{"id":37704,"date":"2021-05-28T11:05:00","date_gmt":"2021-05-28T15:05:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/?p=37704"},"modified":"2021-06-07T13:35:38","modified_gmt":"2021-06-07T17:35:38","slug":"defining-business-objectives","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.shortform.com\/blog\/defining-business-objectives\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Business Objectives: 3 Things to Consider"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

What are your main business objectives? Do you think your objectives align with the purpose of your business<\/a>? <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every organization has different goals. For example, a retail store may focus on customer satisfaction whereas a medical organization\u2014 on patient safety. While these goals aren\u2019t mutually exclusive, these organizations have different priorities because they have different purposes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When defining business objectives for your organization, ask yourself the following three questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

Setting Business Objectives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Organizations need to define business objectives so they know where they\u2019re heading and whether they\u2019re on or off course. The first thing to consider when defining business objectives is to, first and foremost, consider the purpose of your business. If you can’t name the main purpose of your business, ask yourself these three questions:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question #1: What Do Your Customers Need? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is the first question you need to ask because, without customers or clients, your company has no value. <\/strong>Use focus groups or customer surveys to ask your clientele what they want and expect from their experience with you. Use this information to inform your organization\u2019s goals by zeroing in on the items that your customers feel passionate about.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, if you manage a grocery store, you may believe that promoting new products is the best way to bring in customers. However, if your customers just want to be able to consistently buy the products that they love, they won\u2019t necessarily care how many new products you\u2019re bringing in. In this situation, you need to adjust your goal away from bringing in different products and shift it towards maintaining stock of popular products.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question #2: What Does Your Company Need? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

While a company\u2019s core mission typically remains the same over time, the strategies you use to execute that mission change. <\/strong>Adapt your goals as you change your strategies. This adjusts the focus of your desired outcomes toward your new approach to fulfilling your company\u2019s mission.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, you manage a design team within a clothing company. Your company\u2019s core mission is to create affordable and stylish clothing. At its conception, your company\u2019s strategy was to focus on the creation of new designs to attract new customers<\/a>. However, as your company has become more mainstream, they\u2019ve decided to shift their strategy to creating clothing that can be mass produced at a low-cost to keep up with the demands of current customers. To accommodate this, you shift the goals of your team from \u201cunique designs per month\u201d to \u201ccost per design.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Question #3: What Do Your Employees Need? <\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

As you now know, every employee has a unique set of talents that inform the way that they work. When you set goals, you need to keep these talents in mind to adapt to each employee. <\/strong>While this is more challenging with larger or more standardized teams, you need to adjust as much as possible to ensure a more effective result.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, you manage a development team that creates new gadgets for various industries. Overall, you\u2019ve set a goal for your team that requires them to complete ten designs per quarter. However, you know that each individual member of your team is motivated by different striving talents (as a reminder, striving talents inform an employee\u2019s motivations). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kelsey has the striving talent of completion whereas Eric and Ben have the striving talent of competition. You give Kelsey the additional goal of testing at least two of her designs before the end of the quarter and attach it to a financial incentive<\/a>. On the other hand, you put Eric and Ben on the same projects and agree to give a bonus to whoever comes up with better designs for each project.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What are your main business objectives? Do you think your objectives align with the purpose of your business? Every organization has different goals. For example, a retail store may focus on customer satisfaction whereas a medical organization\u2014 on patient safety. While these goals aren\u2019t mutually exclusive, these organizations have different priorities because they have different purposes. When defining business objectives for your organization, ask yourself the following three questions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":37734,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[45,79,14],"tags":[307],"class_list":["post-37704","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-business","category-entrepreneurship","category-management","tag-first-break-all-the-rules","","tg-column-two"],"yoast_head":"\nDefining Business Objectives: 3 Things to Consider - Shortform Books<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Effective business objectives reflect the purpose of the business. 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