Chapter 6: Strategic Objectives
What is your business going to look like three years from now? What products or services will you sell? Who will your customers be? How will you market yourself? What will be unique about your business? Where will you be located? How many locations will you have? Will you become a franchise? Will you go public? What will your sales volume be? What will your profits be? How large a staff will you have? Will you expand nationally or internationally? Will you sell your business for a profit? Will you buy out your competition?
As you might expect, the answer depends on a number of factors.
- How fast is your company growing?
- How quickly is your industry evolving?
- What is the current strategy of your competition?
Your Strategic Objectives form a brief document describing the specific goals of your business. It paints a clear picture of what your business will look like at some predetermined point in the future. Typically, it’s the end of a natural stage of development such as maximum growth in a facility, market domination in a specific area, or the completion of a large, company-wide project.
How far into the future should your Strategic Objectives project?
Your Strategic Objectives should project far enough into the future that it identifies the completion of a phase for your business but not so far ahead that it becomes guess work. Generally, this is about 3 years, but if your company makes software, for example, you may need to revisit your Strategic Objectives every year. The information technology industry is constantly evolving and you may get left behind if you don’t stay on the cutting edge. On the other hand, if you own a construction business, you may need to take a longer term perspective; one that takes into consideration population growth, market trends and the state of the economy.
The following is a process for creating your Strategic Objective. It’s a good idea to read through the entire process before getting started, to orient your thinking in the right direction.