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Mintzberg's 5Ps of Strategy

Strategy and Mintzberg's 5Ps of Strategy

Innovation
Henry Mintzberg
SWOT Analysis Henry Mintzberg (born 1939) is a highly-regarded Canadian academic and author in the subjects
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of management and business and is particularly well-known for his various models, theories and
Five Forces approaches to the development of strategy (including his thoughts regarding deliberate and
Model - Michael emergent strategies). He is also known for other work regarding organisational theory,
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Porter con!gurations, and how di"erent facets within a single organisational entity can cooperate
PEST towards the whole.

(PESTLE/STEEPLE)
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Market Analysis
Tool Approaching strategy
In Search of
Strategies often develop very quickly within an organisation, with the key considerations only
Excellence - Tom
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being how changes will be used to the bene!t of the company. Leaders will come together and
Peters
brainstorm various approaches and then will assess these with regards to their advantages.
Business
Planning and Though this can help build the basis of a strategy, there are far more factors that need to be
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considered in order to develop a well-rounded approach to organisational development.

Marketing
Strategies should also consider such things as the environment in which the organisation
Strategy
operates, its competitors, and the culture and values of the company, and of its workers.
Sostac Planning
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Model - PR Smith Organisational strengths and opportunities for growth are often unclear, but need to be
maximised in order to fully dip into its potential.
Quick Business
Plan or
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Operational Plan
Template
The 5Ps of strategy
The Golden
Mintzberg !rst tackled his di"erent approaches to strategy in his 1987 work The Strategy Concept
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Thread
I: Five Ps for Strategy . These 5P's were developed in order to suit the di"erent demands and
Three Levels of strengths of all organisations. They were:
Strategy -
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1. Plan
! 2. Ploy
3. Pattern
4. Position
5. Perspective

By fully understanding and analysing each P against your own organisation, you can
develop a speci!c strategy which takes full advantages of your strengths, competencies and
capabilities.

Plan
Planning is something which the vast majority of managers are at least familiar with - it is the
natural approach to various day-to-day tasks and activities, and how you manage your own work
and that of your team. This is often, therefore, the default approach we take to developing
organisational strategy - we brainstorm a number of options, whittle these down to those which
are actually viable, and then plan how we are going to put these into action.

Planning is !ne as the basis for organisational strategy; however, on its own, it is not enough to
develop the full, well-rounded strategy that your company may need to ful!l its potential. This is
where the other Ps can be used in collaboration with planning to maximise results.

Ploy
Ploy refers to activities which are actively dependent on the actions of others. Organisations can
get themselves ahead of competitors by plotting to in#uence them in various ways, such as
through dissuasion, disruption and discouragement. This can be utilised alongside a plan and
helps the organisation to look externally at its environment and other operating within it whilst
developing strategy.

For example, a business could open a new branch in a speci!c, developing area, in order to stop a
competitor business opening a shop there and tapping into the new market.

For this to succeed, the leader needs to be competent in identifying and analysing future
opportunities which may develop, predicting the actions of competitors, and understand how the
e"ects of organisational activity may a"ect afore-mentioned competitors.

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Pattern
Plans and ploys are examples of very deliberate strategies. However, strategies can sometimes
emerge from past organisational behaviour, from unexpected events, or just from accidentally
discovering which actions work. These emergent strategies are not a conscious choice, instead,
they are the result of discovering a consistent and successful way of doing business. They can
often develop incrementally by building on many small decisions made and solutions found. The
leader is not aiming to gain a strategic advantage by making good decisions - but often they !nd
themselves with one.

Make note of the behaviours that are displayed within your organisation, and how speci!c,
important tasks are handled and functions are operated. Ask yourself - have these become part of
implicit organisational strategy? Are they routine? Are they integral to operations? If the answer to
these seems to be a yes, consider how these behaviours could be positioned when you are
approaching strategic planning.

Position
Position generally refers to how an organisational orientates itself within a market environment.
By performing a full analysis of the environment and the opportunities which it presents, an
organisation can facilitate the development of a sustainable competitive advantage through key
strategic decisions and planning. Notably, Position often has signi!cant overlap with other Ps and
can be used in conjunction with another approach, such as a Ploy or a Plan.

The most common example of this is !nding a way to di"erentiate yourselves within a market
environment by developing unique products and services.PESTLE analysis and Porter's Five Forces
are two key models which can be used in order to assess the environment in which an
organisation operates and to identify any speci!c areas in which one can develop a USP.

Perspective
Similar to how Pattern strategies are dependent on the emergence of strategy from behaviour,
Perspective can heavily in#uence the ways an organisation will be able to, or will choose to
operate. This Perspective is, in itself, derived from the culture (i.e. the ways of thinking) that are
present within the organisation, in conjunction with its values and overall mission. Leaders, when
approaching planning, should be aware of the culture of the organisation and how that may
in#uence decision-making and behaviour.

For example - an organisation which encourages risk-taking and entrepreneurship may !nd itself
leading the way in the market due to its production of far more innovative products than its
competitors. Whereas an organisation that operates are more rigid, uniform structure, based
around systems and processes, may get a lot of business due to the quality by which it performs
necessary services or through the manufacture of high quality, reliable products.

Developing strategy
Though they can be used as independent approaches to strategy, the 5Ps are best considered as
di"erent viewpoints or perspectives which should be considered when developing strategy as a
leader. There are three speci!c points in the strategic planning process when considering the 5Ps
can be most e"ective:

1. Whilst gathering the initial information and conducting an analysis of the data necessary to
make an accurate strategic decision, as a way of ensuring that you have considered all of
the perspectives required.
2. After the development of initial strategic ideas, in order to ensure that they are
comprehensive, feasible and robust, and that there are no obstacles you may have missed.
3. As a !nal checkpoint, in order to #ush out any inconsistencies and issues in your strategic
plan, and to once again make sure that there are no opportunities or obstacles that you
may not have considered.

The strategic planning process is crucial to operational success. If you do not identify the
necessary opportunities for growth, or if you miss obstacles that the organisation will run into
immediately or further down the line, then this will restrict or even hinder growth. Utilise the 5Ps
as a lense during the planning stage so that you can reap all the possible bene!ts of a successful
strategy.

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