reached. The target may be to achieve a specified level of output
or to improve performance in some way. Targets may be
expressed in financial terms such as profits to be made, income
to be generated, costs to be reduced or budgets to be worked
within. Or they may be expressed in numerical terms as a speci-
fied number of units to be processed, responses to be obtained or
clients or customers to be contacted over a period of time.
Output targetsare expressed in financial or unitary terms, for
example:
■ Achieve sales of £1.6 million by 30 June.
■ Maintain inventory levels at no more than £12 million.
■ Maintain throughput at the rate of 800 units a day.
Performance improvement targets may be expressed in terms such
as:
■ Increase sales turnover for the year by 8 per cent in real
terms.
■ Reduce the overhead to sales ratio from 22.6 to 20 per cent
over the next 12 months.
■ Increase the ratio of successful conversions (enquiries to
sales) from 40 to 50 per cent.
Define performance standards
The next stage is to define performance standards for any area
(accountability or main task) to which specific, time-based
targets cannot be attached. These are sometimes described as
standing or continuing objectives because, as explained earlier in
this chapter, their essential nature may not change significantly
from one review period to the next if the key task remains
unaltered, although they may be modified if new circumstances
arise.
Performance standards should have been broadly defined in
outcome terms in the why part of the accountability/task defini-
tion. But the broad definition should be expanded and, as far as
possible, particularized. They should preferably be quantified as
key performance indicators (KPI) in terms, for example, of level
of service or speed of response. Where the standard cannot be
quantified, a more qualitative approach may have to be adopted,
in which case the standard of performance definition would in
250 How to be an Even Better Manager