Your strategic objectives are probably not unique. That’s a good thing

Identical manikins dressed in business suits

Why your business probably isn't as unique as you think...

It's always said that there are two things that everyone thinks they possess - good driving ability and a sense of humour. I'd like to add one more to that list - thinking 'their business is unique'.

After a frightening number of hours running KPI selection workshops, I realised I had a problem. To build KPIs the right way, we need to know the outcomes we are looking for - the 'strategic objectives' for the business (this is the foundation of my KPI method - the ROKS approach). The first step in every KPI workshop is to clarify what each business is working towards, so we can choose the right KPIs to deliver those outcomes. It was proving hard, really hard, to tease out those strategic objectives. Workshop teams would jump between profound objectives (for example, 'be profitable') to the detailed and low-level ('we keep resource busy with purposeful activity'). It was chaotic.

So I decided to look through the finalised strategic objectives from multiple previous workshops. A pattern started to emerge. Six objectives kept on appearing, perhaps varied in wording, but unmistakeable familiar. After some distillation, these frequent-fliers became the 'Big 6' strategic objectives.

Introducing the Big 6 strategic objectives...

Run a profitable and solvent business

A growing business

Meet our environmental, social and governance objectives

A legal and compliant business

An innovative business

Manage risk

Almost all of my clients recognise and enthusiastically adopt the Big 6 as their core strategic objectives. Often they will fine-tune the wording and perhaps add one or two more objectives of their own where they are not the 'usual' kind of commercial business. The key advantage of the Big 6 is that they focus and accelerates strategic discussions. If we can swiftly agree on making a profit, having balance lifestyles , innovating and so on, we can spend more time talking about the things that really do make us unique/unusual (and thinking about how to incentivise and motivate our team) .

...but, the way you achieve your strategic objectives probably is unique

I discovered it is the way in which my clients achieve their Big 6 objectives that usually makes them special - here we are talking about the level of objectives just below the 'strategic objectives'. For a debt management firm a critical driver of 'Run a profitable and solvent business' might be 'We buy commercially attractive portfolios' and it is at this lower-level that we see the most benefit from our debate and discussion.

Your mission may be unique

The Big 6 do a pretty good job of describing the outcomes that most organisations are looking for. There is one big extra for some types of organizations. These are organisations that have a particular mission. So it might be medical, for example, curing cancer. An educational charity might have the mission to improve outcomes for underprivileged children and a prison charity might have the mission of reducing reoffending rates amongst the prison population. These mission-based objectives don't fit naturally or comfortably in the Big Six, so we'll justify adding an additional one or two mission-based outcomes. In truth, this usually isn't too hard to spell out, as mission-based organisations are often very clear on what they're trying to achieve. It's also worth noting that many mission-based organisations also strive towards the Big Six, as they need to raise funds, manage risk, remain legal and so on.

The big idea behind the Big 6, in a nutshell

The key point here is that many businesses share very similar end outcomes, so don't waste time re-inventing the wheel. There is no shame in wanting similar outcomes to others, it is the way in which you achieve those outcomes that will make your organisation unique, and that is where you need to spend your time and energy. A KPI Tree is the perfect way to manage that process.