Making Strategy: The Journey of Strategic Management

By Fran Ackermann and Colin Eden

Book Overview

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 stra

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 076195225X
• ISBN13: 9780761952251
• Release Date: December 1998
• Publisher: Sage Publications Ltd
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Action counts

You might plan, but only action will influence the future! In their strategy JOURNEY, Eden & Ackerman takes this seriously. Therefore they abandon normative strategy-approaches and show us instead the possibility to exploit cognitive diversity, tacit knowledge and emergent strategy. They also stress the importance of negotiating with stakeholders, powerbrokers and personnel to come to decisions, actions and insights that shape the strategic future of an organization. This is not an ideal picture - it's a realistic conclusion from decades of practical work with companies and non-profit organizations trying to create their future in a context of the messy problems of every-day life. Each organization has to find it's own way. The authors give us an inside-view of these experiences and explain in detail the methods and tools used.Although "Making strategy" has a practical focus on how to make the JOURNEY of strategizing happen and it easily can be used as a consultants handbook, the theoretical foundations are not neglected. Eden & Ackerman make a clear stance that the world that counts in strategizing is the one we percieve, and that decision-making in organizations involves more than one logic. The authors emphazise the process of strategizing and leave the ontological question open - if we learn from our actions, we will also get to know whether or not we were right in our assumptions about the world. Since we cannot forecast the future with enough precision to make long-range action plans in advance, we have to learn while we strategize. Continuously we have to question our assumptions, redraw our plans and consider how new directions influence the social order in which action takes place. These experiences and insights are convincing - and the methods and software tools are immensly useful. If you want to get things done.

A book that that builds strategy with the student

Eden and Ackermann have written a book based upon there experiences of working with management groups in industry. The book is an excellent contribution to our knowledge of 'developing and managing strategy'. The book takes the student through the process of building strategy, putting the student in the centre, enabling the student to build strategy of a company or organisation. This approach is unique and a fine example of how to teach and learn about the subject. The book uses models as a process to develop strategy, i.e cognitive mapping and Decision Explorer. The book is aimed at students that are final year undergraduates or Masters students. When using the book, students need a knowledge base in 'modelling skills'.On the downside, the book has a complex indexing system which takes a while to 'get the hang of'. The book promotes Eden and Ackermann's approach to developing strategy, which is based upon a 'reasoned thinking' style. There are other approaches.But taking everything into consideration, this is simply the best book on the market!!!!I have therefore decided to adopt this book as the main reader for my students at Napier University.Ian Yeoman Napier University Business School Edinburgh

The most useful Strategic Management book that I have read

This book is an absolute gold mine of advice and information on theory,practice and process. It is the most complete book on strategic management that I have ever read and is a must for the academic, the consultant and the hard pressed practioner. To be able to access the level of deal on content, context and process, all cross referenced is of considerable help. I cannot recommend this book highly enough. It is a 5 star piece of essential kit for those serious in their quest to understand and practise strategic management.

Path-breaking contribution to the strategic thinking process

This book is the product of the last twenty or so years of Eden and Ackerman's work in strategic planning. Based on personal and group psychological foundations, the techniques that the authors describe fully in Making Strategy are supported by a unique software environment (Decision Explorer) that can be used with disparate groups struggling with a strategic issue. But much can be done with the authors' approach with groups even without computer support.This is an important contribution to the practical strategy literature, a kind of "construct paradigm" that describes the theory of the approach, how to do it in practice, and what particular applications have actually looked like. A related book is John M. Bryson's Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations.