The Importance of Goal Setting

Strategic Goals

What follows in this report is the Final Project for this class. There will be several questions that are answered as part of this final project. First up will be two to three short-term goals. These are goals that are expected and desired to be completed over the next year to four years. After that will be two to three long-term goals. These are goals that are to be completed and realized over the next fifteen to twenty years. There will be a brief explanation as to why defining short-term and long-term goals is important. Finally, there will be an identification and sharing of the resources that the author of this report might use to help define organization goals that are relevant, complete and defined. While planning five to twenty years down the road may seem too abstract or unreasonable to some, it is important to define both short- and long-term goals when leading and operating an organization, no matter the size and scope of said organization.

Analysis

One short-term goal for the organization would be to grow at least twenty-five percent over the next four to five years. This is a growth rate of five to six percent over the time window in question. This is not a terribly lofty goal and should be easily attainable. Indeed, perhaps that goal can be raised to fifty percent depending on eventual performance. However, a goal of twenty-five percent over five years is entirely rational. The goal can be adjusted upward (or downward) based on what happens (or does not happen) over the next year or two.

Another goal would be to keep the headcount growth to a minimum. While a raise of ten to twenty percent over the next four to five years is not beyond the pale presuming that the revenue goals are met at the same time, anything more than that would probably be wasteful unless the revenue to match and fund those people is there as well. Indeed, there needs to be a leveraging and utilization of technology and methodology so as to get the increase in headcount that is needed while keeping the increased number of heads to a minimum. Things that can be done to enable that is employee self-service for those that like or prefer it, the use of advertising and marketing that does not require a lot of upkeep and maintenance and so forth. In short, things should be done smartly and efficiently rather than committing a lot of hours and people to endeavors that are not as efficient and lucrative for the organization.

A long-term goal for the business would be to at least double the business revenue over twenty years. Since short-term goals are about 4-5 years and long-term goals are up to twenty years, a revenue goal that is four times the short-term goal in terms of time spent and the revenue itself is entirely reasonable. Further, percentage increases from year to year will be compounding in nature. For example, if revenue goes from $1,000 to $1,250, that would be an increase of twenty five percent or $250 precisely. However, if that rate of growth continues into the next year, the dollar growth would jump from $250 to $312.50. As such, so long as the business is steady and smooth in terms of revenue growth, doubling the business over twenty years should be academic, if not rather easy.

Another long-term goal for the business will be to expand operations online and/or to other cities in general. The business should start local and thus would be a short-term goal. However, once a firm base is planted in the home operating area, expanding to online clients and/or to other cities would be entirely possible. Whether it be a physical location or an advertising base, expanding the business geographically and/or online would lead to an increase in the amount of potential customers that can be reached and serviced. Beyond that, the word of mouth that can exist when it comes to finding these new customers will help a lot as well. To be sure, there could be a future point where word of mouth could provide some or all of the business that comes to the organization. Perhaps that goal is a bit lofty but there are a lot of businesses and organizations that subsist primarily or even solely on the good reviews and views of prior customers.