Setting goals is the propelling force behind a company’s growth. Unfortunately,
many companies don’t follow an organized process in creating them, or place too
much emphasis on the future.
A better approach is to focus on making current operations more
efficient. Each year, companies should identify 5 to 11 major goals that define
their focus. These goals should be broken down into the following categories,
where 80 percent of the efforts are focused on present issues:
3-5 Current
operational problems
1-3 Marketing
improvements for current products
1-3 Future
products and services
The goals created should be a culmination of ideas from a variety of sources
and departments throughout the company, and an organized process should be
followed to generate those ideas.
- Gathering and organizing potential goals. Executive staff members should each be tasked with creating a list of potential goals using the formula above.
- Aggregate the information. Create a master list of all the goals created by the executive staff and distribute it back to them with instructions to agree or disagree on the ideas of their counterparts.
- Creating the big picture. Schedule an uninterrupted day at an offsite location to conduct a brainstorming session with your executive staff.
- Finalizing selection process. At this stage, the CEO should review the company goals in private and create a final list, which sets the stage to begin planning for each goal.
- Planning business strategies. Re-create a template with company and corresponding departmental goals.
- Creating the master list. Consolidate the above information into a master list of goals, and publish it for the entire company to see. Creating organization-wide visibility ensures all employees are on the same page.
