Mintzberg's main thesis is that planning and strategy making are mutually exclusive activities. While acknowledging a vital role for planning, he claims that the process can straitjacket an organization by stifling innovation and commitment. On the other hand, strategy making is a fluid, informal process requiring adaptability. Mintzberg includes an impressive amount of research in this scholarly, readable treatise, and he suggests how strategy making and planning can be implemented to complement each other.

Originally published: New York : Prentice Hall, 1994.

PLANNING AND STRATEGY WHAT IS PLANNING ANYWAY? -- Why Plan (According to Planners)? -- Jelinek''s Case for PlanningAnd What Is Strategy? -- Planners, Plans, and Planning -- A Plan for This Book --- MODELS OF THE STRATEGIC PLANNING PROCESS -- The Basic Planning Model -- The Core "Design School" Model -- Premises of the Design School -- Premises of the Planning Literature -- The Initial Ansoff Model -- The Mainline Steiner Model -- Decomposing the Basic Model -- The Objectives-Setting Stage -- The External Audit Stage -- The Internal Audit Stage -- The Strategy Evaluation Stage -- The Strategy Operationalization Stage -- Scheduling the Whole Process -- A Missing Detail -- Sorting Out the Four Hierarchies: Objectives, Budgets, Strategies, Programs -- Hierarchy of Objectives -- Hierarchy of Budgets -- Hierarchy of Strategies -- Hierarchy of Programs -- The "Great Divide" of Planning -- Forms of Strategic Planning - A. Conventional Strategic Planning - B. "Strategic Planning" as a Numbers Game - C. Capital Budgeting as Ad Hoc Control --- EVIDENCE ON PLANNING: SURVEY EVIDENCE ON "DOES PLANNING PAY?" -- "Anecdotal Evidence" -- The General Electric FIFO Experience -- Some Deeper Evidence -- Sarrazin''s Study of Exemplary Planning -- Gomer''s Study of Planning Under Crisis -- Quinn''s Findings on Planning Under "Logical Incrementalism" -- The McGill Research on "Tracking Strategies - "Koch''s Study of the "Facade" of French Government Planning -- Some Evidence on Capital Budgeting -- Concluding the Deeper Evidence -- Planners'' Responses to the Evidence -- Faith: "There is no problem" -- Salvation: "It''s the process that counts" -- Elaboration: "Just you wait" -- Reversion: "Back to basics" -- Pitfalls: "Them not us" --- SOME REAL PITFALLS OF PLANNING -- Planning and Commitment -- Commitment at the Top -- Commitment Lower Down "Decentralized" Planning -- Planning and Freedom -- Commitment Versus Calculation -- Planning and Change -- The Inflexibility of Plans -- Planned Change as Incremental -- Planned Change as Generic -- Planned Change as Short Term -- Flexible Planning: Wanting Things Both Ways -- Planning and Politics -- The Biases of Objectivity -- The Goals Implicit in Planning -- The Politics of Planning -- Politics over Planning -- Planning and Control -- Obsession with Control "Our age is turbulent, Chicken Little" -- Strategic Vision and Strategic Learning -- Illusion of Control? -- Planning as Public Relations --- FUNDAMENTAL FALLACIES OF STRATEGIC PLANNING -- Some Basic Assumptions Behind Strategic Planning -- Missing Taylor''s Message -- The Fallacy of Predetermination -- The Performance of Forecasting -- The Forecasting of Discontinuities -- Forecasting as MagicForecasting as Extrapolation -- Forecasting and "Turbulence"-- The Dynamics of Strategy Formation -- Forecasting as Control (and Planning as Enactment) -- Scenarios Instead of Forecasts -- Contingency Planning Instead of Deterministic Planning -- The Fallacy of Detachment -- Seeing the Forest And the Trees -- The Soft Underbelly of Hard Data -- The Detachment of Planners from Strategy Making -- The Detachment of Managers Who Rely on Planning from Strategy Making -- Learning About Strengths and Weaknesses -- "Marketing Myopia" Myopia -- Attaching Formulation to Implementation -- Connecting Thinking and Acting -- The Fallacy of Formalization -- The Failure of Formalization -- Was Formalization Ever Even Tried? -- The Analytical Nature of Planning -- Intuition Distinguished -- Do the Hemispheres Have Minds of Their Own? Simon''s Analytical View of Intuition -- Flipping Intuition Across to Analysis -- Planning on the Left Side and Managing on the Right -- The Image of Managing -- The Grand Fallacy --- PLANNING,PLANS,PLANNERS -- Coupling Analysis and Intuition -- The Planning Dilemma -- Comparing Analysis and Intuition -- Analysis and Intuition in Strategy Making -- A Strategy for Planning "Soft" Analysis -- Role of Planning: Strategic Programming -- Step 1: Codifying the Strategy -- Step 2: Elaborating the Strategy -- Step 3: Converting the Elaborated Strategy -- Conditions of Strategic Programming -- First Role of Plans: Communication Media -- Second Role of Plans: Control Devices -- Strategic Control -- First Role of Planners: Finders of Strategy -- Logic in Action -- Desperately Seeking Strategies -- Unconventional Planners -- Second Role of Planners: Analysts -- Strategic Analysis for Managers -- External Strategic Analysis -- Internal Strategic Analysis and the Role of Simulation -- Scrutinization of Strategies -- Third Role of Planners: Catalysts -- Opening Up Strategic - Thinking -- Role for Formalization -- The Formalization Edge -- Simons''s Interactive Control -- Playing the Catalyst Role -- The Planner as Strategist -- A Plan for Planners -- A Planner for Each Side of the Brain -- Planners in Context -- Forms of Organizations -- Strategic Programming in the Machine Organization -- Right- and Left-Handed Planners in the Machine Organization -- Strategic Programming Under Other Conditions -- Strategic Analysis in the Professional Organization -- Planning and Analysis in the Adhocracy Organization -- Minimal Roles in the Entrepreneurial Organization -- Performance Control in the Diversified Organization -- Planning Under Politics and Culture -- Planning in Different Cultures