Sadly, for most entrepreneurs, business is the goose that lays golden eggs, and the main goal is money in your pocket. Such a business does not work for the benefit of mankind but becomes a slave to the owner who wants a Maybach. By the way, “Maybach” may be, but this does not mean that the business will remain afloat in a year.
That is why managers in big business must be able to set the right goals. Ambitious or modest, they should lead the company to prosper.
The 4 Whales of Goal Setting
In business, it is not enough to set the general goal “The more we earn, the better.” Instead, you can set goals in innovation, team, resources, and efficiency – more about each further.
There are many approaches. In the course, we offer a methodology for setting goals for the father of management, Peter Drucker, and his colleagues. Of course, we tried to adapt this method to modern business. And yes, if you have your methodology for goals – for God’s sake. Here we will set goals so that later they can be turned into a financial plan.
Innovation
Like everything else, business is born, grows, develops, lives, and then grows old and dies. For a business to live long, it must constantly change for the better. Therefore, it is important to upgrade all the company’s processes – from marketing and sales to production and accounting. And if one side of the business dries up, the whole industry dries up behind it.
Innovations are improvements not just born in your head but are formed from market demands: customer feedback, economic changes, and customer needs. Just chat with your customers, and they will tell you a bunch of innovations you take and do.
Team
All that any company is based on is people. People make decisions, lead, write, plan, draw, invent new products, and solve problems. So if we imagine that business is a person, then people are its organs. And on how well everyone works, health in general depends.
Resources
Resources are needed to meet innovation and team development goals. Resources are everything a company owns: money, raw materials, people, equipment, time, and other assets.
The main task of the manager is to allocate resources so that each job is completed on time. There would be no need to postpone the project for six months, in a hurry to look for money, or urgently look for a new employee for a task that you have never done before.
Efficiency
The leading indicator of business performance is net profit. After all, no matter how many articles you write and new outlets you open when the final yield is minus, this is a sad result. By the way, this is not called a profit but a loss.
Profit is the sponsor of all the above goals. After all, it is not enough to understand how much material, machines, sellers, designers, or outlets you need – it is essential to know how much money is needed for this. And the primary source of cash in the business is net profit. Therefore, we need to calculate the costs and understand how much profit is required to achieve results.