Lecture 1

Ten school´s one word definitions

Design: Spider

Plan: squirrel
Position: position How should I approach (positioning school)
Vision: wolf, I have a vision
Perception: Owl,
Patterns: Monkey,
Agenda: Lion,
Belief: Peacock,
Response: Ostrich,
Stage: Chameleon,

Timeline of the ten schools
Planning and design school came in the 70-80´s. Then Porter came with the positioning school in the 90´s.

Why ten schools?
Organizations vary and change greatly, so we need more than 1 school.

The five p´s of strategy
Plan: Forward looking. Can be dangerous if it is strictly planned and something unforeseen happens.
Patterns: Backwards looking

Positions and perspective.
Locating a particular product in a particular market: Strategy of positioning a product.
Example: Introduce breakfast at McDonalds to use restaurant in the morning.
The new position is consistent with existing perspective.

The strategy of absent strategy
Deliberately using absent strategy promotes flexibility, experimentation and innovation.

Management control. Chapter 1 in the book. Management control is the systematic process by which the organization’s higher-level managers influence the organization’s lower- level managers to implement the organization’s strategies. 


Decentralization is the single most important reason for organizations to need management control systems. 
So, Management Control is about decentralized organizations. Need for control
Decentralized managers do not automatically understand the goals and strategies developed by higher level managers, nor how they can contribute to these goals and strategies.
Decentralized managers do not automatically agree with organizational goals and strategies developed by higher-level managers.
Decentralized managers do not automatically have the resources needed to act with