The company's mission needs to be turned into detailed supporting objectives for each level of management. This second step in the strategic planning process requires the manager to set company goals and objectives and be responsible for achieving them.
* The mission leads to a hierarchy of objectives including business and marketing objectives.
* Objectives should be as specific as possible.
Objectives are an organisation's performance targets - the results and outcomes it wants to achieve. They function as yardsticks for tracking an organisation's performance and progress. Strategic objectives relate to outcomes that strengthen an organisation's overall business position and competitive vitality; financial objectives relate to the financial performance targets management has established for the organisation to achieve.
Objectives are open-ended attributes that denote the future state or outcomes, whereas goals are close-ended attributes, which are precise and expressed in specific terms.