The preeminent scholar in this regard is Henry Mintzberg. In 1998, Mintzberg proposed that the practice of strategic management observes three main perspectives (or ―streams).

• Prescriptive – Strategy is dictated or planned
• Describing – Strategy is a reaction or evolves
• Configuration – Based upon how the business is structured or configured.

Within these streams there are a total of ten different schools of thought concerning how strategist perceive the creation of strategy:

• Prescriptive
  • Design
  • Planning
  • Positioning
• Describing
  • Entrepreneurial
  • Cognitive
  • Learning
  • Power-Based
  • Cultural
  • Environmental
• Configuration
  • Configuration

Any of these forces, motivations, or organizational orientations might give rise to the formation of strategy in the organization.

Mintzberg further broke down strategic formulation into 4 categories:

• Intended
• Deliberate
• Realized
• Emergent

Each category helps to bridge the understanding between how strategies is formulated and how it is ultimately carried out.

We will discuss each of the perspective in detail in the Business Strategy course. For now, suffice it to say that there are varied beliefs concerning how strategy actually arises of forms in a business.

In the following section, we will focus on strategic analysis and the deliberate planning and implementation of an organizational strategy. This is a skill set for employees or managers at any level of the organization.