A New Metaphor for Strategic Fit: All That Jazz

Outlines three metaphors which can be used to help understand the strategy process. These are “the jigsaw puzzle”, “the ice skater” and “the jazz band”. The suggestion is that the first two suffer from a number of limitations which the third attempts to address. The “jazz band” metaphor helps to identify some of the features which might be expected to contribute to effective strategic management. Draws out some pointers for managers are drawn out from the discussion.