Mapping Strategic Diversity: Strategic Thinking from a Variety of Perspectives

by Dany Jacobs

Overview

In his influential work, Strategy Safari, Henry Mintzberg and his colleagues presented ten schools of strategic thought. In this impressive book, Dany Jacobs demonstrates that the real world of strategic management is much wider and richer.

In Mapping Strategic Diversity, Jacobs distinguishes between 'cockpit theories' of strategy, which bring rational analysis to the forefront, and process-oriented social science approaches, which bring in a wider array of influences to the theory and practice of business planning. Presenting 22 different approaches to strategy making, this book:

• provides a comprehensive overview of the field
• guides the reader in developing theoretical and practical skills
• helps develop both high and low level strategic thinking

 

This textbook is a useful analysis for practising managers, but really comes into its own as an advanced introduction to the field of strategic management; having read this book, students are fully armed to enter the strategy jungle!

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780415550246
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	10/13/2009
Pages:	256
Product dimensions:	6.12(w) x 9.19(h) x (d)

About the Author

Dany Jacobs is Professor of Industrial Dynamics and Innovation Policy at the University of Amsterdam and Professor of Art, Culture and Economy at the Universities of Applied Science ArtEZ and HAN in Arnhem, the Netherlands. He has been active in the field of innovation for more than 20 years.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. The Essence of Strategy 2. A Few Traditional Classifications of Strategy 3. Thirty P’s for Perspective on Strategy 4. The Great Wood of Strategy 5. Where There is a Will, There is a Way 6. The Entrepreneur Deliberates, the Market Decides 7. That’s the Way We See, That’s How We Do It 8. Everything in Continuous Movement 9. Our Second Atlas of the Wood 10. Gusts of Winds on Pico Paradox 11. Paradoxes Relating to the Content

Editorial Reviews

'Dany Jacobs provides us with one of the most innovative and exciting strategy texts in a long while. The book provides a considerably broadened view of the phenomena of strategic management and will create much new debate. A superb text for students and managers alike.' - John Hassard (University of Manchester, UK)

'Dany Jacob's Mapping Strategic Diversity presents an enlightening overview of some of the most important schools of strategic thought, coupled with some fascinating insights and case accounts that are sure to be of real interest to managers and students of strategy alike.' - Danny Miller (Research Professor, HEC Montreal and Chair in Strategy and Family Enterprise, University of Alberta, Canada)

'Dany Jacobs’ Mapping Strategic Diversity is a provocative and enlightening take on strategy. It is also a fun read. Jacobs’ chapter titled "30 Ps for Perspectives on Strategy"—with its rhetorical question, "how many Ps can you think of?"—is itself worth the price of admission.' - Robert Keidel (Visiting Associate Professor of Management, Drexel University, USA)

'Dany Jacobs has written a book about strategy, Mapping Strategic Diversity, that manages both to demystify and de-economize the strategy discourse and make this most fascinating area of organizational politics engaging for the student.' - Stewart Clegg (Research Director of Centre for Management and Organization Studies, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia)

From the Publisher