Vision points the way to the future and strategic intent provides clarity of what a company must get after immediately in order to realize the vision. In other words strategic intent of a company describes how a company is going to realize its vision. Strategic intent provides a particular point of view about the long term vision or aspiration of the company.

Gary Hamel and C.K. Prahlad in their book “competing for the future”, say that since strategic intent provides a specific point of view of the future aspired, it conveys sense of direction. And since it provides an opportunity to explore new competitive possibilities, it conveys a sense of discovery and since it provides a goal for the company which people perceive as inherently worthwhile, it implies sense of destiny.

Why vision remains only on board
Companies have ambitious long term aspiration that we call vision, which broadly sets the future the company wishes to pursue. Though companies craft Big Audacious Hairy Goal (BHAG) as their vision statement, they do little else. Managements expect people to be enthused and encouraged by the vision statement that they have so meticulously crafted. They “communicate” the vision by displaying it around every corner. And yet over a period of time they find that the company is just following the expected curve that the industry in general traverses. Management fails to take the company towards its cherished vision and people have no inkling of what the vision means to them in their day-to-day work. It simply does not influence them or impact them in their day-to-day jobs.

Where strategic intent fits
It is where strategic intent can help a company – its strategic planners and as well as people. It clarifies the vision and tells everyone in the company about how it is going to realize its vision. Vision can be related to a marathon race where you do not know what the terrain will look like at mile 26; the strategic intent of the company is like running the marathon in short races of say 400 meters, where top management focuses attention to the ground to be covered in the next 400 meters.

To illustrate the point let us take an example of hypothetical company having a vision of becoming a “world class” company. This is the most common vision statement of companies that we come across so very frequently. Now what do people do to make the company truly “world class”. How a strategic intent can be developed to bring about more clarity to the vision statement, so that people can direct their efforts and energies for the cause.

Strategic intent provides clarity
Continuing with the example of vision of being a “world class” company, how can we define the strategic intent of the company that not only will take the company towards its vision but also clarify the meaning of the vision in such terms that it can influence the day-to-day work of the people? Considering that “world class” in general means competitive performance. So initially, being “world class” may be interpreted as surpassing competitors on all competitive parameters that are important for the customers and the company. So the strategic intent during initial period can be to “beat the competitors”. So “beat the competitors” represents a particular point of view of the long term vision of being a “world class” company.

Strategic intent brings about focus
Once the clarity of desirable future is obtained, the management and people can ponder on issues to focus. From our example, the strategic intent of “beat the competitors”, the company may apply its thinking on the competitive factors which are important for the customers and the company and plan for surpassing the competitors performance on these parameters.

Strategic intent inspires the people
Strategic intent creates meaning for the people. It must exude confidence in the people that the intended goals that company is focusing on will not only make a difference but also a worthwhile challenge to pursue. Strategic intent is worded in such a way that it arouses passion in the people – in our example – “make competition irrelevant”. The key here is to build emotional energy into the strategic intent of the company, which captures the hearts of the people.