Samples of Measurable Business Objectives

I would like to have sample business objective (measurable)

Ideally objectives should be SMART, having 5 characteristics

S - Specific
M - Measurable
A - Achievable
R - Realistic
T - Time Bound

if any one having a spl format to work on it.


Sridhar

Increase repeat customer sales by 10% in one year.

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I am not sure what exactly you are looking for, Sridhar. Do you wish for Cove members to come up with your organization's objectives? Surely your own management group has determined why they are in business and what they wish to achieve. The how is always the trickiest part but that's what actions are for.

Objectives should be tailored to your organization's product/service, Stakeholder expectations and general vision or direction for the future. Sure, we can all shout out objectives for you (Reduce customer complaints by 50% by 2009! Achieve 90% training requirements conformity by 2008! Increase on-time delivery to 98% by 2010!), but they are meaningless if your organization does not know where it is going...and why.

Thanks for the comments, agree with you that the objectives are to be suitable for the individual business.

What i am looking for a systematic way of setting objectives, monitor and control them. (A good flow example)

I am sure most of the business objectives are common for most of the business organizations. In this case we can take this as a platform to play further to tune to our exact business operation. - This tool may give a plat form for setting the actions. ("The how is always the trickiest part but that's what actions are for")

Generally people set big objectives but at the end they don't make measurement / monitor them. If the business run under profit then no management give serious thought on this objectives.

I am looking for good examples how this SMART is achieved.

Like - Objectives-Specific goals-action plan-milestones-etc....

Sridhar

One note - for the Deming folks using SPC, you can set SMART goals, and not specify a numerical target.

If your process is stable, and operating at a level that is acceptable, the business goal becomes "Continue the process, with no statistically significant non-improving trends".

If your process is stable, and operating at a level that is not acceptable, the business goal becomes "Change the process, and achieve a statistically significant trend in the improving direction."

Then, all you need to do is specifiy which is the "improving direction", and the list of criteria for a statistically significant trend.

See attached presentation.

Good Evening,

Hi, myself Dev Have been appointed as Management Representative for a company in Dubai who deals with Facility Management. The company needs to get ISO certification, So setting up an objective have now become a Hectic task. When ever I create something ISO coordinator comes and says that it is a task not an objective. Hence, can you please give me idea to set objective for Administration, accounts, HR and Purchase department.

Thank You,
Dev

Dev14 said:

Good Evening,

Hi, myself Dev Have been appointed as Management Representative for a company in Dubai who deals with Facility Management. The company needs to get ISO certification, So setting up an objective have now become a Hectic task. When ever I create something ISO coordinator comes and says that it is a task not an objective. Hence, can you please give me idea to set objective for Administration, accounts, HR and Purchase department.

Thank You,
Dev

Click to expand...

Nothing is set to have an objective, if it is not a task.
You do many tasks.
All tasks need not have objectives.
Those tasks that are identified critical to the functioning of the organization, can improve the organization or let a setback happen.
With the idea of continual improvement, some achieveable targets for such tasks at such levels are to be fixed and meeting them will mean direct company improvement, and hence meeting the set quality policy.
Now it is upto the organization management to set such objectives meaningfully.
So you do not create something that does not address or touch any task.
Please discuss with your ISO co-ordinator and your management

Just to add.
Some Objectives are required to be "C SMART", where C is Challenging.

For example:
Increase the Sales from Product A by 5% within the next year.

Anyone might ask, why 5% not 10% or 2%?
If we are using Boston Matrix and the Product has little marketing growth and high market share (I.e. a COW) , then it would be a challenge to increase sale.

but if the product has high market growth rate (i.e. Star) and the growth rate is high like 10 or 20%, then it would not be acceptable to have a 5% increment as an objective.

It is an ISO 9001 Principle: Factual Approach. which mean you need to support your objective with data (History Data).

But its not always the same for all objectives.

For example:
Achieve Certification, Introduce New Product...etc.
The C will be in the time frame, or not exist at all


Note:
to me R is Relevant, like relevant to your Quality Policy, your vision and mission.

I don't understand what is the difference between Achievable and Realistic?

I always have an issue with objectives that are numberised. Such numbers are nearly always plucked out of thin air.

I'm sure people like Steve who is skilled and knowledgeable about statistics would agree that no process is ever going to produce more that its calculated capability to produce.

Numberised objectives are very common because they are easy for management to set and usually easy to measure. The trouble is often that such objectives are objective of convienience and don't really add value to the organisation. This often happens in safety.

I'm not saying its easy but something like, less errors next year than this year; is the sort of thing that is more likely to have creditability in the eyes of the those who are responsible for achieving them.

We need to recognise that the 'M' sMart while desirable is not always practicable. I just hope that the SMART principle does not become set in concrete like the so called 'hierarachy of controls' in safety has become.