Business goals define what must be achieved in order to reach a sustainable competitive position. They
are the "glue" between the description of an organization's vision (the desired position) and the strategy that is
defined to realize the vision. If business goals are correctly defined, they will give the organization the
required insight to keep on course or to change course as required.
Traditionally, business goals have been planned and measured with a very strong focus on financial performance,
because this is "easy" to measure. However, enterprises need to be competitive on a variety of fronts.
Business goals should define more than just financial measures. For example, employee satisfaction or
customer success are characteristics that greatly impact the long-term performance of the enterprise, and therefore
they are worthy of being measured. Goals also need to be evaluated and prioritized so the
organization can focus its resources on the most important aspects of the business.
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