Two Schools of Strategic Thinking

Paper Summary:

This paper examines the two approaches of strategic thinking: The design school and the planning school. The paper investigates each school in-depth by defining them and discussing several modern management approaches that fall into each category. The paper explores how the design school approach can solve a problems and be strengthened by being combined with the planning school approach for maximum effectiveness.

Table of Contents:
The Design School
Competitive Advantage and Core Competency
Porter's Five Forces Model
The SWOT Model
Continuous Improvement
The Planning School
Benchmarking
The Balanced Scorecard and Key Performance Indicators
The Best Value Approach
Applying The Design School to a Strategic Problem
The Problem
Background to the Problem
Applying the Design Approach to the Problem

From the Paper:

"The Design School
The design school has been described as the approach that "proposes a model of strategy making that seeks to attain a match, or fit, between internal capabilities and external possibilities" (Mintzberg, Ahlstrand and Lampel 24). This is based on looking at the threats and opportunities in the external environment, the strengths and opportunities in the internal environment, and finding a link between the two. There are many approaches that can be categorized as fitting within the design school. Several of these that are currently important in the business world will now be discussed.

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