That applies to any kind of plan, whether we're talking business or personal finances, university degrees or NGO programs, website promotion or weight loss.

Setting objectives and milestones is of crucial importance for any planning activity and is core of its success, or failure. Knowing how to set objectives is not exactly rocket science in terms of complexity, but any strategist should know basic rules of how to formulate and propose objectives. We will see in this article why objectives play such a major role within a company's planning and strategic activities, how they influence all business processes, and we will review some guidelines of setting objectives.

The Importance of Setting Objectives

One might wonder why we need to establish objectives in first place, why not let company or a specific activity just run smoothly into future and see where it gets. That would be case only if we really do not care whether activity in discussion will be successful or not: but then, to use a popular saying, "if something deserves to be performed, then it deserves to be performed well". In other words, if we don't care for results, we should not proceed with action at all.

Setting objectives before taking any action is only right thing to do, for several reasons:

- it gives a target to aim to, therefore all actions and efforts will be focused on attaining objective instead of being inefficiently used; - gives participants a sense of direction, a glimpse of where they’re going to; - motivates leaders and their teams, since it is quite custom of establishing some sort of reward once team successfully completed a project; - offers support in evaluating success of an action or project.

The 5 Rules of Setting Objectives: Be SMART!

I am sure most managers and leaders know what SMART stands for, well, at least when it comes of establishing objectives. However, I have seen some of them who cannot fully explain five characteristics of a good-established objective – things are somehow blurry and confused in their minds. Since they can't explain in details what SMART objectives really are, it is highly doubtful that they will always be able to formulate such objectives.

It is still unclear from where confusion comes: perhaps there are too many sources of information, each of them with a slightly different approach upon what a SMART objective really is; or perhaps most people only briefly "heard" about it and they never get to reach substance behind packaging.

Either way, let us try to uncover meaning of SMART acronym and see how we can formulate efficient objectives. SMART illustrates 5 characteristics of an efficient objective; it stands for Specific – Measurable – Attainable – Relevant – Timely.

1. Be SPECIFIC!

When it comes of business planning, "specific" illustrates a situation that is easily identified and understood. It is usually linked to some mathematical determinant that imprints a specific character to a given action: most common determinants are numbers, ratios and fractions, percentages, frequencies. In this case, being "specific" means being "precise".

Example: when you tell your team "I need this report in several copies", you did not provide team with a specific instruction. It is unclear what determinant "several" means: for some it can be three, for some can be a hundred. A much better instruction would sound like "I need this report in 5 copies" – your team will know exactly what you expect and will have less chances to fail in delivering desired result.

2. Be MEASURABLE!

When we say that an objective, a goal, must be measurable, we mean there is a stringent need to have possibility to measure, to track action(s) associated with given objective.

This is a basic question with a not-so-basic answer. In order for a job to be done well – and your dissertation paper is, in fact, a job to be performed – you should give yourself time to figure out why you will do it and get yourself motivated. No motivation – no job quality, any professional can confirm that. Here are some possible answers to motivational question:

- Because it is a must – if you do not do it, you do not graduate;

- Because, if done with responsibility, it is an excellent opportunity to stand out from crowd and your peers – Marketing job market gets busier with every day;

- Because you can practice your research skills while being directed and supervised by professionals (eg. your university professors);

- Because it could be a starting point for your career.

We all know more you think about it, more answers you can find. Once you have your motivational level raised, you will surely want to start your paper right away.

Choose your subject ("What should I write about?")

Allow yourself plenty of time to think what subject you would like to pick for your paper. In some cases, your professors already have a list of subjects from where you can choose one but sometimes they would happily accept your own subject, providing it is of interest and you convince them of your reasons. Consider following, before you go for a subject or another:

- "Marketing" is a broad field – which of its aspects do you feel more interested into, and more comfortable discussing about? Do you recall any particular course / chapter / subject that raised your interest at a time?

- Why would your subject be of importance and who would be your auditorium?

- Is your subject researchable? Is there any academic literature base on subject?

- Do you think you can come up with a personal contribution to subject?

- Do you see yourself developing that topic further on?

- Can you name at least a couple of persons who can guide you? Would they be willing to do that for you?

Documentation, documentation and... documentation

"Documentation" is a magic key for any successful paper. Student or acknowledged professional, once you made up your mind about subject of paper, most of your efforts will be directed (or should be directed) towards documentation. Depending on your subject, on your knowledge and your search capabilities, you might want to start with this even 1 – 2 years prior to raduation date, in order to have enough time to collect and review as much information as possible.

Major information resources: libraries, bookshops, internet, newspapers and magazines (consider subscribing to main specialized magazines in your field!), university printings, company exhibitions and presentations.

Build your paper

You do not have to review whole documentation before you start to lay bricks of your paper. Usually, such works are done using "top-down" strategy, meaning you start with major lines and then you develop minor ones. You can compare this strategy with action of drawing a tree: you might want first to draw tree trunk, then major branches, you will draw then some smaller branches growing from big ones, and at end you draw leaves and flowers.

Therefore, once you are clear with subject and basics of your paper – trunk of tree, you can start organizing your chapters – major branches. Generally, you wont have less than 3 main chapters and more than 6 – 7: remember your paper has to offer a valuable content but in same time it has some space limits (for example you could be told not to exceed 70 pages including appendix and graphics).