually approach strategy they form a plan, but Mintzbergh proposed that strategy can also emerge without a plan. Wherever people have the capability and resources, strategy will take place. Like craftsman, it is important that organizations put the ideas to practice. Organizations cannot separate the work of minds without losing important . Strategy is the responsibility of everyone in the organization, not just the people in leadership positions. When a manager is managing strategy they do so by managing the stability of the organization. It is key that a manager knows when to promote change. An important element of managing strategy is recognizing patterns and helping them develop. The article is written with clarity, but uses examples for many things. You must understand the examples to understand the point the author is trying to make. There are headings and subheadings throughout it to help aid in easy reading. There are images to help visual learners comprehend the message the author is trying to portray. Mintzberg uses logical arguments when comparing the potter to the manager. The article discusses the content of strategy, but also touches on some of the processes that must take place. Mintzberg uses this article to directly build on some of the other models, but accomplishes this by using a new analogy, the craftsman and the manager. The article is both a conceptual/theoretical and a practical article it uses the concept of the craftsman, and the practical applications pertaining to strategy formation. Mintzberg uses many companies for examples throughout the article including McGill University, Volkswagenwerk, AirCanada, General motors, National Film Board of Canada, Honda, and Steinberg Inc. through this article we discovered that the crafting strategy required synthesis of the future, present, and past. The author stated, “It is those (managers of strategy) with a kind of peripheral vision who are best able to detect and take advantage of events as they unfold.” Mintzberg made 3 very valuable points, Managers and craftsman go through some similar processes to get to their final product. Crafting image better captures the process by which effective strategies come to be. And strategies can form or be formulated. This article relates to other articles written by Mintzberg, this is not the only one he wrote on crafting strategy. These ideas could be used in conjunction with many other articles on strategy. This article is very applicable to management today. Additionally, this article would be great for any company looking to further understand strategy in a way that is simple and easy to understand. This article would be great for companies who have had a strategy form and are trying to decide what to do with it. As a group we pondered a couple questions about this article, “are strategies that form usually strong enough to be completely implemented?” and, “how do companies best receive from everyone to form an ultimate strategy?” Overall, this article gave our group a new way to view strategy and a new understanding of strategy. Because we have only read the first two schools, we are not completely sure how this article fits, but we can see how the examples used could help one better understand strategy.

Summary 3 In "Crafting Strategy", Mintzberg wrote an incisive article on his views on strategy. He methodically explores the traditional way people view strategy as something planned by the strategist (could be CEO or Strategic Planning department) to be implemented by others. He, however, explains that managers' feel for the way the organization should be going can result in a series of decisions from which a strategy can emerge. In other words, strategies are not just a plan for the future that are deliberate but can emerge over time as firms respond to pressures in the operating environment and are compelled to innovate. Mintzberg uses the metaphor of a potter which demonstrates involvement by the craftsman where the potter uses his/her skills, experience and dedication and makes adjustments as necessary as he/she is working on the product, resulting in a creative article being produced. In this way, Mintzberg shows that formal strategic planning alone is not enough to explain how managers develop strategies but also the intuitive knowledge of the firm and feel for the company enables managers to come up with creative decisions from which an innovative strategy emerges. From his metaphor of a potter working with clay, Mintzberg develops his argument for personal strategy of experimentation which leads to consensus strategy that follow the trend in the industry, which arise from organizational people learning from the market what customers want. The author also discusses the concept of umbrella strategy where senior managers set broad guidelines and leave the specifics to others in the organization resulting in a deliberate-emergent strategy. He also discusses the Process Strategy where management controls the process of strategy formation whilst leaving the actual content to others down the organizational hierarchy. The author explains that these deliberate-emergent strategies are essential in businesses that require great expertise and innovation. Mintzberg also dispels the conventional view that change must be continuous with the organization adapting all the time but explains that strategic change takes place in quantum leaps (strategic revolutions) followed by periods of stability where change is only marginal. Mintzberg labels "adhocracy" organizations that produce individual, custom made products in an innovative way, on a project basis. Although this article was written under two decades ago, it still sounds very innovative and thought provoking. I have read the article several times over the years and I enjoy it every time. However, the article is not for the beginner in strategy but for those pursuing the subject at an advanced level, being familiar with literature on the subject.