Are your business objectives truly driving success, or are they just ticking a box? Too often, companies set objectives that don’t actually move the needle. Meaningful objectives should act as stepping stones toward a clear, strategic vision. 

In this article, Quality, Aerospace, and Information Security Consultant David Points shares insights on how businesses can define objectives that matter. If you want to set goals that genuinely push your business forward, read on.

Why Setting the Right Objectives Matters

I can’t tell you how many businesses I’ve visited, where management have set objectives that mean absolutely nothing! For instance, I’ve seen objectives such as having a target of less than one security or health & safety incident per year, responding to a customer complaint within 48 hours or minimising the company’s percentage of churn. Let’s be honest, these are not objectives! They are just the basic fundamentals that any successful business should be doing!

So, what does a meaningful objective look like? And how do management go about identifying them?

Defining Objectives That Drive Success

One of the things I love about ISO 9001 is, right at the beginning of the ISO journey, it requires top management to set a strategic direction for the business. I can tell you from experience, these are fun meetings to be involved in! There’s nothing more exciting as a consultant, then sitting in a room with the leading figures in a business and helping to extract the ideas they have out of their heads and into some form of plan. One of the questions I always ask the room is: ‘Where would you like to be in 5 years’ time?’ 

You always have some joker who says: ‘Barbados!’ Although, in truth, that is the dream of some directors. All they want is to make their business an attractive proposition for acquisition, so they can comfortably retire to the Caribbean. Whereas others want to drive the business forward, perhaps increasing their customer base, expanding their products or services, or breaking into new industries and fields. 

Most directors worth their salt, know exactly where they want to take their business. And once their strategic direction is clear in mind, management can then begin to define objectives to help them achieve their end goal. Those meaningful objectives effectively act as milestones along their journey. They should clearly define what steps need to be taken to achieve the objective, who is responsible for it, what resources are required, what the deadline is to complete it and an ongoing status review.

A Real-World Example: ADL Consultancy’s Objectives

In fact, we’ve done this recently at ADL Consultancy. Around the middle of last year, we realised we had a number of challenges within our small business. For instance, our admin duties were quite muddled, mostly due to the fact they were spread out amongst four of us. We had some cash flow issues, which were causing us a fair amount of pain at payday at the beginning of every month. And we came to a crossroad with our ISO Compliance software (ADL-a), as we had developed SharePoint to within an inch of its life and were now limited by the platform’s functionality. 

So, toward the end of last year, we took the time out to agree where we wanted the business to be in five years’ time. Interestingly, this made several things immediately obvious to us. 

We realised we needed to bring someone onboard to look after our admin and social media, as it was becoming too big a job for us as consultants, along with our normal day jobs. So, we set an objective to find someone who fitted the bill and put in place a plan to help us generate the income needed to pay for them. We also realised we had to change our payment terms in order to encourage some clients to settle their invoices quicker and agreed to set an objective to move the business from a partnership to a Limited company. 

Finally, we made some big decisions regarding ADL-a and decided to move it to a more flexible platform, which cost us financially and delayed the project, but long term will make the software far more stable and easier to develop. These three key objectives have been clearly defined by being broken down into smaller tasks, assigned to the relevant personnel and each have clear timescales and deadlines.

Let Us Help You Define Your Objectives

This is why, at ADL, we’re so excited about the next few years. Because we finally have a clear strategic direction in mind, we know where we want to take our business. And, more importantly, we know how to get there.

We pride ourselves on the fact we don’t just talk the talk at ADL, but we practise what we preach.

Why not let us help you too? And together, we can set proper objectives for your business that really mean something to you.

Written by David Points – Quality, Aerospace, and Information Security Consultant