Strategy courses in MBA programs

The last MBA course I took before leaving Chicago was titled "Strategy and Leadership." For the length of the course I was very uncomfortable with the rigidity of the syllabus. To start, we all had to adhere to Michael Porter's "Five Competitive Forces that shape Strategy." No offense to Mr. Porter - his forces are quite useful, but what if I wanted to use another author's approach, let alone my own to strategic thinking? But besides the fact that the class had to use Porter's forces, there was something else bothering me...

Well, I recently picked up a copy of the book "Strategic Intuition" by William Duggan. The first chapter of this book finally gave me the insight I needed to answer this question for myself. Here is a quote from Mr. Duggan's book:

"The European version of strategy spread from the military to business in the nineteenth century and then to government, nonprofit agencies, and professions at large in the twentieth century... But as strategic ideas spread from the military, flashes of insight were lost in translation. The leading ideas in strategy today leave them out completely. For example, in the 1980s Michael Porter's competitive strategy became the reigning paradigm in business. It tells you how to analyze your own strategy in light of your industry and your competitors. But it does not tell you how to come up with a strategic idea: that's a creative step Porter leaves out."

Finally I get it. My MBA course on strategy did not teach me how to have an 'aha' moment when a strategic idea is born. It taught me how to analyze that idea. The analytic part is great, and if that were my only goal out in the business world then I should be fully equipped. However, the analytic approach is not too useful for those MBA students who want to be the authors of the 'aha' ideas. This, from my perspective, is definitely an area where business schools can learn a great deal from design and art schools. Whereas the analysis of a strategy has borrowed methods from math and other sciences, the actual creation of a strategy is like a blank canvas that should know no boundaries.