Strategic Intent

Strategic Intent is very important concept of management that is explained as a high level statement of the means by which an organisation achieves its vision. In present business scenario, management team make extreme efforts to go with the competitive advantage of their international competitors but most of them only imitating the activities of rivals. Imitation does not really produce the Strategic Intent as competitors have already implemented those techniques and get advantage. Imitation is not a solution of competitive revival. Strategic Intent drives organisations, individuals and groups to overcome the challenge of change in business. Strategic Intent is a notion that emerged in Post-World war as world leader in economy. Japanese Organizations had set goals for themselves that might have been considered by most of the Western Organizations of that time as highly impractical. But with very few resources and highly committed labour force, Japan was then able to lay the foundation for 10-15 years of leadership in terms of economy. From Japan, all international business leaders learnt how to surpass when there is limited resources and company face huge challenges.

Strategic intent 

Strategic Intent is a management notion that is elucidated by theorists Hamel and Parahalad as: an ambitious and compelling dream that energizes; which provides the emotional and intellectual energy for the journey to the future. Strategic intent gives direction, focus and motivation for the whole organization. Additionally, it has imperative role as an organizing concept in the firm's architectural and organizational progress. If strategic intent is the organizational and motivational power in the organization, core competencies are the foundation. Though instant success is the result of market recognition of current product or service offerings, future success depends upon the capability to foresee market possibilities, customer needs and the skills necessary to develop the organizational capabilities and future successful products.

Strategic intent is a functional model in accounting for purpose and stability of goals in an organization adapting to internal and external developmental pressures. The administrative role of strategic intent is to go beyond environment sensitive strategic planning to represent objectives "for which one cannot plan" (Hamel and Prahalad, 1989). As such, strategic intent characterizes a practical mode in strategizing, a symbol of the organization's will about the future, which invigorates all organizational levels for a combined purpose. Strategic intent mirrors the 'corporate context' in which bottom up business ideas are considered (Lovas and Ghoshal, 2000). It directs the accretion of necessary competencies (Hamel and Prahalad, 1989), giving the intra organizational evolution processes a common target, "something to 'aim' for" (Lovas & Ghoshal, 2000).

Strategic intent in earlier literature: