The Clifton Review 

The Clifton Review is a tri-weekly column that examines the question of the Clifton project along with the evolution of the war between two billionaires. We covered the start of this war with articles describing the battle over easement rights, the mysterious burning of a home, the blocks to rebuilding, and countless questionable court filings.

While the 2018 series salutes fashion mogul Peter Nygård’s Golden Jubilee detailing his rags to riches story, his incredible business success over these past fifty years and an inside look at how he did it, The Clifton Review will also continue to address current affairs as they relate to the good of The Bahamas.

Getting Into The Minutia

By P.J. Malone

Are you prepared to be bored if it meant business success?

At the risk of getting too deep into the weeds, or boring you with the minutia, there are some important considerations to ensure that all of your steps toward organizational alignment are effective.

Before you can share the goal that you have chosen for your company with your employee-partners, let’s make sure that the goal is expressed in a way that can and will actually steer your company in the direction you wish to go.

Whatever business goal you set, the first thing you have to do is define that goal or break it down, not just so your employees will understand it, but also in a way that makes it practical and comprehensive, which is the only way it will be achieved.

Interestingly, the Australian Government supports its local businesses by providing specific educational tools for business success on their government website. Most people know about SMART goals—specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, timely—but what is useful here is the example they give to demonstrate a SMART goal. 

As a reminder, here is how a SMART goal breaks down as explained by the Australian government:

Here are a few things to consider when setting your goals:

• Specific – be clear about what you want to achieve

• Measurable – make sure the goal can be measured, and you can recognise if you’ve achieved your goal

• Achievable – check that your goal is something you have the time, money and resources to meet

• Relevant – ensure your goal is relevant to the direction you want your business to head in, for example, increasing profit, employing more staff, increasing brand awareness

• Timely – set a realistic deadline for completing the goal.

Here’s their simple example of what this looks like, which serves to explain how to think about your business goals:

Overall goal: I want to grow my gardening business.

Specific: I will gain four new clients for my business.

Measurable: I will measure my progress by keeping track of how many new clients I gain while maintaining my current client base.

Achievable: I will gain four new clients as I currently have four available spaces in my fortnightly client scheduling diary.

Relevant: Adding clients to my customer base will allow me to grow my business and increase my income.

Timely: I will have four new clients within three months.

SMART Goal: I will gain four new clients for my gardening business within a three month period filling my current available diary places. This will allow me to grow my business and increase my revenue.

(From “How to set goals and objectives for your business in 2018: A step-by-step guide to help you set and achieve your business goals”: January 2018: www.business.gov.au)

One other thing, remember to consider your SWOT analysis (assessing strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) when you consider what goals to set for your business. Next, we’ll talk about identifying strategies for achieving your goals as a part of our discussion on setting the right foundation for organizational alignment.