An Overview of The Design School of Strategic Management

The field of strategic management and strategy formulation has evolved into a complex area of study since its emergence in the 1960's, even for the most knowledgeable and experienced strategist. Strategy Safari-A Guided Tour through the Wilds of Strategic Management, by Henry Mintzberg, Bruce Ahlstrand and Joseph Lampel is an overview of the full field of academic and business studies of strategy formulation, based on previous lecture series delivered by Mintzberg. In that book, the authors identified ten (10) schools of strategy formulation. One of which is the design school. The “design school” of strategic management, which focuses on a non-complex model that perceives the process of strategic formation as a design process to reach a satisfactory balance between internal distinctive competence and external threat and opportunity. Strategy formation should be a conscious, informal and controlled process of thought. This book provides a general overview of the Design School providing an example as to how it can be adopted by organisations even in present times despite its wide criticisms.

Alfred Sarbah holds BA, LL.B, MA Industrial Management and lecturer at Kumasi Polytechnic, Ghana. He is currently a PhD. Candidate at UESTC, Chengdu P.R. China with several years of teaching experience and a number of published articles to his credit.