ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the related concepts of 'resource stretch' and 'resource leverage'. It focuses on the copyrights of the material upon which is based is held variously by Gary Hamel and C. K. Prahalad, Harvard Business School Press, and the President and Fellows of Harvard College. The chapter describes the Hamel and Prahalad conceptualize strategy formulation in terms of core competencies and in terms of resource stretch and leverage. Strategic intent is used to define and to communicate a sense of direction about the longer-term strategic position that the leadership of the enterprise wishes to achieve through its processes of objective setting and strategy formulation. Challenges are also seen as a means for harnessing and directing the intellectual and emotional energy that should flow from a proper commitment to the strategic intent of the enterprise. Convergence requires that the enterprise decide how best its resources can be combined and orchestrated to achieve a stretch objective.
