Establishing Goals and Objectives
Once the organization has established and articulated its mission, assessed its external environment, and identified internal resources and management systems that affect its performance, it is then ready to establish its goals and objectives for the next time period. Goals should be specific and measurable; fact, at the same time they are established, decision makes should also identify how performance toward these goals will be measured and evaluated. In the planning process, measurement of goals is often overlooked. It serve little purpose to set goals and subsequently have no means to measure performance toward them.
Goals also need to be flexible. Because the whole process of setting goals involves dealing with the future and anticipating what might or might not happen, realistic goals should not be "carved in stone." What will actually happen in the external environment may likely be different from that which was assumed or anticipated when the goals were set. To maintain goals that were set under assumed conditions that have not materialized is unrealistic and impractical. Goals can be adjusted upward in response to how events in the environment have unfloded. For this reason, some organizations, particularly those that operate in highly volatile environments, rely more on a strategic vision for the organization over the longer term. Visions are generally less detailed and formal than strategic plans but can still guide managers at all levels in their day-to-day descision making.