Introduction
The concept of strategic intent has gained popularity in organizational strategic management, leading to major changes in the styles of the functioning of many organizations and their success. Strategic management has proved to lead to success in many organizations that have incorporated this concept in their operations than those that have not utilized the principles. This article evaluates the concept of strategic intent and how it can be executed in organizations. In the modern world, organizational managers are striving to match up to the competitive advantages of their global opponents. However, most of the managers and organizations result in the imitation of their rivals’ organizational functions. Consequently, imitation fails to develop strategic intent because it comes when their rivals have already utilized and exploited the systems. Strategic intent is a concept that steers groups, individuals, and organizations to solve organizational challenges today.
Strategic Planning is not Strategic Intent
There is a difference between strategic planning and strategic intent although most people confuse the two concepts. According to Hamel and Prahalad (1989), strategic intent is an elaborate and persuasive concept that offers intellectual and emotional energy for the future organizational expedition. On the other hand, strategic planning is concerned with the presence of capacity and resources and seeks for viability and feasibility (Hamel & Prahalad, 1989). Subsequently, if not supported by strategic intent, strategic planning can lead to a decline in competition. In an organizational setting, strategic intent is a principle; that is concerned with long-term goals of solving corporate challenges that are driven by short-term competitive innovation. Therefore, the incorporation of strategic intent in organizational operations leads to business competitive innovations.
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Functions of Strategic Intent
Strategic intent includes the significance of winning, sets commitments and personal goals, and is substantially stable over time. According to O’Shannassy (2016) , the concept is a vision that describes the required leadership position of an organization and establishes goals through which organizational success can be measured. Furthermore, Prahalad and Hamel assert that only active management can direct attention at each level of the organization on the significance of accomplishing their missions. As a result, setting goals enhances the accomplishment of the objectives of the concept. However, strategic intent should be a continuous process that is focused on short-term stability and allowing long-term flexibility for newer opportunities.
Managing Corporate Challenges
Executing strategic intent requires firms to extend resources and capabilities in meeting and winning corporate challenges. Organizations that set their strategic intent to be market leaders eventually lead to a lack of capabilities or capacity or resources to meet their objectives (Arvidsson, Holmstrom, & Lyytinen, 2014). Therefore, the organizations are needed to be more innovative, build new advantages, and increase research in the use of resources for appropriate competition in the market. Consequently, challenges of corporate governance can stretch to analyze and realize competition and understand their evolution of the industry. Such analysis results in openings that are competitive and identifies its advantages required for eventual success.
Implementation of Strategic Intent
Implementation of strategic intent involves three steps (Khazanchi & Owens, 2018) : The first step begins with setting all the characteristics such as; discovery, destiny, and direction, which clarify the organizations' intention. The second step involves effectively setting up communicated and appropriate challenges to every employee in the organization. The last step comprises of the empowerment of strategic intent while involving everyone.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the top management should involve the entire organization's levels to attain global competitiveness. Additionally, the success of organizations must be driven by a continuous and consistent strategic intent concept. Therefore, managers should focus on the vitalization of new capabilities, motivation, and have confidence in the entire organizational incremental change strategy.
References
Arvidsson, V., Holmstrom, J., Lyytinen, K. (2014). Information Systems Use as Strategy Practice: A Multi-Dimensional View of Strategic Information System Implementation and Use , Journal of Strategic Information Systems, 23, pp. 45 - 61.
Khazanchi, D. & Owens, D. (2018). From Strategic Intent to Implementation: How Information Technology Initiatives Take Shape in Organizations. 10.24251/HICSS.2018.602.
O’Shannassy, T. (2016). Strategic intent: The Literature, the Construct, and its Role in Predicting Organizational Performance. Journal of Management & Organization, 22(5), pp. 583-598.
Prahalad, C.K. & Hamel, Gary. (1989). Strategic Intent: The Core Competence of the Corporation. Harvard Business Review . 4. 79-93.
