Part of the business planning process is writing goals. A goal is a common term that we’re all familiar with but the ability to reach goals, in a measurable way, is quite a different story.
Goals should be tied to an organization’s strategy or strategic plan (The 5 step Process of strategic planning). Goals simply take the organization’s vision, where it is going, and maps out the steps to get there. When writing goals, they need to be
SMART Goals
Specific
Measurable
Attainable
Realistic
Timely
Examples of Business Goals:
1. Reduce overall budget costs by 10% by 2010
2. Increase market share by 5% by 2011
3. Increase revenues by 20% by 2012
4. Increase customer satisfaction by 5 pts by 2010
Now let’s look at one of the business goals above.
1. Reduce overall budget costs by 10%.
If you take one aspect of budget costs, which could be supply costs, you can write SMART goals to reduce them.
Goals should answer the following questions:
What, How, Who, When.
Those questions can be answered by creating a goal worksheet and seeing a visual of it.
Example Goal Worksheet
| Goal (what) | Tactical Steps (how) | Responsible Person (who) | Due Date (when) | Status |
| Reduce office supply costs by 10% by the end of 4th quarter. | 1. perform audit of supply costs;
2. perform audit of supply usage; 3. identify persons or departments with highest supply usage; 4. Identify wasteful usage; 5. evaluate supplier agreements; 6. shop suppliers; 7. negotiate supplier rates; 8. create standard supply list and supply utilization controls; |
Jack Smith | By December 31st. |
One of the most important things with writing goals is the follow-up through completion of goals. A goal document is no more than a mere piece of paper if there is not a person held accountable to achieving those goals.
This is where the rubber meets the road and a good performance management process is important to ensure goal completion.
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