Strategic Management: A Competitive Advantage Approach, Concepts and Cases, 16/e

The Need for Clear Annual Objectives

Annual objectives are desired milestones an organization needs to achieve to ensure successful strategy implementation. Annual objectives are essential for strategy implementation for five primary reasons:

1. They represent the basis for allocating resources.

2. They are a primary mechanism for evaluating managers.

3. They enable effective monitoring of progress toward achieving long-term objectives.

4. They establish organizational, divisional, and departmental priorities.

5. They are essential for keeping a strategic plan on track.

Considerable time and effort should be devoted to ensuring that annual objectives are well conceived, consistent with long-term objectives, and supportive of strategies to be implemented. Active ...