Strategy Bites Back: Strategy in Far More, and Less Than You Ever Imagined

by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce W. Ahlstrand, Joseph B. Lampel

SWOTed by strategy models? Crunched by analysis? Strategy doesn’t have to be this way. Strategy is really all about being different. Thinking about it shouldn't make you reach for the snooze button. Strategy Bites Back brings you a provocative, imaginative and surprising mix of perspectives to help stimulate more creative strategic thinking and more enjoyable strategy making. From voices as diverse as and Lucy Kellaway, Mao Tse Tung and Jack Welch, even Michael Porter and Gary Hamel, you can enjoy exploring the sharper side of strategy. and many, many more. Why not have a good time reading a strategy book for a change?

Genres: Business, Nonfiction, Business Strategy, Management, Leadership

240 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Professor Henry Mintzberg, OC , OQ , Ph.D. , D.h.c. , FRSC (born September 2, 1939) is an internationally renowned academic and author on business and management. He is currently the Cleghorn Professor of Management Studies at the Desautels Faculty of Management of McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada, where he has been teaching since 1968, after earning his Master's degree in Management and Ph.D. from the MIT Sloan School of Management in 1965 and 1968 respectively.
Henry Mintzberg writes prolifically on the topics of management and business strategy, with more than 140 articles and thirteen books to his name. His seminal book, The Rise and Fall of Strategic Planning, criticizes some of the practices of strategic planning today and is considered required reading for anyone who seriously wants to consider taking on a strategy-making role within their organization.

He recently published a book entitled Managers Not MBAs Managers Not MBAswhich outlines what he believes to be wrong with management education today and, rather controversially, singles out prestigious graduate management schools like Harvard Business School and the Wharton Business School at the University of Pennsylvania as examples of how obsession with numbers and an over-zealous attempt at making management into a science actually can damage the discipline of management. He also suggests that a new masters program, targeted at practicing managers (as opposed to younger students with little real world experience), and emphasizing practical issues, may be more suitable.

Ironically, although Professor Mintzberg is quite critical about the strategy consulting business, he has twice won the McKinsey Award for publishing the best article in the Harvard Business Review.

In 1997 he was made an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 1998 he was made an Officer of the National Order of Quebec. He is now a member of the Strategic Management Society.

Reviews

[Filipa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this book in order to understand better what my master's degree is about. I gotta say: I didn't understand every single thing this book is trying to say, but the things I did understand were interesting, provocative and they made total sense. I believe this book will be very useful for my future and I plan to read it more times so that I can understand better some of the articles it reproduces. Some articles are just so funny though.
This book is very original and that made this reading very enjoyable.

[Peter · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is a collection of "Bytes", articles, poems and aphorisms that try to define what strategy looks like and how it looks like in business without the usual jargon. Entertaining and funny, the book is worth the read.

[Manouane Beauchamp · Rating 5 out of 5]

Mintzberg est l'auteur en management le plus lu mais le moins bien compris par les gestionnaires ou les consultants. Ses analyses sont réalisées sur le terrain, en entreprise, et ses conclusions sont aussi simples qu'en redoutables. Seulement voilà, on dirait qu'on préfère ignorer ses enseignements. Dommage.

[Ivo Spigel · Rating 5 out of 5]

Another great book by the Master!

[James Kemp · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this as pre-reading before studying Strategy with the Open University. It was very clear and easy to read, explained things ownderfully, made me laugh in places, and was genuinely useful in getting my head round what strategy actually is.

I'd certainly recommend it to anyone who wants to understand strategy, read this before trying anything else (and as a second reading I would go for Good Strategy Bad Strategy: The Difference and Why It Matters).

[Nigel Street · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some great snippets and anecdotes arranged in an interesting way making it a refreshing departure from the usual format. My only criticism is that the authors seemed to have been unnecessarily wedded to a preconceived structure that tried to provide a front to back of strategy and it's formulation.

[Denis Korsunov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful set of strategy specialized articles! Just from this one source you can find update for current approaches for strategic planning with their pros and cons. Here you will not find a doctrine, but a bunch of ideas, and very likely that one of these ideas can be useful for your case.

[Stoxy001 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Just one question: what is strategy? Seems to me, to be many different things, including planning, guesswork, culture and much more. Some really interesting sections from a varied range of contributors from leaders of Countries to successful company CEOs.

[Jane · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not your conventional strategic planning book.

[Alex Pasternak · Rating 4 out of 5]

A great easy to read business book. Just a bunch of vignettes, although with a purpose.

[Denis Van · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weak book. The book uses hollow terms and big words to describe what strategy shouldn't be: hollow terms and big words. The book isn't concrete, clear or funny. And it all sounds very oldfashioned.