Page 35 - iimv-news-Vol-2-e

IMPRESSIONS

Articles

The Virtuous Cycle of Objectives to Outcomes
Just as the functions and principles of management handed down to us by Henri Fayol more than a century
ago have remained timeless, Management by Objectives, the model espoused by Peter Drucker in his 1954

book, The Practice of Management, is relevant even today – whether in the business or in the government
sector.

In fact, in today's world, solution-mindset and result-orientation are of paramount importance. The life-cy-
cle from Objectives to Outcomes therefore needs careful attention at every stage - definition, design, devel-
opment and delivery. This could be described as follows:

Thus:

Objectives determine the Opportunities
Opportunities determine the Outlays
Outlays lead to Outputs

Outputs lead to Outcomes
And Outcomes – when fed-back to Objectives, provide ac account of the nature and extent of achieve-
ments, an account of performance vis-à-vis promise. An account of capability delivered vis-à-vis capacity
available.

Objectives

Objectives help us crystallize “why”, “where” and “when” part of the first function of management viz.
“Planning”. As books on strategy teach us, Objectives take shape from our understanding and appreciation
of:
Where are we currently?

Where do we want to be?
Where should we (actually/ideally) be?
What are the gaps (based on what, when and where we would like to be)?

What therefore are/should be our Objectives (short, medium and long-term), to address the
felt-needs and unmet gaps.
Speaking of gaps, books on strategic management tools and techniques exhort us to identify:

Customer/Citizen-value Gaps: Gaps in the quality and responsiveness of products and services delivered;

Competitor Gaps: Gaps that help understand how much one is ahead / behind competitors and role
models;
Cost Gaps: Gaps that one must target, to achieve rationalization in resource spends;

33 VOL. / ISSUE /MAY AUG