Strategic goals are essential for any organization looking to achieve success. They provide direction and purpose, ensuring that everyone is working towards the same vision. However, it can be challenging to know where to start when it comes to setting strategic goals and identifying key performance indicators (KPIs). This article provides practical examples of strategic goals and KPIs to help businesses create a successful strategy.
What you need to know BEFORE you start setting strategic goals
A non-exhaustive list of strategic goal examples and KPI examples
Examples of strategic goals for finance
Examples of strategic goals for learning and growth
Examples of strategic goals for customers
Examples of potential areas to develop strategic goals for business processes
SMART Goals with Measurements and KPIs
As it has been famously said by management guru Peter Drucker: "What gets measured gets managed". Some important questions for you to consider include:
To ensure the success of your organization's strategic planning process, it is crucial to go conduct stakeholder engagement sessions before selecting your strategic goals. Without the support of those who will carry out operational tasks, the implementation of your strategy may not be successful. Therefore, completing the strategic planning process in its entirety is vital.
After completing your offsite facilitation, it is important to have a clear understanding of your organization's desired direction in order to determine what should be tracked during the strategic planning process. It is crucial to align strategic goals with your organization's strategic priorities. Developing endless examples of strategic goals is not beneficial unless they significantly contribute to your mission or vision. Therefore, it is essential to focus on the goals that will have a substantial impact on your organization's mission or vision.
If you use the Balanced Score Card in your organization (you should), then below you'll find sample "objectives" or strategic priorities. For each objective or strategic goal, you must have an accompanying measurement.
A rule of thumb for measurement is going from X (current state) to Y (desired future state) by date - Set a deadline for achieving your specified strategic goal.
For example, if one of your strategic priorities is to "Enter new markets", then you can use these different sample strategic goals to measure your progress:
They all technically fall under "Enter new markets", but they all have different measurements that will affect how you chose to implement your strategy.
Strategic Priorities:
You can sort the priorities themselves under whichever category makes sense to you. What matters is that you measure the progress and set targets.
Number of products in portfolio (BCG matrix)
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The Cost of Developing a Strategic Plan (3 Tiers)
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Achieving Your Strategic Goals: A Management Training Framework for Advancing Your Organization (Video)
Some examples of how to measure the progress in these strategic priorities:
And so on...
Those are just a few strategic goal examples that you can use when outlining your strategic priorities and building your strategic plan.
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SME Strategy is a strategy consulting firm that specializes in assisting organizations in aligning their teams and operations around a shared vision, mission, values, goals, and action plans. Our strategic planning services offer guidance on how a strategic planning facilitator can provide support in constructing an effective strategic plan that ensures your strategic goals are clear, measurable, and managed across your entire organization.