Strategic Frames of Reference: The Key Tools of Strategy Determination, their Principles, and How they Interact

Abstract

Mintzberg demonstrated in a number of case studies that top managers cannot be strategic, all-knowing planners as well as organizers, coordinators, and controllers all at once – they do not have the time. They should instead share information and build up an overall picture in order to make the right strategic decisions.¹² This overall picture and the information required to develop it can be analyzed and evaluated with tools from the sphere of strategy content research. This chapter presents the key tools of strategy determination. They are also known as frames of references, since their job is to prompt you to think and to make it easier for you to know where to start when analyzing strategies. There is also the field of strategy process research, upon which we will touch only briefly, since the strategic planning approach presented previously lies at the heart of this.