Strategic Intent – Vision and Mission Statement – Meaning, Definitions, Characteristics, Importance, Difference and Limitations

Strategic Intent – Vision and Mission Statement – Meaning, Definitions, Characteristics, Importance, Difference and Limitations – Strategic intent refers to the pre-defined future state that the organisation is planning to reach within a stipulated period of time. The term strategic intent was popularised by Gary Hamel and C.K Prahalad. They defined strategic intent as the reason of existence of an organisation and the ends it wants to achieve. It shows the beliefs and values of an organisation.

To achieve a certain future state and to achieve certain ends the organisation should take certain courses of action. These ends can be either long-term or short-term. While the long-term ends have broad focus, the short-term ends are narrow in nature. For an organisation to become effective, it is very important for every staff member to have an understanding of the strategic intent. Hence, the strategic intent should be achievable as well as understandable.

Definitions of Strategic Intent 

According to Prahalad and Doz :

“Intent is used here to describe long-term goals and aims, rather than detached plans. Strategic intent is crucial for a firm to aim for goals for which one cannot plan. It is important to separate that orientation (strategic intent) from strategic planning or strategies. Strategic intent allows for a firm to build layers of competitive advantage painstakingly, to accomplish long-term goals”.

According to Burgelman and Grove :

“Strategic dissonance (misalignment between a firm’s strategic intent and strategic action), strategic inflection point (the change of one winning strategy into another), and strategic recognition (the capacity of top managers to appreciate the strategic importance of managerial initiatives after they have come about but before unequivocal environmental feedback is available) are the three interrelated key concepts that answer the question of how top management can decide on strategic intent in high technology industries”.

According to Lovas and Ghoshal :

“Strategic intent is long-term goals that reflect the preferred future position of the firm, as articulated by its top management”.

It is important to consider that the strategic intent should be common for everyone in the organisation. It can also be termed as ‘collective consciousness’, which implies a common end, shared by all the employees. Strategic intent outlines a path that is required to be followed for attaining the broad mutual end.

Attributes / Characteristics / Features of Strategic Intent 

Strategic intent defines the nature of the path which an organisation needs to follow in order to secure the long-term strategic position that is to be achieved (accomplished) by the organisation.

According to Hamel and Prahalad, if the organisation clearly communicates its strategic intent, then each activity would have precise and consistent purpose. Strategic intent has the following attributes :

1) Sense of Direction : 

The sense of direction defines where the organisation wants to go in the future and why. Every organisation requires a significant, steady, and common end. These ends should be valuable and necessary for the organisation. The environment and market for business changes very frequently and hence the strategic decisions should not be based on these short-term motives, else the efforts made by the organisations become inconsistent and fail to achieve the desired future state. Therefore, the organisations should pursue a long-term mutual end, which is consistent and shared in nature. A proper set direction helps organisation to achieve its long-term strategic intent.

2) Sense of Discovery : 

The sense of discovery refers to the ability of inspiring the employees for innovation and creativity. This is necessary because the employees feel less enthusiastic when the strategic intent is not inspiring. The strategic intent should motivate the employees to perform the challenging tasks and explore new concepts. It should introduce new dimensions in the organisation and innovate superior ways to achieve them.

3) Sense of Destiny : 

The sense of density refers to the ability of the strategic intent to provide meaning to the existence of the organisation. It should be able to create a sense of respect among the organisational members. Strategic intent should be meaningful and significant so that it can direct the organisation and motivate its employees. Thus, strategic intent must be meaningful for the employees and have the capability to set proper direction for them.

Hierarchy of Strategic Intent

Strategic Intent Vision, Mission, Goals and Objectives are elements included in the hierarchy of strategic intent :

The Strategic Intent Elements (Strategic intent vision, mission and objectives) serve to unify the ideas and resources towards a certain direction. These elements are not only beginning points but also the milestones at various levels. These elements act as a foundation for planning and directing activities. Strategic intent also provides a way and assures that all the efforts lead to organisation-wide progress. Strategic intent should be shared effectively with all stakeholders to strengthen their belief in company’s offerings and its ability to lead the particular industry segment. Hierarchy of strategic intent with example are as follows :

Vision Statement

What is Vision ?

Vision statement can be referred as the statement defining company’s long term goals. A vision statement can exceed from one line to a few paragraphs highlighting what the organisation want to achieve in future.

An effective vision statement motivate the employees and provide them a sense of direction for carrying out day to day business activities and also help in taking strategic decisions.

For example : 

Infosys vision is “To be a globally respected corporation that provide best of breed business solutions, leveraging, technology, delivered by best-in-class people”.

An organisation’s vision statement clarifies he significant primary goals to be achieved, but does not highlights the plan to accomplish these goals. It helps the organisational staff in formulating required strategies for carrying-out necessary business operations. Vision statement is common, mutual and for every employee in the organisation. Vision

statement is unique, simple, and competitive in nature. A good vision statement encourages the organisation to take risks and to pursue innovative ideas to stay competitive in market.

A vision statement is prepared to boost the morale of the employees by painting a picture of the path on which the organisation is heading. The vision statement of an organisation allows the managers to practically monitor the organisation’s progress by comparing the stated objectives and operational plans for achieving those objectives. If the operational plans do not lead to the achievement of the ultimate organisational vision, the plans can be modified when necessary.Vision statement integrates the organisation goals from various departments and forms a common mutual goal to be achieved. Good vision statement encourages innovation and fosters a feeling of ownership and belongingness within the employees and the stakeholders.

Strategic Intent – Vision Statement and Mission Statement – Meaning, Definitions, Characteristics, Importance, Difference and Limitations

Definition of Vision :

According to Miller and Dess :

“Vision is the category of intentions that are broad, all-inclusive, and forward thinking”.

According to Kotler :

“Vision is a description of something (an organisation, corporate culture, a business, a technology, an activity) in the future”.

According to El-Namaki :

“Vision is a mental perception of the kind of environment an individual, or an organisation, aspires to create within a broad time horizon and the underlying conditions for the actualisation of this perception”.

According to Oren Harari :

“Vision should describe a set of ideals and priorities, a picture of the future, a sense of what makes the company special and unique, a core set of principles that the company stands for, and a broad set of compelling criteria that will help to define organisational success”.

Features of Vision :

A vision statement has following features :

1) Requires Careful Thinking :

Formulating a vision statement not only requires attractive tagline, but also requires strategic thinking regarding the future prospects of an organisation to achieve success.

2) Helps in Selecting Target Market : 

As a company cannot serve the needs of each and every type of customer, it has to customise the services for a particular target customer. Vision statement helps the organisation to decide the market segments to which the organisation would cater and make strategic decisions accordingly. In this way, the vision statement creates a strategic path for the organisation.

3) Decides the Long-Term Objectives and Focus :

Strategic vision helps in deciding the direction of the organisation and the strategies needed to achieve the set targets.

4) Future-Oriented : 

Vision is future-oriented. Vision does not represent an organisation’s present condition; it depicts the state in which an organisation wants to be within the stipulated period of time. Therefore, in other words, it can be said that the vision statement highlights the organisation’s future goals and helps in formulating necessary plans. It becomes important for an enterprise to formulate the vision while keeping a bright picture of future in mind.

Process of Envisioning :

Formulating the vision statement requires following steps :

• Understanding the Organisation
• Conduct an Audit
• Narrow Down the Vision
• Set-up the Context for Vision Statement
• Create New Future Scenarios
• Formulate Alternative Vision Statements
• Select the Final Vision Statement

1) Understanding the Organisation : 

The foremost step of formulating a vision statement is to understand the organisation. To understand an organisation in a better way the management must identify following details :

1. i) Nature the industry.
2. ii) Missionand purpose of the organisation.

iii) Kind of value it is providing to the society.

1. iv) Structure of the organisation.
2. v) Critical success factors of the organisation.
3. vi) Nature and type of stakeholders.

vii) Interests of the stakeholders.

2) Conduct an Audit :

Once the understanding of the organisation has been achieved by the strategic leader, the next step is to conduct an audit to assess the current position of the organisation and the pace at which it is progressing. Following aspects are to be analysed at this stage :

1. i) Current direction of the organisation.
2. ii) Mutual agreement by the key strategic managers on the direction of organisation.

iii) Organisational structure.

1. iv) Organisational activities.
2. v) Employees of the organisation at various levels.
3. vi) Compensation and remuneration plans.

vii) Information system and communication flow within the organisation.

3) Narrow Down the Vision : 

After conducting the audit, the next thing to do is to narrow down the perspectives of vision statement. Narrowing down here implies considering the factors that are necessary to form a vision statement. Some of the important questions to be answered here are as follows :

1. i) What are the limitations of the vision statement ?
2. ii) What would be achieved by the vision statement ?

iii) What issues are to be considered by the vision statement ?

4) Set-up the Context for Vision Statement : 

In this step, the strategic leaders should anticipate the future aspects of the organisation. Anticipating the future does not mean to be predicting the future, but assessing the future surrounding. Some of the aspects to be considered are :

1. i) Anticipation and categorization of future developments which may affect the vision.
2. ii) Enlist the expectations with each category.

iii) Anticipate the probability of fulfilling the expectations.

1. iv) Assigning the probability of occurrence to each expectation.

5) Create New Future Scenarios :

As soon as the expectations are anticipated and their effect and fulfillment probabilities are understood, the next step is to associate those expectations to form a new scenario which involves a variety of possibilities in future anticipated by the strategic leaders. This will highlight the possible future scenarios that the organisation may have.

6) Formulate Alternative Vision Statements : 

In this step the possible future alternatives are discovered and decided, on the basis of which the strategic leaders determine the directions that lead to those alternative future courses. In this step, alternative vision statements for each direction formulated. However, these alternative vision statements are not evaluated in this step.

7) Select the Final Vision Statement : 

This is the final stage where the strategic leaders would select the best among the alternative vision statements. For this, it is necessary to closely analyse the vision statements. It is important to know the characteristics that a good vision statement should possess. The essential factors which are required in order for the vision statement to become successful should be considered.

Organisational culture and values are some of the important factors. After analysing the characteristic features of a good vision statement, the alternative vision statements are compared and analysed against the possible future challenges and opportunities. The comparison is based on the applicability of the vision to wide platform of future scenarios. It should be noted that the final vision statement should qualify in the criteria for good vision statement.

Strategic Intent – Vision and Mission Statement – Meaning, Definitions, Characteristics, Importance, Difference and Limitations

Significance of Vision :

Strategic vision is important to an organisation for following reasons :

1) Acts as a Measure of Excellence : 

A strategic vision acts as a measure of excellence. It motivates and inspires the employees to achieve the level of excellence and skills in their work. It also works as the on-going goal and encourages the employees to improve the quality of work. It also provides the parameters to measure the value of the organisation.

2) Overcomes the Gap : 

The vision statement is created for future. A good vision takes the organisation from its present to the future. Hence, it overcomes the gap between the current position of organisation and the desired future scenario. It helps the organisation to focus on the issues of future and the ways to deal with them. The vision statement helps the decision-makers to chalk out strategic plans which can guide an organisation to achieve the desired state of future.

3) Helps in Solving Internal and External Issues :

A good strategic vision helps the organisation in dealing with both the internal and external issues. On one hand, it inspires and guides the employees towards a certain direction, while on the other hand, it helps the organisation to capture market and create a distinctive market image among the competitors.

4) Helps in Setting Goals for Future : 

Vision statement highlights where the organisation is now, and where it wants to be in the future. It helps the employees to set common organisational goals and inspires them to achieve those goals.

5) Creates a Sense of Responsibility : 

Strategic vision creates a sense of responsibility in the employees, which in turn motivates them to enhance their skills and create interest in working towards achieving the organisational goals. It creates a distinctive image in the minds of the employees by offering personal gains so that they are motivated to perform with zeal and enthusiasm.

6) Provides a Reason for Existence : 

A vision statement provides a reason to the organisation for its existence by projecting the ideal image of the future. It helps in integrating the resources for realisation of the desired future scenario.

Strategic Intent – Vision and Mission Statement – Meaning, Definitions, Characteristics, Importance, Difference and Limitations

Limitations of Vision :

Vision statement suffers from following limitations :

1) Ambiguous and Incomplete : 

Vision statements are generally not written in detail with specifications regarding the desired future position of the organisation. This makes a vision ambiguous and incomplete.

2) Does not Highlight’s the Path : 

The vision statement only projects an image of what the organisation wishes to achieve, but it does not tell if and how the organisation will realise the desired goals.

3) Wide-Ranging :

The vision statements are so wide-ranging that the company can move in any direction, can grab any opportunity, can serve any customer at any location. Such kind of broadness in vision creates a misconception about the target market and specific direction of the organisation’s growth.

4) Fails to Motivate and Assure : 

The vision statement at times fails to motivate the employees to pursue certain goals. It does not assure the shareholders regarding the direction of the organisation.

5) General Statement : 

Generally, the vision of an organisation is a common statement, making it applicable to any company. It does not provide a distinct identity to the organisation.

6) Projects a Superlative Image : 

It exaggerates about the future position of organisation without defining the company’s strategic course. The vision statement projects the image of the organisation as the consumer’s first choice, globally renowned leader, best in class, etc. Hence, it projects a superlative image of the organisation.

Strategic Intent – Vision and Mission Statement – Meaning, Definitions, Characteristics, Importance, Difference and Limitations

Mission Statement

Meaning and Definitions:

1. Meaning: A mission statement is a declaration of an organization’s reason for existence. It outlines the fundamental purpose and values that drive the organization’s actions.
2. Definitions: There are various ways to define a mission statement, but it typically includes elements such as the organization’s core values, target audience, products or services, and desired impact or contribution to society.

Importance of Mission Statement:

1. Strategic Direction: A mission statement provides a clear focus and direction for the organization. It helps align the efforts of employees and stakeholders towards common goals.
2. Decision-making: When faced with choices and opportunities, a mission statement acts as a reference point for decision-making. It helps determine which actions and initiatives are in line with the organization’s purpose.
3. Identity and Culture: A well-crafted mission statement conveys the organization’s identity, values, and culture to both internal and external audiences. It can attract like-minded individuals and create a sense of belonging among employees.
4. Stakeholder Communication: A mission statement serves as a communication tool to inform stakeholders, including employees, customers, investors, and the public, about the organization’s purpose and commitments.

Characteristics of Mission Statement :

1. Concise and Clear: A mission statement should be brief and easy to understand. It should capture the essence of the organization’s purpose in a concise and straightforward manner.
2. Inspiring and Motivating: An effective mission statement should inspire and motivate employees and stakeholders by conveying a sense of purpose and the potential impact of their work.
3. Specific and Unique: It should be specific to the organization, reflecting its distinct values, goals, and target audience. A generic mission statement lacks impact and fails to differentiate the organization from others.
4. Timeless: While strategies and goals may change over time, a mission statement should be enduring and stand the test of time. It provides a stable foundation for decision-making and long-term planning.

Limitations of Mission Statement – Strategic Management – Strategic Intent:

1. Lack of Implementation: A mission statement alone does not guarantee success. It must be backed by concrete actions and a commitment to its principles. If the organization does not align its activities with the mission, the statement becomes meaningless.
2. Vagueness or Ambiguity: If a mission statement is too broad or ambiguous, it can lack clarity and fail to provide meaningful guidance. It is crucial to strike a balance between specificity and flexibility.
3. External Perception: While a mission statement helps shape internal culture and direction, its impact on external audiences can vary. The actions and reputation of the organization ultimately influence how it is perceived by stakeholders.
4. Ineffectiveness if Ignored: If the mission statement is disregarded or ignored by leadership and employees, its value diminishes. It requires consistent communication, reinforcement, and integration into the organization’s decision-making processes.

Overall, a well-crafted mission statement is an essential tool for organizations to define their purpose, guide decision-making, and create a cohesive identity. However, its effectiveness depends on how well it is implemented, communicated, and lived by the organization.

Strategic Intent – Vision Statement and Mission Statement – Meaning, Definitions, Characteristics, Importance, Difference and Limitations

Differences Between Vision and Mission :

Basis of Differences	Vision	Mission
Meaning	Vision statement defines what an organisation wishes to achieve.	Mission statement define the reasons for existence of the organisation. It specifies the functions and features of the organisation.
Existence	Usually lasts throughout the lifetime of the organisation.	Change or modified minimum at every 6 months.
Nature	Outlines the long-term objectives of the organisation.	Highlights the current position and gives the overview of the future in terms of product, price, market etc.
Plan of Achievement	Does not specify the plan for achieving the goals.	Specifies the plan for achieving the goals.
Time	Choose the future scenario of an organisation.	Choose the present as well as the future of an organisation

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