These objectives should clearly further the enduring Purpose of the organisation. This means knowing and spelling out for whom the organization exists, and what benefit the organization seeks to provide this group. Every organization, whether private company or nonprofit organization (NPO), should set out to benefit one clearly defined group of beneficiaries, and a single, long term, verifiable, target figure should be set to reflect what it is trying to do for them. If it cannot set such a target, the organization should be reformed until this becomes possible.
The intended beneficiaries must be defined as one homogeneous group; in the case of the business enterprise it is the owners or shareholders.
The benefit offered must also be homogeneous and capable of definition in just a few words. In the business context, the proposed benefit is something like ‘increased wealth’. The benefit must be capable of being targeted and of empirical verification- essentially then, it must be quantifiable.
It must be of perceived significance to the beneficiaries, e.g. the benefit resulting from the point of view of the shareholders is ‘improved prospects for an acceptable mix of capital gains and dividends within a risk profile that is tolerable’.