Its aim is to assist organizations in dealing with environmental changes or strategic surprises.
By detecting weak signals (Igor Ansoff, 1975), which can be perceived as important discontinuities in an organizational environment, SEWS allows organizations to react strategically ahead of time.
The concept of a SEWS is intended to be an important part of a strategic management system, operating real-time in an organization, and assisting in identifying the new, which emerge as those "weak signals".
The need for a formal strategic early warning process in organizations is based in large part on the existence of blindspots, which prevents leaders and executives from identifying weak signals of change (Gilad, 1998).
The system must be able to detect symptoms and weak signals outside and in the company and sent to a competent employee who will carry out an analysis of the cause of this state and confirm or deny negative development that might lead to a crisis situation (Zuzak, 2001).