The Advantages of Strategic Intent Thinking
Many people fulfill lifelong goals when they become a member of a certain profession. Perhaps you had a dream of being a business professor or operating your own business from a young age. You may have admired a teacher or a business owner who kindled your ambition. Despite having an idea of what you wanted to accomplish early on, you likely had little knowledge of the steps you would take to achieve your goal. As you learned about what was required to reach your ultimate goal, you set short-term and medium-range goals that aligned with your long-term goals. Short-term goals may have included getting good grades each year while medium-range goals might have included getting into a good college or saving money for tuition. You likely adjusted short-term and medium-range goals to take advantage of new opportunities that may not have existed when you set your long-term goals, such as attending the DBA program at Walden. Organizations that operate with strategic intent employ a similar approach often with substantial benefit. However, adopting a strategic intent approach can also present challenges for organizations that have relied on more traditional strategies. As a scholar-practitioner in the modern global business environment, it is important that you understand the benefits and challenges of strategic intent and how the approach differs from traditional strategies.
To prepare, consider the similarities and differences between conventional strategic planning and strategic intent thinking.
By Day 4 of Week 3, post a 2-3 paragraph response that compares traditional strategic planning to strategic intent thinking. Explain how the concepts are similar and how they are different. Also explain the impact of strategic intent thinking on business strategy. Finally, explain the implications of expanding business strategy to include different types of stakeholders and their viewpoints and relationships. Extend the conversation by identifying implications for practice or research, as well as for your own research agenda, where appropriate. Be sure to integrate one or two new related, and engaging, questions that will extend the discussion about your post in constructive ways. Try to think of a question(s) that will engage your peers in critical analysis and thinking about your organization, which may provide insight for your use as you continue preparing your sections of the major Weeks 4 and 7 Sustainable Solutions Paper (SSP) due in this course.
By Day 5 of Week 3, read all of your colleagues' posts and respond to at least two of them in one of the following ways:
Critique your colleagues' analyses and offer an alternative viewpoint on the advantages of strategic intent thinking for developing business strategy.
Critique your colleagues' analyses and provide an additional resource to support your colleagues' analyses of strategic intent thinking.
Answer one of the questions posed by your colleagues in their posts.