For a company to survive and thrive, it needs to operate intentionally and strategically. Strategic business objectives are concrete goals that can be measured and quantified, which is vital because a non-measurable goal serves no practical purpose for a company. Company management and leadership are often tasked with setting these business objectives and establishing the direction the company is aiming to go in. The following are six examples of strategic goals and objectives.

1. Improved Operational Efficiency

Efficiency in operations is one of the vital measures of a company's strength. In order to achieve higher profits, companies continuously aim to improve the efficiency and productivity of their operations. This could include streamlining tasks, improving technology or cutting back on production waste. Cutting back on unnecessary paperwork, for example, allows companies to save money on supplies, as well as gives employees a chance to use that wasted time more efficiently in other areas.

Improving operational efficiency comes down to one thing: improving a company's bottom line. If costs can be cut without sacrificing business productivity, that is a win-win for businesses.

2. New Means of Making Money

For a company to sustain competitiveness, it needs to introduce new products, services and business models every so often. Business models are the processes in which businesses make money from their products or services, and remaining stagnant is a sure-fire way for a company to become irrelevant. Even the most successful companies have had to divert away from their initial bread and butter and introduce new products, services and business models to remain relevant and competitive in an ever-changing business landscape.

3. Customer and Supplier Relationships

When a company truly knows its customers well, that allows them to serve those customers better. They know what their customers want, when they want it and how they want it. In return, customers tend to become loyal and increase spending over time, which, of course, increases a company's revenues and profits.

The same applies when it comes to relationships with suppliers. The more interactions between a company and a supplier — particularly with improved communication — the more likely it is that services can be tailored for a particular company and costs can be lowered.

4. Improving the Decision-Making

Before the prevalence of easily accessed and readily available data, most company leadership had to make decisions based on best guesses and forecasts by analysts. Now, with the availability of real-time data, company management is much more equipped to set company strategic objectives based on accurate, real-time information. Data-driven decision-making is much more effective for improving business functions.

5. Keeping a Competitive Advantage

Whether it is a company's ability to perform a service more efficiently, charge less for a product or provide better customer service, they must maintain a competitive advantage to remain viable in the marketplace. Sectors are continuously being disrupted by newer, more innovative companies, and to survive, companies must provide something to their customer that they cannot receive from their competitors. Doing so almost inevitably increases a company's revenues and profits.

6. Survival of the Fittest

The business landscape is steadily changing, and with an increase in innovation and available information, it is showing no signs of slowing down or becoming stagnant. To survive, companies must adjust with the times. These changes can happen on an industry level, like with the introduction of ATMs in the banking industry, or they can be byproducts of government regulations, such as the banning of television advertisements for tobacco companies.