O&E: Design school

Question 1

Rumelt, Evaluating the strategies with a series tests:

Answer 1

• Consistency: The strategy must not present mutually inconsistent goals and policies.
• Consonance: The strategy must represent an adaptive response to the external environment and to the critical changes occurring within it.
• Advantage: The strategy must provide for the creation and/or maintenance of a competitive advantage in the selected area of activity.
• Feasibility: The strategy must neither overtax available resources nor create unsolvable subproblems.

Question 2

7 underlying premises & characteristics of the designs school

Answer 2

1. Strategy is a deliberate, conscious process.
2. CEO is the sole strategist.
3. Strategy process should be simple and informal.
4. Strategies should be unique (one of a kind).
5. Strategy must be fully formulated before implementation — no emergent strategies.
6. Strategies are explicit and communicable.
7. Structure follows strategy.

Question 3

Critiques of the design school:

Answer 3

1. Ignores learning – No room for learning or adapting during the process.
2. Structure ≠ easy to change – You can’t just rebuild the organization every time strategy changes.
3. Inflexible and slow – Centralized and formal planning makes change difficult and time-consuming.
4. One-size-fits-all? – Assumes the same strategy approach works for all organizations.
5. Too much desk-thinking – Separates planning from real-world action (e.g. no field visits or direct experience).

Question 4

The design school is most applicable to:

Answer 4

• stable environments
• strategy formation in large, old, established organizations (because these are mechanical organizations in stable environments)