Business Strategies and long term objectives
By: Justino Sandoval
Vitality Synergies
http://www.vitalitysynergies.com
A manager within a company needs to focus on many different areas of the business while developing their strategies. While examining their company the manager needs to focus on the company’s strategic architecture that will allow the manager to see any problematic areas within their company. This paper will talk about how a long-term objective is useful for a company. A manager can use long-term objectives to help them manage the strategic architecture in a business by developing a measurable, specific, appropriate, and realistic long-term objectives.
A long-term objective is the performance goals of an organization, intended to be achieved over a period of five years or morehttp://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/long-term-objectives.html. Obtaining objectives in a company for the long-term effect is difficult to develop because the company is always changing internally and externally. These changes are usually predicted in most cases.
A manager can develop patterns of a strategic behavior that actively links the internal organizational entrepreneurial, engineering, and administrative domains with their perception of the external environment (Mansfield, Fourie, & Gevers, 2005). A good manager will notice these patterns within the company so they can make the necessary changes. These changes can allow for additional objectives so the long-term objectives can be reached. Having a solid mission and vision statement is the first step in developing their strategic objective.
A mission statement is a brief description of the company’s fundamental purpose. A vision statement is the inspiration to the framework for the company’s strategic planning. (About.com, 2012)A company can use both the mission and vision statement in order to help them come up with long-term objectives.
In understanding, the vision and mission strategy within a company’s architecture will help a company to have a better understanding of their financial performance, customer knowledge, and internal business process and help the company learn about their company and grow in order to be more successful (Robinson, 2010).
In further regards and understanding of the mission and vision statements, a manager needs to use the strategic architecture in developing the longer-term objectives in the company. Long-term objectives can help the company plan for two to five years or more into the future. These long-term objectives include profitability, productivity, competitive position, employee development, employee relations, technological leadership, and public responsibility (Robinson, 2010). Having good long-term objectives can help a company have a long-term prosperity.
In order to develop a long prosperous company a manager also has to figure out what exactly what long-term strategies need to be developed. While following in line with their mission and vision statement the manager has to figure out what the ultimate goal is for the company.
Some of the criteria are that a manager works with in developing long-term objectives are profitability, productivity, gain a competitive position, develop employee development, have employee relations, obtain a technological leadership, and develop their public responsibility. These factors can help a manager in developing a long-term objective for their overall success in the future. The manager also needs to concentrate on the qualities of a long-term objective.
When creating a profitable long-term objective the manager needs to ensure that he is following the guidelines that are place by the stakeholders. The most common way measurement of a profitability long-term objective includes stock price, gross profit margin, return on stockholders’ equity, earnings per share and earning before internets. These measures can be implemented throughout the company because they can help measure the performance of the company.
Productiveity long-term objectives are measures of items produced or services rendered throughout the company. Examples of prodcutiviety long-term objectives include increases of productive or services that will increase profitability for the company.
Competitive position long-term objectives measures how the company performance compared to the industry. It helps the company indicate whre they stand while measuring other objectives. These objectives are also useful when used in conjuction with productivity and profitability in comparing the competitor.
Employee development is a long-term objective that can help the company increase motivatation for the employee through compensation or increase job security. When the employee feels gets rewarded through compensation or knows that they have job security and employee will tend to work harder to obtain the goals and objectives that the management team has set into place. This will ultimately lead to employee loyality.
Employee loyalty is difficult for a manager to measure because it is a broad area. The company can develop safety programs, training programs or give the employee bonuses based on productivity. These productivity can be difficult to measure because the company might not know where each goal setting area is, resulting in over compensation or under compensation to the employee.
A company that develops their processes and procedures or even their product can create a technology long-term objective. This could be easy to measure compared to the competitor due to the mere fact that the company can be developing product with technologies faster than their competitor can.
The last criterion in long-term objectives is public responsibility. Public responsibility is the overall reputation of the company. When the company develops a reputation through community service, donation in developing their corporate image the company overall success can reap great rewards. This long-term objective can be difficult to measure because the company may confuse this with a different objective gain because it not a constant measure in the company.
While planning the strategies the manager needs to make long term objectives that are achievable, understandable, suitable, motivating, measurable, flexible and acceptable (Robinson, 2010). As the manager develops the companies long term objectives they needs to be sure that the company employees can achieve these goals. If the goals are un-realistic then the strategy will not work for the company. The employee also might become disconnected with the long-term objective if it is not achievable. Furthermore, unattainable objectives will bring down employees instead of raising their hopes.
Long-term objective qualities that are understandable will help the manager relay information to everybody in the company. If the employees do not understand they long-term goal they become disconnected with the strategy for the company. A confused employee can become problematic in the overall strategic goals because they will veer off from the ultimate goals.
The long term objective needs to be suitable for the company. If a long-term objective is does not attain to a company it will be considered useless and a waste of time for the manager to create a long-term objective. For an example, a manager does not want to create a long-term objective that pertains to a food company when it should be concentrating on a retail athletic company. Next, a company also needs to have a long-term objective that is also motivating.
A long-term goal needs to be motivating for the employees. Without the motivation for the employee, the employee will not want to work towards the long-term objective. The objective will become obsolete over time because the employee will lose interest and no longer work towards in the overall long-term objective.
A company also needs to be flexible so they can change their objectives at a moment notice if something is not working right or needs additional objectives added to the original objectives. If the long-term goal is not flexible, it will make it harder for a company to change the long-term goal in the company. During a strategic implementation the company should be as flexible as possible to make sure that a particular long-term objective is working, and if it is not can change it to make it work for the company.
An acceptable long-term objective is one that everybody can agree to work towards in the overall strategic planning process. This needs to be agreed upon with upper managers and employees in the company. When somebody does not agree to the long-term objective then it will result in a lack of achievability, motivation, flexibility, and motivation.
A long-term objective needs to be revisited once a year to ensure that they are in line with all their strategic planning and implementation process. This will allow the company to make any necessary changes to the objectives to be more suited and acceptable for the changing environments within their company. If the objective is not attainable during throughout the year, the manager can always lower it to meet their objective or raise it if the company is doing extra well.
When a manager creates a long-term objective, a manger should focus on all factors that go in creating goals including their strategic architecture. A strategic architecture helps define the vision, principles, standards, and roadmap to achieve strategic better operational efficiency (Base2Service, 2012). The manager should use the tools that are available in creating a high quality long-term objective in order for the company success in the strategic implementation process.
In conclusion, a long-term objective for a company can be beneficial in order to meet strategic goals that are implemented. These objectives allow the company to keep track of and change any objectives that needs changed at a moment’s notice in order to continue to meet the company needs in their industry.
In order to do this a manager needs to identify how the company should proceed in developing their long-term objectives by meeting a criteria’s that include profitability, productivity, competitive position, employee development, employee relations, technology, and public relations.
They also need to meet qualities of a long-term objective that include measurability, understandability, motivating, suitable, and flexible for the company. In order to proceed in creating the long-term objectives the manager needs to identify these objectives through the company’s mission and vision statement while focusing on how the strategic architecture is affected.
Following these guidelines will allow the manager to create the ultimate long-term objectives that the company can follow to be more successful in the future. If they failed to follow these guidelines then the company employees will no longer be motivated and lose interest in the overall goal for the company.
Vitality Synergies can help you develop your long term objectives and strategies.
References:
About.com. (2012, September). Business planning. Retrieved from Business Planning: http://sbinfocanada.about.com/od/businessplanning/
Base2Service. (2012). Retrieved Septemeber 13, 2012, from Base2Severice: http://www.base2services.com/what-we-do/strategic-architecture/
Mansfield, G. M., Fourie, L. C., & Gevers, W. R. (2005). Strategic Architecture as a concept towrards explaining the variation in performance of networked era firms. South african Journal of Business Management, 19-31.
Robinson, P. (2010). Strategic Implementation and Management. Denver: McGraw-Hill.