Short-term objectives help businesses meet long-term objectives, making them an important element of any business decision. For example, suppose a company’s long-term goal is to double its customer base. To do so, it creates a plan that involves a series of short-term objectives. The company then moves from one short-term objective to the next, knowing that each completed objective brings it closer to its overall goal.
What counts as a short-term objective depends on a business’s needs. In the context of a small project, short-term objectives might be daily or even hourly tasks necessary to meet a deadline. A company might set short-term objectives for longer periods to accomplish its long-term goal in several years. For example, a business that hopes to expand into another region might break down its long-term growth strategy into a series of short-term objectives.
Short-term objectives must be verifiable to be valuable, according to the book “Business Policy and Strategic Management” by Azhar Kozami. A business owner must be able to measure whether a short-term objective has been met. For example, a business owner who aims to improve her company’s customer service department can implement customer surveys over the course of several months and measure changes in consumer attitudes to track whether she is meeting her short-term objectives.
Even the best long-term plan can fail, which is another reason short-term objectives are important. If a business owner is failing to achieve the short-term objectives required by his long-term plan, that’s a sure sign he should reevaluate his strategy. Perhaps he failed to account for some expense or overestimated his strategy’s effectiveness. In any case, it’s better to know early on that he is stalled or heading in the wrong direction. If the business owner fails to measure his progress with short-term objectives, he might waste years on an ineffective strategy.
No single approach to setting objectives works in all cases. Instead, business owners must decide for themselves how to factor short-term objectives into their business decisions. One effective approach is to break down a long-term objective into a series of steps. If possible, break down individual steps into even smaller steps. After you have a series of specific and measurable short-term objectives, use them as a guide when making business decisions.