[{'type': 'h1', 'content': 'Prescriptive schools: Strategy as a Recipe<o:p></o:p>'}, {'type': 'p', 'content': 'In many strategy classes, business students are introduced to three schools that sit within what Mintzberg calls the prescriptive tradition. These are the Design School, the Planning School, and the Positioning School. Together, they teach strategy as a deliberate, logical process. Strategy is treated as something that can be designed, chosen, documented, and managed. In this prescriptive view, strategy looks like a recipe. There are ingredients, steps, a clear output, and checkpoints to confirm whether execution is on track. In one sentence, the prescriptive logic is this. Design defines the fit, Planning turns it into a managed plan, and Positioning ensures the plan wins in the competitive arena.<o:p></o:p>'}, {'type': 'p', 'content': 'Design School: Strategy as Fit Oriented Design<o:p></o:p>The Design School treats strategy like architecture. A good architect does not begin by drawing a beautiful building. First, the architect reads the terrain, including the shape of the land, wind direction, flood risks, and the needs of the people who will live there. Only then does the architect design a structure that fits the context. In the same way, the Design School defines strategy as building fit, meaning the right match between external demands and internal capabilities.<o:p></o:p> The first move is to read the outside world. Frameworks such as PESTEL work like radar, scanning political and regulatory shifts, economic conditions, social change, technological leaps, environmental issues, and legal forces. The purpose is not to chase news. It is to recognize that many opportunities and threats come from slow-moving context changes that quietly rewrite the rules of the game. PESTEL helps leaders understand deeper currents, not just react to surface symptoms.<o:p></o:p> Next comes the internal test. The organization evaluates whether it truly has strengths in a strategic sense, not just skills. VRIO functions as a sharp filter by asking questions such as: Is the capability valuable? Is it rare? Is it hard to imitate because of data, relationships, reputation, or complexity? Is the organization set up to capture value from it through the right systems, people, and incentives? VRIO separates ordinary competence from capabilities that can become real sources of advantage.<o:p></o:p> Only after the external and internal sides are clear does the organization connect them through SWOT. In this view, SWOT is not a simple list. It is a bridge that asks: Which opportunities can realistically be captured using tested strengths? Which threats are dangerous because they collide with weaknesses? Which weaknesses must be mitigated? PESTEL provides external signals, VRIO sharpens internal diagnosis, and SWOT ties them together so fit becomes concrete rather than assumed.<o:p></o:p> The signature of the Design School is not the matrices themselves, but the final strategic compression. The organization turns insight into clear choices. It decides where to focus and where not to. It defines how it will win, what value it will deliver, and which trade-offs it will accept. Strategy is not a long list of programs, it is an integrative concept that makes decisions feel coherent, consistent, and easy to understand. The strength of the Design School is clarity. The risk is the illusion of stability, so fit must be tested again when context changes.'}, {'type': 'p', 'content': 'Planning School: Strategy as a Formal Plan That Is Managed<o:p></o:p>The Planning School treats strategy not only as a good direction, but as a formal plan that must be managed like an operating system. If the Design School emphasizes the right strategic concept, the Planning School emphasizes the management engine that turns the concept into coordinated action. Strategy earns the name strategy only when it answers operational questions about what will be done, by whom, when, with what resources, and how progress will be monitored. Without those answers, strategy becomes a beautiful slogan that does not move the organization.<o:p></o:p> This school grew from the reality of large organizations. The more units, people, and projects you have, the higher the risk that strategy becomes personal interpretation. Marketing pushes growth, operations pushes efficiency, finance pushes savings, and HR pushes engagement. Each goal may sound reasonable, but without a formal plan, priorities can collide. Planning School thinking responds with coordination discipline. Strategy must become a shared language that aligns units so they move in the same direction. The strategy document is not an archive. It is a coordination tool and an internal contract about what matters most this year.<o:p></o:p> That is why Planning School thinking always moves from abstract to operational. A good strategy cascades into targets, programs, schedules, and budgets, then gets tracked through review rhythms that support learning. Annual planning, budgeting cycles, monthly or quarterly reviews, and portfolio governance are its core mechanisms. The belief is simple. Strategy is not enough to declare. Strategy must be managed. In plain language, strategy is not only choosing a destination, but building a system that makes the organization actually move.<o:p></o:p> Business schools often teach the tool most associated with this approach, the Balanced Scorecard by Kaplan and Norton. It forces a discipline many leaders avoid. If the strategy succeeds, what evidence will prove it. Objectives and measures are defined across a balanced set of perspectives, commonly financial, customer, internal processes, and learning or capability. They are then connected to targets and initiatives. Strategy becomes measurable and operational, not just aspirational.<o:p></o:p> The strength of the Planning School is discipline and accountability. Everyone knows the priorities, what success looks like, and how progress will be reviewed. The risk is over-formalization, where the organization becomes busy filling templates and chasing dashboards while reality changes. A healthy Planning School needs discipline to execute and agility to revise assumptions when context shifts. Without agility, a neat plan becomes a prison. Without discipline, strategy falls back into talk.<o:p></o:p>'}, {'type': 'p', 'content': 'Positioning School: Strategy as a Winning Position in Competition<o:p></o:p>If the Design School focuses on fit and the Planning School focuses on execution machinery, the Positioning School places strategy in the competitive arena. The key question is not what we want to be, but how we win and why that win is hard to copy. Strategy becomes a choice of competitive position in an industry or market, a position that is defensible in economic terms because it has structural reasons that allow superior performance.<o:p></o:p> That is why Positioning School thinking begins with industry structure. The world is seen as a system of pressures, including rivalry intensity, the ease of new entrants, the bargaining power of buyers and suppliers, and the threat of substitutes. Five Forces is a common entry point, not to memorize five boxes, but to identify what squeezes profitability and where an organization might build a stronger position.<o:p></o:p> Diagnosis must lead to choice. The Positioning School forces a concrete conclusion. Compete as a cost leader, a differentiator, or a focus player that dominates a narrow segment. This is not a marketing label. It shapes pricing logic, brand building, operations, resource allocation, and even hiring. The school insists that a position is sustainable only when internal activities are consistent with that position.<o:p></o:p> The bridge from strategy to work is the Value Chain. Value Chain analysis breaks activities down and clarifies where value is created, where costs are locked in, which activities should be standardized, and which must be distinctive. A low-cost position requires process discipline and efficiency. A differentiation position requires superior experience, innovation, or service. A focus position requires deep segment understanding and disciplined cost to serve. The Positioning School is essentially saying that strategy is not the wish to be better. Strategy is the design of activities that makes winning possible.<o:p></o:p> The strength of the Positioning School is trade-off discipline. Every position carries consequences, and the organization is forced to choose and live those consequences consistently. The risk is treating industry boundaries as stable and change as slow. In fast-moving environments, positioning analysis remains useful, but it must be complemented by learning and adaptation, because the arena can shift before the organization resets its position.<o:p></o:p>'}, {'type': 'p', 'content': 'Thinker and the Defender Style<o:p></o:p>If you like structure, models, numbers, and logical certainty, you naturally rely on analytical intelligence when you think strategically. You want a strategy document that is complete and disciplined, including a designed fit, a managed plan, and a clear competitive position. In that style, you behave like a Defender. You protect the core, reduce uncertainty, and win through clarity, control, and consistency.<o:p></o:p> Tim Cook is a strong example of a Defender whose strategic style fits the prescriptive tradition because he turns strategy into a clear recipe that can be executed with discipline. Under his leadership, Apple protects advantage through operational excellence, including supply chain strength, cost and inventory control, consistent product quality, and a tightly managed portfolio that keeps the core business coherent. This is Defender logic in action: reducing uncertainty, standardizing what must be standardized, scaling what already works, and using clear plans and metrics to keep execution on track. Cook shows that prescriptive strategy is not only about having a smart idea, but about building a reliable system that can deliver winning performance repeatedly.<o:p></o:p>'}, {'type': 'p', 'content': 'Make it a good day!<o:p></o:p>Greeting transformation<o:p></o:p>'}]

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