Objectives

Objectives are used to define the measurable outcomes that are needed to reach a goal.  They are based on the organization's business model which defines the cost, quality and speed at which it produces products and services.

The example that we use to explain the Weincor business intelligence method is as follows

Decrease the rate of admission offers that are rejected by 5%.

You may be wondering how does this objective allow the college to reduce expenses?  There are marketing expenses associated with the effort to admit a student. The more offers that have to be made the greater the expenses.  Ideally all offers would be accepted however it is common for students to apply to many schools so it is expected that some offers will be rejected. Keeping this number low will reduce expenses.

Before we begin a new admissions cycle we will have to measure the rate of rejected offers from the previous cycle.  This is referred to as our baseline.  We will take another measurement at the end of the admissions cycle and compare it to the baseline to determine if we have met our objective.  Because we will not know the results until the end of the admissions cycle, we refer to objectives as lagging indicators.  Although our ability to achieve an objective is the most important indicator of our performance, it does not afford us with an opportunity to correct our performance.

Luckily, drivers provide us with an opportunity to measure and correct our performance before the objective is to be completed. Click on Drivers to learn how they are used to define the targets that tell us if we are on track.