Billionaire and founder of Craigslist, Craig Newmark once attributed his success to a mixture of luck and persistence. While I can be on board with the persistence message, the whole idea that luck is something you need to succeed is just absurd to me. From our eyes at Skefto success in business is achieved when you combine determination with strategic planning. This brings us to Strategic Objectives – The Groundwork for all your future success!
Strategic Objectives are the foundation that all successful business is developed from. Large cooperation’s with thousands of employees to your local arts & crafts store, all businesses have a unique mission that they must try to fulfill. Smart companies all utilise objectives to reach their desired success and this guide will show how you can do the same!
Understanding Strategic Objectives
Simply defined Strategic Objectives are broad statements of direction, a set of goals companies strive for in order to fulfill their ultimate mission. These big-picture goals are created to ensure companies have a competitive stance in the market and to ensure their longevity.
For a company to form a strategic objective, not simply have a desire, it must be quantifiable. Practically it must be given a time frame to be achieved in. A goal plus a time to achieve the goal, is the foundation on which you can build success.
In the vast majority of cases, strategic objectives have the purpose to improve and grow companies overall wealth. It is important to understand wealth for a company can relate to areas such as customer satisfaction and employee welfare, not just adding more money into the bank account.
Strategic objectives are tools that should be used to provide a framework for a business to build on. Starting anything new can be overwhelming, you may have the desire to succeed but the totality of what you are trying to achieve can make you feel like you have a mountain to climb. It is understandable to feel the weight of pressure that comes with running a successful business.
THE POSITIVE however is when you take advantage of developing a strategic objective and subsequently a strategic plan, you can break down that Everest climb into measurable and achievable stages.
Key note, there are times in which strategic objectives are used to maintain or lessen the output for a company. Often related in times of recession or even during global pandemic like Covid-19. Some businesses may need to reduce spending or halt projects to survive.
Creating Strategic Objectives
Lets look at some of the key principles Strategic Objectives are generally based on:
- Financial Growth
- Market Capitalisation
- Sustainability
- Customer Care
- Diversification
- Operational
The idea is to create a statement of improvement based on these principles. Let’s use Apple, for example, their strategic objectives may look like:
- Increase business revenue by 10%
- Develop a best of class product in a new market
Once devised, businesses will begin to create strategies to exploit their resources and deliver on objectives. The impact of these objectives can be massive across any organisation, they will become keys in decision making and influence corporate planning.
It’s important to remember you can have more than one strategic objective within a strategic portfolio. The number truly depends on the resources you have available, for example, a local pet store with only 2 workers may only have 2 to 3 strategic objectives per year. Whilst a big cooperation such as BHP may have 15+ in which they will utilise their thousands of employees to meet their goals.
Strategic Objectives are the ‘big picture’ goals for the company. These goals are broad and based on the management’s choice of a competitive strategy for the firm. These objectives will set a standard for any business and provide a space for employees to excel.
Purpose of Strategic Objectives
At any level, creating solid Strategic Objectives can help a company in three major ways.
Provides Direction
Business can be extremely challenging at times. 45% of businesses fail in the first 5 years. That’s why having strategic objectives are so crucial.
It gives a company a sense of direction and a clear project to work towards. It breaks down your ultimate goal into a more manageable process.
Creates Company Unity
Strategic Objectives remove doubt from employees, bring focus, and creates an environment in which everyone can work towards a mutual set of goals. The motive will bring people together and evoke a sense of unity.
Fulfill Your Mission
Strategic objectives allow you the foundation to build towards achieving your companies ultimate mission. Companies have one true mission, decided by the founder, and are often extremely ambitious. Most importantly, they help you build a game plan for success, it allows you to form a structure so that business may one day reach their ultimate goal.
Key Points on Strategic Objectives
Hopefully by now, you’re as convinced and excited about Strategic Objectives as much as we are at Skefto. We hope you implement them into your plans for future success. Let’s just go through some of the keys to keep in mind when creating your own.
Keep them broad
Strategic objectives are meant to be broad goals. They provide you a starting point for your strategic plan so by keeping them broad employees from different backgrounds and with varying skills can work towards the same goal.
Make them measurable
All strategic objectives must have a time frame in which to complete. If they are open ended you will never be able to measure your success.
Be ambitious
Your strategic objectives show the intent of your company. If you can inspire your employees; you create an environment for success. Make sure your they are achievable but ambitious. Even if you fail there are learning opportunities to improve.
Utilise your resources
Strategic Objectives provide a strong base for your company to grow, hence it provides a system in which companies are able to achieve success by getting the maximum out of their available recourses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Strategic objectives are a great tool that any decision-maker in a business should be using, small or large. It does not matter if you are the CEO of a large business with a thousand employees or a small business owner. Any decision maker should be using these concepts. The scale of the objectives will differ from company to company as their specially personalised to meet individual needs but the benefits are the same.
In short, if you are serious about helping your business achieve its ultimate goal, you have only one place to start!
skefto Helps Businesses Achieve their Strategic Objectives