Mintzberg's Five 'Ps' of Strategy...Plus Two

Mintzberg's '5 Ps' of strategy have been hugely influential since they were first described forty years ago. Since then, he's added a framework of ten schools of strategy development, all within three basic 'types' of strategy. The rubric should, of course, go far beyond merely providing a template for application, but drive further thought about how it inter-relates.

In this vein, I've been wondering recently whether there is now sufficient ground for the recognition of two more 'P's'. They may be hybrid developments of those origninaly identified by Mintzberg, but we've noticed that their characteristics are now dominating the way strategy is regarded in both the public and the private sectors.

The first of these is 'Strategy as Perception'. Different from Mintzberg's Strategy as Perspective (which is all about how organisations see themselves and their environment) Strategy as Perception is about placing the way the organisation is viewed by others at the forefront of its approach. This is the marketing school of strategy, more interested in the narrative of branding than the substance of its actions.

Then there is 'Strategy as Performance'. This is an approach that values efficiency over effect, focused entirely on tinkering with its internal mechanisms in search of short-term cost savings.

Just a thought, but based on what we see to be driving current strategic thinking (or what passes for it) in organisations large and small, where 'it's all about the optics and efficiency'.