RESOURCES
IDEA
Company Aims
An aim represents a long-term goal of a business. A business has to decide on what aims it should have, so it can accomplish its mission. Many businesses (especially IKEA) aim to:
- Make profit
- Provide goods and services to the local and wider community
- Survive as a business or expand
- Maximise sales or improve the quality of a product or service
- Provide a highly competitive service
- Be charitable
- Be environmentally friendly
This is a list of IKEA’s aims:
- To develop a strong and vital range
- To offer out-standing sales prices
- To improve the meeting with our customers
- To continue to reduce purchase prices and product quality
- To develop a logistical efficiency in the whole pipeline
- To attract, develop and inspire our people
- To be one IKEA
- To become leaner, simpler and quicker
- To take responsibility for our suppliers, their co-workers and for the environment
- To keep the culture of IKEA as a strong and living reality
1. To develop a strong and vital range
IKEA has to do the following to achieve its first aim:
- Improve their offers such as low prices and discounts
- Find untapped market potentials
- Variety of sizes under tight control
- 10% volume growth per year on an overall level
- At least two business areas with growth rates of 20-30% or above
2. To offer out-standing sales prices
IKEA has to carry out the following, in order for the business to complete its aim:
- Have competitive prices at all times
- A sustainable price distance
- An out-standing value for money
- At least 20% reduction in sales prices by 2010
3. To improve the meeting with our customers
The company need to do the following, to fulfil its aim:
- Need to be accessible and convenient
- Constant inflow of new ideas, inspiration and knowledge
- Approximately 80% of their stores need to be in good shape, at all times
- Make the shopping experience more attractive, in the local market
- Lead the development of retailing
4. To continue to reduce purchase prices and product quality
IKEA has to complete the following, to achieve this aim:
- IKEA need to reduce 20% in purchase prices, by 2010
- Show the improvement of the product quality to the customers
- Have unique purchase opportunities such as “over tag”
- Stay close to the production
5. To develop a logistical efficiency in the whole pipeline
The business has to do the following, to accomplish its aim:
- Have high and stable service level, in all stores at all times
6. To attract, develop and inspire our people
The company need to do the following to complete this aim:
- Have the most important priority of all
- Should have opportunities and responsibility to learn and develop
- Successors with the potentials must do an even better job than their predecessors
- Encourage an environment where people of different views, age, nationality, gender and ethnical background feel welcome
7. To be one IKEA
To become one IKEA, the business has to:
- Understand all aspects of IKEA’s operations
- Are genuinely interested in sharing and accepting ideas from each other
- Get more people and information across the global
- Break down all barriers between functions and markets
8. To become leaner, simpler and quicker
IKEA has to do the following, to become leaner, simpler and quicker:
- Shorten the distance between suppliers and customers
- Reduce the distance between the different levels in their organisation
- Defeat all unnecessary bureaucracy
- Give more responsibility to the front line
- Become big but act small
9. To take responsibility for our suppliers, their so-workers and for the environment
IKEA has to carry out the following, in order for the business to complete its aim:
- Build a globally strong supply base through trust and mutual advantage
- Secure acceptable working conditions for their suppliers and co-workers
- Always try to minimise their effect upon the environment
10. To keep the culture of IKEA strong and living reality
The company must do the following, to achieve this aim:
- Their competitive and soul has to benefit to the business
- Develop not only uphold
- Keep it unique but respect local values
Company Objectives
A business objective shows what it aims to achieve. To do this, the objectives must be measurable. The objectives must be S.M.A.R.T. - Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic and Timely. Here is an explanation of S.M.A.R.T.:
S –Specific, the target should identify a particular item or area
M- Measurable, add a quantity, percentage or monetary so, you can have accurate target to aim for
A- Attainable, the objectives must be attained by everyone who can have an influence on the outcome.
R- Realistic, the targets has to be tough, but not too tough or else people will give up without trying, because, the target is impossible to reach
T- Timely, the objective should have a deadline, so that when that deadline comes, you can make sure if you have achieved the target
An example of a measurable objective for KIDASA Software is, “update the helpdesk telephone system by December 1st to achieve average client wait times of no more than two minutes”.
Objectives vary according the business structure, the range of stages of development and the sort of industry in which it operates, such as manufacturing, charity, etc. Objectives can be used to set targets and challenges for a business. Examples include:
- Selling more products than a competitor
- Providing more service than the previous year
- Producing new products or providing new services
- Improving a product or service
The IKEA Group stores want to meet the following objectives:
- To increase public perception of IKEA in the retail marketplace
- To enhance the IKEA brand name
- To maintain develop and expand the local customer base
- To establish IKEA as a key player in the furniture market
These are IKEA’s objectives in Wednesbury:
- We will achieve sales of £68.1 million
- We will achieve an average customer spend of £50.28 (the average amount customers spend on each visit to the store)
- We will achieve a recovery rate of 71% (recovery rate is the amount waste that can be recycled)
1. We will achieve sales of £68.1 million
I believe that, this objective is not S.M.A.R.T. This is because; it is no specific on sales- do they mean sales of goods or overall sales? This objective is measurable because it has an accurate monetary value. The objective is attainable. The sales of £68.1 million are tough but not too tough so, it is realistic. There is no deadline set for this objective.
2. We will achieve an average customer spend of £50.28 (the average amount customers spend on each visit to the store)
I think this objective is S.M.A.R.T.; it is specific on average customer, it has an accurate customer spend of £50.28 (it is measurable), it is agreed- they used the word “we”, the amount of money spend by customers is realistic and it is timed- it states, “The amount customers spend on each visit to the store”.
3. We will achieve a recovery rate of 71% (recovery rate is the amount waste that can be recycled)
This is not an S.M.A.R.T objective. It is not timed because there are no deadlines stated on the objective. It is specific because, it identifies a particular area- “recovery rate”. It is measurable because, the recovery rate of 71% is accurate. It is agreed because, they used “we” in the objective. It is also realistic because, the objective seems as if it is tough.
This is a diagram of the hierarchy of objectives. It shows how staff influences the organisation at different levels.
Businesses can evaluate their performance to find out how well they are doing and how they could improve it. They can do this by organising meetings, where staff can review their activities and change or set new objectives, to help a business meet its aims.
