What do you know about the strategy of objectives and key results OKRs?

What do you know about the strategy of objectives and key results OKRs?

In light of the rapid developments, we are witnessing and in our time, it has become necessary for company owners to keep pace with everything new, and to be fully prepared to adapt and respond quickly to the changes of the times, and not to cling to fixed plans that do not take into account the developments and changes that occur in the business world. So the concept of goals and key results arose to achieve corporate goals. What is the Key Objectives and Results Strategy (OKRs)? And why do successful companies resort to it?

What is the concept of objectives and key results (OKRs)?

Objectives and Key Results Strategy (OKRs) is a tool to define your goals and measure their results accurately, to manage your team and advance your company. You can also apply them in your personal life and all situations that carry a goal and measurable results.

Key Goals and Results Key goals and results illuminate the way and clarify the vision of companies when they need to focus on working in a specific period of time to achieve limited results, with the aim of focusing on teamwork and dividing the main goal into smaller tasks distributed to the team, and ultimately seeking to achieve the main goal. The concept of strategic objectives and results is based on:

• Objectives of goals: Objectives outline the company's vision and approach to long-term success.
• Key Results: Results are a tool for measuring commitment to work on goals. Have these goals achieved the desired results? Knowing these results helps to review the plan and modify it according to the data in order to serve the main goal, as the measure of success is to reach the main goal and is not linked to a specific stage or secondary goal.

What is the difference between ROMs and KPIs?

In fact, the Goals and Key Results (OKRs) and KPI'S are indicators to measure the growth and development of companies with different approaches, but to get the most out you have to combine them and treat them integrally. The following table shows the differences between the two concepts:

Why use a strategy of key objectives and results?

In addition to the amazing results that goal-based management technology gives you, this method has many advantages that make it your best choice for planning your goals, namely:

• Flexibility

The management technology is characterized by objectives flexibility, as it does not believe in fixed annual plans, but rather develops plans for a shorter period and then evaluates the results, and adjusts the plans if they are not satisfactory and match the achievement of the main goal.

• Simplicity

Goal management technology is easy to use whether you are an entrepreneur or a layman who wants to apply key goals and results in your personal life. The simplicity and ease of implementing a goal-driven management strategy helps companies focus on achieving results, rather than wasting a lot of time setting goals.

• Transparency

The plan for key goals and results should be transparent and accessible from all levels of the company to anyone within the company, as access to OKRs plans should be available to all people.

• Adopt different rhythms for goal setting

The company usually relies on setting 3 main high-level goals and this is annually, medium-level goals for the team to work on and set every 3 months, and finally, following up on the results and outputs of the plan weekly.

Implementation of Objectives Management (OKRs) in companies

The concept of management with goals has been associated since its inception in the sixties of the last century with large commercial companies, and over time many successful and emerging companies have adopted this approach, and the strategy of goals and results is one of its most important secrets, such as: Google and Facebook.

Google is one of the most famous companies that follow the method of management by objectives, as the company is keen to achieve cooperation and homogeneity among all members of its team, so everyone works to achieve the main goal. For example, Google applied the OKRs strategy to achieve the goal of creating a distinctive customer experience, which relied on three main axes: increasing the repurchase rate of services, customer acquisition, and improving net promotion points.

You can also apply the technology of goals and key results in your company, regardless of its size and specialization to reach your goals, away from resorting to traditional planning methods. The starting point for applying the criteria of the basic objectives is to answer this question: is this goal realistic and measurable?

In fact, this goal can be achieved and its results measured using KPIs. We now come to setting the main goal, achieving a great customer experience like Google, and the main results that are the actual steps that reached the goal. Here is a set of steps to follow Google's approach to creating a good customer experience:

1. Increase the repurchase rate

Studies have shown that the impact of 40% of project revenues comes from customers repurchasing services, so it is necessary to encourage your customers to buy back from your services, by:

• Continue marketing your products even after you complete purchases.
• Choose the right time to communicate with your customers and send marketing messages. For example, if you are the owner of a food store, be sure to market to your customers at the end of the month to increase their response.
• Take advantage of email marketing as it is really effective.
• Analyze customers' interests during their past behaviour using AI, and start suggesting your products and services that they are interested in.
• Offer promotions and vouchers to increase your customers' buying rates, and show them all new you have.
• Use sponsored campaigns and target potential customers.

2. Customer Acquisition Customer Acquisition

It is necessary to develop a strategy to attract and retain customers, as this plan depends on the nature of your product, your company, the market situation, competitors and customers. You can follow these steps to increase your chances of bringing in customers:

• Take advantage of social media to communicate effectively with your customers, this method returns good results and will not burden you with expenses, as it is free.
• Use content marketing to promote and publicize your services.
• Collaborate with other brands to advertise your services.

3. Improve net promotion bouncer NPS

Net Promoter Score is a tool for measuring customer satisfaction and loyalty to your brand, measuring customer behavior after purchase and does it encourage others to engage with your brand? So you can deeply understand your customers, enhance their satisfaction and improve your NPS. Here are the top strategies to improve NPS net promotion score:

• Improve customer service to know their needs.
• Respond to your customers' inquiries and problems as soon as possible so as not to leave them with a bad experience.
• Pay attention to feedback to improve your NPS net promotion level.
• Develop your services to increase customer satisfaction.

What are the main types of goals and outcomes OKRs?

There are two main approaches that want to apply the concept of objectives and key results (OKRs):

1. Committed OKRs Goals

They are simply goal-setting commitments with commitments, timetables, and budgets. Committed goals provide you with accurate answers to the question "how" how can I achieve this? How can I succeed in that? Commitment often leads to success, as these goals are related to the growth of the company and making the necessary changes to develop it.

Committed goals technology helps you define your reference to measure your progress in your business, that is, it is a factor for measuring your success. It is necessary to achieve 100% committed goals, i.e. to the fullest, then the result of this goal 1 counts, meaning that it is 100% complete. For example, here is one of Mozilla Firefox's committed goals for 2019.

Goal: Increase Mozilla Firefox's followers and customers

• Key Finding 1: Work to increase website visits by 30%, by publishing 10 stores for the company's followers.
• Key Finding 2: Work to increase press coverage by 10%, by writing 1265 stories (885 words per story).
• Key Finding 3: 5 MSRP events.

2. Ambitious OKRs Goals

Ambitious goals are called moonshots, which are out-of-the-box ideas. According to what goal-by-goal management technology believes in, reaching a 100% rate of achieving their goals is not a criterion for their success, they are important to move forward, so you must set bold goals and put forward ideas beyond the sky.

Ambitious goals do not have a specific path to follow, the important thing is to reach the goal. Ambitious goals have room for flexibility in the way they are followed, and the mechanism of action is not entirely clear, so ambitious goals are not expected to be achieved 100%. Set any goal you want, but achieve that they are achievable goals on the ground and measure their results later.

The goal of setting ambitious goals is to encourage the team to be productive, and motivate them to step out of the comfort zone to reach peak performance and productivity. You should encourage your employees to come up with bold ideas and not fear that they will fail, because their failure will not affect their salaries and bonuses. In return, give your team material rewards, each according to his contribution to reaching the main goal.

How do we set goals and key results OKRs?

The responsibility for setting goals at various levels, whether annual or quarterly, lies with the manager, taking into account the developments and financial condition of the company, in addition to the vision of the work team. There are some tips for setting effective goals and key results:

First: Objectives Objectives

You have to adhere to some criteria when setting goals to apply the technology of goals and key results, which are:

• You should set an inspiring, realistic and quantifiable goal.
• Give goals enough time to see their results.
• The company must have goals of high value.
• The goal should be written briefly and be straightforward.
• Goals should be formulated in a formal way, choosing words that align with the company's culture.
• You have to make sure that the goals are related to your company's vision.

Second: Results Main Results

To develop key results, develop 2 to 5 suggestions and initiatives for each goal to work towards. Make suggestions realistic and achievable. Set a time to meet with your team, study the results in the short term, and set another long-term appointment to reevaluate the results.

How to apply the concept of management by objectives on the ground?

The most important points covered by the management approach can be summarized by objectives as follows:

• Five-year plans are over: If you want to achieve great success for your company, you have to notice the changes that are happening around you and the direction of the new world, and change your plans and approach accordingly.
• Take care of your employees: A goal-driven management approach encourages you to engage your employees and give them autonomy. Thus increasing their efficiency and reward.
• No to punishment: The management by objectives strategy rejects the policy of punishing the wrongdoer, but rather directing and advising him in the right way and helping him to address the mistake.
• Flexibility: Changing the relationship between the manager and the employee for flexibility instead of careful control of the way of work, by giving the employee the opportunity to perform tasks in the way that suits him, as long as the desired result is achieved.

How to measure results

As a company manager, you should set KPI standards, and observe the growth and development of each department as appropriate. For example, if your business is in e-commerce, and you want to measure the performance of your business in sales, you should quantify purchases within a specific period and monitor progress over time. This helps you identify and focus on your target audience in your upcoming marketing campaigns.

To ensure that you get the best possible results from applying the concept of management by objectives, you should pay attention to following up on performance indicators, assuming that you set goals by a quarter of an annual framework each cycle OKR, so that each week constitutes 10% of the total main objectives. Meet with your team to discuss and celebrate your progress and achievements, plan what's to come, and discuss expected improvements.

Finally, OKRs are the perfect way to track the progress of your business and encourage your team members to collaborate to reach real results. You can use experts in business consulting from a freelancer website, the largest freelance platform in the Arab world, to get advice on the appropriate way to use the strategy in line with your business, and help you get the most out of it.