Strategy Synthesis : Resolving Strategy Paradoxes to Create Competitive Advantage

The belief that managers and potential managers will profit from understanding the major conflicting approaches to strategy forms the point of departure for this book. Ignoring the profound differences between the various schools of thought does not enhance a manager's or student's capacity for strategic thinking. Rather, it is only when there is knowledge of the various points of view can strategists truly see the range of options open to them. Then they can find a way to choose between them, or integrate them, to be practically effective. To structure the comparison of strategy approaches, the most important conflicting strategy perspectives have been clustered together around ten key strategy issues, one key issue per chapter. Two classic readings in each chapter by key strategic thinkers further represent the two opposite positions. De Wit and Meyer's Strategy Synthesis actively challenges the educational orthodoxy to encourage students and managers to be critical, and to challenge them to be analytical, in order to facilitate creativity and unconventional thinking. In this text the authors carefully guide students and managers through the many, often conflicting, perspectives in the field of strategy, in order to help them become true strategic thinkers.