Making Strategy: The Journey of Strategic Management

This book approaches strategy-making in a way that is designed to assist most organizations develop strategy appropriate to their size, purpose and resources. It provides a much-needed guide to the strategy-making process by: elaborating the key concepts and theories of strategic management; by illustrating through case vignettes the issues inherent in the process of strategy-making; and by providing extensive and detailed practical guidelines on the methods, techniques and tools employed in the case vignettes. Key themes explored are: the crucial significance of political feasibility; the role of participation; emphasis on stakeholder management; thinking about alternative futures within the overall process of strategy-making; and using computer support for strategy-making, organizational learning and strategy-delivery.

Table of Contents:
PART ONE: THEORY AND CONCEPTS The Journey of Strategy Making Strategy Making as a Journey The Political Feasibility of Strategy The Art of Good Journey Making Working with Strategy Making Teams Detecting Emergent Strategizing Strategic Intent Exploring Distinctive and Core Distinctive Competencies and Developing the Business Model Thinking about Others in Managing a Strategic Future Those who can act to support or sabotage Strategic Adaptability and Opportunism Managing Alternative Futures Strategy Making Closure The Journey Making Model PART TWO: VIGNETTES PART THREE: PRACTICE: METHODS,TOOLS AND TECHNIQUES Individual Interviews Using Cognitive Mapping The Oval Mapping Technique A manual way to support groups Computer Supported Group Workshops Exploring Stakeholder Analysis and Alternative Futures The Management of Process, the Design of Interventions and the Facilitation of Groups Analysing Interview Maps and Analyzing Maps/Computer Models for Managing Workshops Delivering Strategy Agreeing Strategic Intent and Strategic Programmes Developing Strategic Programmes, Actions and a Strategy Delivery Support System (SDSS) Delivering Strategy Communication, Project Management, Strategy Review

About the Author :
Fran Ackermann is Professor and Head of Department of Management Science at Strathclyde Business School, and an adjunct Professor at Curtin Graduate School of Business. She has written widely, publishing 4 books, over 20 book chapters and 150+ articles (ranging from strategy, stakeholder management, competency mapping to problem structuring, disruption and delay and risk management). She has been an adjunct professor at University of Georgia, Grenoble Business School and Bordeaux Business School. She is a member of the British Academy of Management, the Operational Research Society and is active at the Academy of Management (having served on one of the divisional executive committees). She is currently on the British Academy of Management Council. Fran has also been an ESRC Post-doctoral Fellowship Assessor and a Commonwealth Grant Advisor.

Review :
'Colin Eden's reputation has, justifiably, been built on his internationally recognised work on cognitive mapping. Viewed in this light this book is best seen as an important, and sometimes fascinating handbook for the range of techniques that he and his team have developed in the area of corporate strategy. As such, it will undoubedtly be an invaluable reference book for facilitators undertaking group work in related fields' - Journal of Marketing Management ' Linking theory to details of practice is practically unprecedented in strategy texts. My guess is that once word gets out every OD department in every corporation, government department and large non-profit organization will want a copy, in part because of the link of theory and practice, but also because mapping is clearly a major wave of the future and they are the first to show people exactly how to do it' - John M Bryson, University of Minnesota 'This book is the first on the strategy making process which takes seriously (both theoretically and practically) how people with power in an organization make sense of their world - how cognitive maps and the business of changing them contributes to changing strategic futures' - Karl Weick, University of Michigan 'Rarely does a text on strategy formulation so closely link theory with practice. This text is readable-well organized, beautifully written and illustrated-it can serve as a useful guide as well as a long-term reference source' - Gerry DeSanctis, Duke University 'In the last few decades we have been led astray by airport books with sound-bite steps to strategic success, and elegant but equally unrealistic simplifications from theoreticians. In practice, strategy making is an on-going, messy, incomplete process - as all who do sustained work in organizations know. I highly recommend Making Strategy because it provides both practical and theoretical insights into this complex reality' - Anne Sigismund Huff, University of Colorado 'As a text for use by any lecturer in Strategic Management, it is most accessible with an original and helpful format.' - International Journal of Public-Private Partnerships