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32 Examples of Strategic Goals

John Spacey, January 07, 2020

Strategic goals, or strategy goals, are the desired outcomes of a strategy. The strategic planning process typically begins with goals as there is no point planning strategy if you don't know what you're trying to achieve. The following are illustrative examples of strategic goals.

Revenue

Grow revenue by 11% to $14 million per year.

Overhead Cost

Reduce human resources overhead by $600,000 a year.

Unit Cost

Reduce the unit cost of our 300 watt solar panel modules to $190.

Productivity

Increase productivity to $77.50 per hour.

Efficiency

Decrease the water used per ton of apples by 12%.

Waste Reduction

Transition all internal logistics to reusable packaging to reduce wasted materials by 27 tons per month.

Business Capabilities

Develop a tool that forecasts future surplus stock levels based on current sales trends. Goal: increase inventory turnover by discounting unpopular colors earlier in the sales cycle.

Return on Investment

Construct and operationalize 7 data centers with a 5 year return on investment of 170%.

Risk Reduction

Diversify our partnerships to reduce the risk of a revenue disruption due to a dispute or issue with a partner. Goal: reduce risk exposure by 50% or more.

Process Improvement

Improve the quality control process to reduce customer detected quality issues at unboxing to undetectable levels.

Competitive Advantage

Develop a competitive advantage over the other souvenir shops on the street by securing prime locations near the temple and station.

Market Penetration

Capture 12% market share for ice cream products in the Eastern United States.

Diversification

Reduce concentration risk by diversifying into new types of crop. Goal: 40% of revenue from non-corn crops.

Sales Volumes

Increase sales volumes to 1 million units a month within 5 years.

Customer Acquisition Cost

Reduce customer acquisition cost to $1550 for private banking clients.

Customer Lifetime Value

Increase customer lifetime value to $120,000 for private banking clients.

Customer Satisfaction

Increase patron satisfaction with library services to 80%.

Organizational Culture

Instill the norm that employees not overbook meeting rooms that go unused. Goal: Improve room utilization to at least 90%.

Throughput

Increase the throughput of the Chicago call center to 27,000 calls a day.

Service Quality

Improve the accuracy of billing to 99.7% or greater for telecom customers.

Service Performance

Reduce the turnaround time for room service to 12 minutes.

Product Quality

Improve the durability of our down jackets that are known to have issues within a month of purchase. Goal: a product designed to last at least 3 years with regular wear.

Work Quality

Improve code delivered to testing. Goal: a 50% reduction in defects per thousand lines of code.

Time to Market

Improve the time to market for new shoe designs to 88 days.

Innovation

Design a delivery drone that is completely silent and requires no cameras for navigation.

Brand Recognition

Improve brand recognition to 17% of target market.

Brand Image

Improve the percentage of customers who view us as a "luxury hotel" to 40%.

Employee Satisfaction

Increase employee satisfaction score to 62%.

Employee Retention

Reduce one year attrition of top performing employees to 8%.

Recruiting

Recruit a development team for the tariff agreement monitoring system.

Compliance

Reduce trans fats to undetectable levels in all products.

Sustainability

Reduce our use of agricultural chemicals by 70%.

Goals vs Strategy

A goal is a desired outcome. A strategy is a concrete plan to achieve a desired outcome. Goals are meaningless without a strategy. Likewise, a strategy may be of no value if it isn't based on a worthy goal.

Goals vs Objectives

A goal is a desired end-result. An objective is a meaningful step on the path to a goal. For example, a goal may be to become a doctor. An objective is to pass a test so that you can progress in your education towards this goal.

Goals vs SMART Goals

Smart goals are targets that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound. Many firms require that employee's performance objectives be smart. At the strategic planning level, goals need not be smart. For example, it would be unusual for strategic goals to be time-bound because goal planning is the first step in strategic planning such that you don't yet know how long it will take to achieve goals. Likewise, measuring your goals may be part of strategic planning itself.