Strategic Management In Week 1 raised the issues of objective setting and strate

Question

Strategic Management In Week 1 raised the issues of objective setting and strategy formulation. To further our discussions on thinking strategically, the authors suggest that "strategic intent" (the relentless pursuit of an ambitious strategic objective, concentrating the full force of the organization's resources and competitive actions on achieving that objective) is key to focusing the organization on a strategic goal. Initial Post Instructions For the initial post, address the following: Do your organizations express strategic intent? How is it expressed? Is it commonly shared in the organization and generally understood? Finally, and most importantly, if a strategic intent is lacking or is ambiguous, what suggestions would you draw from Chapter 2 to remedy the situation? Do ethics and social responsibility play into strategic intent? Reflect on how the course material plays out in your organization or organizations with which you are familiar. In as much as this is a fairly large online class, try to be concise and parsimonious in your responses. Remember also to reference the book and at least one additional scholarly resource in your initial posts to be eligible for maximum points.

Using APA format, 400 WORD MINIMUM Please post MUST BE ORIGINIAL WORDS ONLY, no copy and paste!

Explanation / Answer

I work for an organization called X (confidential) and our strategic target is to achieve $15BN revenue by 2020. Given the background, please find the response below.

Yes, my organization expresses strategic intent. Since 2016 our company's strategic goal has been to double revenues to $15 BN by 2020 at a profit of over 23%. The strategic intent had been expressed by CEO and top management in a formal email to all employees when the company decided to pursue this objective. A formal plan was laid out in front of all employees and incremental steps have been defined at each hierarchy level. Further, this strategic intent is reemphasized in all quarterly and annual meetings, press releases, management interviews and other public forums.

The strategic intent has been explictly expressed and communicated multiple times and by now is well understood in the organization. For example - We do not pursue any deal which goes below 20% margin. In an extreme case if the deal size is greater than a billion we need to consult top management before deciding on a margin below 20%. There are have been many implicit measures taken to express the strategic event. The company has shifted operations from a manual driven process to a more automated one to achieve cost improvements and margin improvement at the end of the day. Further, the focus has shifted from winning traditional outsourcing deals to winning newer models of business in newer technologies which have better profitability - Blockchain, Big Data, Digital business, Artificial intelligence etc. Investments have been made to develop these capabilities in employees.

The strategic intent is not ambiguous. It is clearly laid out for all employees. Everyone in the organization from sales to HR understands the objective and steps they need to take in their day-to-day work to achieve these objectives. Employees are always on the toes and searching for optimization opportunities within the company.

Yes, ethics and social responsibility do play into strategic intent. We cannot use any means to achieve our objectives. The parameters of ethical and social obligations are well-defined at each hierarchy level. We are not expected to compromise these to achieve strategic intent. Further, any loss of reputation due to certain actions would derail our pursuit of strategic intent.

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