Every business organisation has certain things that it aims to achieve and maintain as it grows, commonly known as aims of the organization. Business aims form the foundation of organization planning and may be categorized into:
- Economic aims
- Social aims
- Human aims
- Economic aims
- Profitability
For a business organization to be profitable, it must ensure that the revenues are higher than the expenditures involved in day to day running. To achieve this, there is need to focus on controlling costs in operations and production and maintaining a profit margin on the products sold. Return on capital employed (ROCE) is a key method of determining profitability of a business. It is obtained by getting the ratio of earnings before interests and tax over capital employed. The higher the ROCE, the higher the efficiency of the business.
- Creating customers
Customers are essential for the survival of a business organization. A business must have enough customers to buy its goods and services. It is only then that it can be profitable. Businesses create customers through marketing strategies such as advertising and salesmanship. Once the business acquires a new customer, it seeks to retain him by providing quality goods and services at reasonable prices as well as through good customer service strategies.
- Innovation
Innovation is a key determinant of business competitiveness. It involves perfecting of processes, invention of new methods, products and services. Modern technology has widened the scope of innovations in the business sector. Businesses usually devote resources to research and development with the aim of coming up with innovations.
- Strategic management
Strategic management is key in the success of a business. To achieve strategic management, it is critical to conduct a political, economic, social and technological analysis of the market. This enables the business to plan ahead from a point of information.
- Increasing sales and market share
Every business aims to grow its sales and ultimately have a greater market share. If a business is not able to penetrate the market and secure some market share, it will ultimately fail. A market share ensures the survival and prosperity of a business by ensuring that there is always a demand for its products and services.
- Productivity
Business organisations depend on productivity to make profits. To ensure maximum productivity, there is need to undertake continuous employee training, maintenance of equipment as well as purchase of new and more effective equipment.
- Social aims of business organisations
A business operates within a society and must therefore fulfil its social responsibility including;
- Provision of quality products at reasonable prices
Business organisations should conduct their business with the interest of the society in mind. They should ensure that they do not sell their products at such high prices that the members of the public do not afford. At the same time, they should not supply poor quality products. This includes refraining from black-marketing and misleading advertising.
- Fair return to investors
A business organization should aim to provide fair return to investors. investors expect that their shares will appreciate with time.
Other social aims include:
- Creation of employment
- Fair employee remuneration
- Social welfare
- Human aims
Human capital is critical to a business organization. Businesses are therefore concerned with the wellbeing of labour which is critical in achieving social and economic aims of the enterprise. Human aims include:
- Labour welfare
- Human resource development
- Participative management and
- Labour management cooperation