There’s an old adage about the weather that’s gospel for mountaineers and

meteorologists alike: There’s no such thing as good or bad weather. All we

have is weather, and you have to be prepared for it — good and bad.

Same goes for media and marketing. There’s no such thing as traditional or
new media, just as there’s no such thing as traditional or social media
marketing. All there is media and marketing, and both have always been and
always will be in a constant state of tactical evolvement.

In fact, when people talk or write about “social media marketing” being a
discipline unto itself – one requiring a unique skills set and understanding to
master – all they’re really talking about is the last item in what I like to call
the G’SOT. And unless you understand the difference
between Goals, Strategies, Objectives and Tactics (the G'SOT), you’re likely to
dismiss anything else there is to say on the subject.

So, for the uninitiated:

 A goal is a broad primary outcome.

 A strategy is the approach you take to achieve a goal.

 An objective is a measurable step you take to achieve a strategy.

 A tactic is a tool you use in pursuing an objective associated with

a strategy.

Countless example of G’SOT in action exist, including this one I’ve just riffed
for Intel’s line of Core processors:

Goal: Make our Core PC microprocessors a category leader in sales revenue

by year X.

Strategy: Persuade buyers that our Core processors are the best on the
market by associating with large, well-established PC manufacturers.

Objective: Retain 70 percent or more of the active worldwide PC

microprocessor market, according to Passmark's CPU benchmark report.

Tactic: Through creative that underlies our messaging, leverage hardware

partner brand awareness to include key messages about the Intel Inside
program.
In this example, the suggested SOTs are among many that Intel could choose
when pursuing the goal of making its PC microprocessors a category leader.
Nowhere do you see anything about media, let alone social media. But if you
did – and that would be because of the creation and pursuit of a sub-strategy –
it would be nothing other than a tactic.

Whether you’re working on a grant proposal, lesson plans, or

planning for a project, it is important to write a clear account of
your plan of action.

This plan may break down into component parts of goals,

strategies, objectives, and tactics.

GOAL — A broad primary outcome.

STRATEGY — The approach you take to achieve a goal.

OBJECTIVE — A measurable step you take to achieve a strategy.

TACTIC — A tool you use in pursuing an objective aligned with

your strategy.

Most times we will include goals and objectives in written reports

or proposals…but keep the strategies and tactics for our own
information. Let’s look a bit more at goals and objectives.

A goal is a brief, clear statement of an outcome to be reached

within a specific timeframe. A goal is a broad, general, tangible,
and descriptive statement. It does not say how to do something,
but rather what the results will look like. It is measurable in terms
of quality and quantity.
A goal is an outcome statement that defines what you are trying to
accomplish at a large scale both programmatically and
organizationally.

In comparison, an objective is specific, measurable, actionable,

realistic, and time-bound. It is a series of objectives that must be
attained to accomplish specific goals. Objectives define the
actions that must be taken to reach the goal.

The SMART chart below may help you consider elements of your

objectives.

S — Specific — What EXACTLY do you want to achieve?

M — Measurable — How will you know when you have achieved
it?

A — Attainable — Is it something that you have control over?

R — Relevant — Is it applicable to the place you are in your life

right now?

T — Time-Bound — What is your deadline?

A goal is where you want to be and objectives are the

steps taken to reach the goal.
Business is an organizational entity which can work only when you have a full
proof plan. “Your present circumstance don’t determine where you can go;
they merely determine where you start” – Nido Qubein. This quote best fits in
when you don’t have a specific goal to accomplish.

How are the goals, objectives, strategies, and tactics different? Though all the
four terms are used interchangeably there is a fine line between them.
“Your present circumstance don’t determine where you can go; they merely
determine where you start – Nido Qubein”

So, if you wanna reach somewhere you will have to set a predefined goal.
Now, having a specific goal is not enough, you will have to build the strength
in yourself and put in efforts and work hard on the struggles you will be going
through so that you keep on growing with passing time.

So, now before getting started, I would like to share a few things that people
get confused on the start of their career in establishing their business entity.
Many people get confused with the concept of Goal, Objective, Strategy, and
Tactics that are to be implemented to build their business from scratch to a
renowned platform.

‘GOST’ – is the basic foundation of your business. If you want your business
platform to work and flourish then you will have to plan and execute “GOST” in
a well-organized manner.

Here ‘GOST’ stands for:

G – Goal
O – Objective
S – Strategy
T – Tactics

These are the four main aspects of your business which can either lead you or
lag you behind. Many business owners frame their objectives, strategies in
one single goal. They often fail to understand that these terms are different
and convey a distinct concept at different levels. In the following lines, I have
explained these terms elaborately to make it clear.

 
 

Goals
Goals are dreams that you want to become reality. Goals can be short term or
long term and are not necessarily tangible. It focuses on ‘What’ you want to
achieve and not on ‘How’ you want to achieve it.
 

Business Goals
Goals are used to help the business grow, this is what you understand about
business goals, but deep inside it has vast meaning in eyes of marketing. The
goal is the process of deciding what you want to accomplish and doing every
possible thing to achieve it.

Goal setting emphasizes that goal setting is a three-part process. For better
goal setting you have to do more than just set the goals. You have to try
everything to accomplish it which means you have to set plans to make it
happen. Make it clear in your mind the personal goals that you define as a
new year resolution and business goals have a different purpose but they
share a similar goal setting process.

The formula and strategies that work for business goals also work for personal
goals the only difference is the strategies you use to accomplish your
business goals will give you brighter success with achieving personal goals.

Goals provide the business with a structured framework. It directs the

company in the right direction and assists the company to understand whether
the firm is successful or not. Therefore goals must be present in every
business plan. Goals are a stepping stone to an end purpose of your
business.

“Goals provide the business with a structured framework.”

Why are Setting Goals Important In

businesses?
When you don’t know what you want to do, you are never going to get up
push yourself to take action. Only when you are determined to achieve
something, it drives you to get going and work towards that goal.

 
– Helps The Business take specific steps in order to
succeed
Business Owners will be well guided if they know where they want to reach,
what steps should be taken to achieve their goal. For example, athletes know
they have to win the competition, for that they take proper steps like
practicing, taking healthy supplements, doing regular exercise to remain fit
this is the steps that can help them achieve their goal. So similarly, if a
business owner knows his goal he can know the steps that can help him to
achieve it.

– Goals sustain future growth

Entrepreneurs have sizeable egos, I would say this is a positive point as every
businessman needs some level of ego to complete the risky task. By setting
wide – goals a business owner will be self-motivated to accomplish his goals.

Objectives
Objectives are a more confusing term with the goals. If we ask a group of
professionals the difference between objectives and goals you cannot get a
smart answer. No wonder they are confusing terms as the difference is a
minute.

Goals and objectives go hand in hand, goals define the objectives while
objectives without goals are going blindly wherever the direction is guiding.
Objectives will help you gain what must be accomplished to achieve the goals.

Objectives are always targeted and number focused, unlike goals which talk
about the bigger picture.

Objectives should be accomplishable and measurable, that lets us determine

whether we are making any progress or not.
 

Business Objective
When you have set a goal or a target that you want to accomplish than the
next step that you should take is to plan and set a fixed time limit to achieve
the targets. This will lead you to take small steps that will help you move a
level up towards accomplishing your goal. Some of the main aspects that
come under Objective of any business enterprise are:

Existence
When you have just started as a small business enterprise then the existence
becomes a very crucial part. To be a stand-alone startup site is a very difficult
thing and if you want your survival in the market then planning short-term
objectives in order to reach your goal becomes a necessity.

 
Sales Growth
Having a proper sales mechanism is very important for an organization’s
existence. No matter how well your manufacturing unit is or how efficient your
technology or financial investment is? But if you are not able to match the
sales growth then all your efforts and hard work will go in vain.

Profit Satisfaction
If you want to keep moving in your field then it becomes important to make
some rate of profit. Profit ratio of your company is the deciding factor of future
existence in the market.

The objectives always keep on changing with respect to time. The reason
behind this is as follows:

The change in the technology may lead to change the product design and
hence the objective of the product or services may change.

Depending on the change in market value of product the promotional objective

changes.

The competitive environment in the market forces the company to get even
better with passing time and hence changes follow. This will result in changing
objective.

Strategy
The strategy is basically the plans that will help to achieve goals. You have to
decide which plans can cope up with the goals. The strategy can also be the
solution to a problem.
Business Strategy
As you know that objective is considered as the subset of Goal but strategy is
not a subset. The strategy is about what’s And not how’s.  It is the process of
identifying what you will have to do in order to fulfill your objectives.

When you choose to serve a client you will have to clearly specify the
complete no-no lists that your company ethics don’t follow. If you miss this or
could not play your cards well here you will not be able to stand in the market
for the long run. Taking a decision and sticking to it is very important. If the
client realizes the quality of the services you deliver is up to the mark then you
will not have to compromise for anything.

Here are some principles that you should be following to build a strong
business foundation:
Focus on uniqueness
When you have a very clear vision of your company and its product and/or
services then the one thing that you should be focusing is in bringing out the
uniqueness in your business in the best way possible.

Many have the misconception that attaining some height in business is like
winning or losing in a sports game. But the actual scenario is completely
different. In the field of business, there are so many diversities. All of them
have a certain level of competition but it’s not at all you will and I loose kind of
competition, there can be many winners and it depends on the uniqueness
they show in their business strategy.

Profit ratio
Never setback of growth or generating large stock market instead, focus on
making a profit from your strategies. You should not focus to grow your
business within a short span of time or focus on having a large stock market.
This is not going to help you in the long run of your existence in the market.
You need to set yourself to make profits with your business, this will
eventually result in the growth of your business. Hence, you will be able to
walk forward with fewer hurdles in your path. This will help you reach a
platform where you will be able to make additional profit rates.

Know your industry better

It is important to know the industry better as it’s a large ecosystem where lots
of diversities can be found. Knowing your industry better is a source which will
lead you to have a wider idea of the strategy that you are supposed to plan in
order to reach your goal. If you know the industry in a well-defined manner
then it is sure that you will be able to understand the elements required to
grandstand your uniqueness in the market.

Strategic planning/ scenario planning

You will have to be calculated of the future consequences that you are going
to face with whatever decisions you will be taking for your organization.
Knowing the competitors well and the market value of your products and
services along with the services provided by other becomes a crucial part in
taking next step for the development of the organization depending on the
long-term goals planned for the betterment of the organization.

Strategized your business activities keeping the basic business ethics in your
mind that I have mentioned under Business Strategy.

Tactics
Tactics are tricks and patterns developed to drive and support the strategy
and to get closer to the objective. For example: If we take military as an
example the tactics are defined as the techniques for using weapons. So
tactics are the specific techniques that go hand in hand with the strategies.

 
Business Tactics
Tactics, strategy, and goals are often used terms which are very confusing to
maximum people.

Strategy and tactics are both ‘how’ to achieve goals.

Tactics are the actions taken to reach a particular point whereas strategy is
defined as a plan, which helps the organization to achieve its objectives.

If you have many strategies to be implemented then you will have different
tactics for each. In short tactical planning is a part of strategic planning,
therefore, both are supposed to work together. The tactical planning is carried
by a management team which has very responsible people for getting the
work done.

For them, it is very much necessary to understand the strategic goals. Tactical
plans are popular among large businesses that don’t mean small business
don’t need it but because small business owners don’t have time to formulate
them. Tactics moves are bound with time.

But I will suggest if you own a small business and have not taken a time to
implement business strategy or tactics, try to make goals and plan them
strategically. It may not be easy but the results will be worth.

Conclusion:
I think now you must be very clear with the difference between Goals,
Objectives, Strategies and tactics and how these terms are used in the
business.

Whether one – person company, one department, one small company or a

huge multi – national company these are the essential points to take the
business to an unpredictable growth. Before you set your marketing objectives
you need to consider these as important factors.

Develop the goal and plan it strategically, hold to achieve it. Be flexible with
the tactics that can help you move towards fulfilling the strategy.
Strategy is one of those words that if you ask ten people what it means you’ll get ten
different answers.  Add goals, objectives and tactics to the mix and I know we are on
different pages.  You may be thinking so what?  That’s definitely how I looked at this
until I listened to Rich Horvath explain them and why they are important.  Rich is a
strategist who has a knack of explaining all things strategy very simply.  It was his
GOST model that did it for me.

THE GOST MODEL

The GOST model stands for Goals, Objectives, Strategy and Tactics.  There are a few
important distinctions in the model.  The first is outcomes versus activities, what
versus how.  These are often confused and that leads to trouble.  A goal is a finite
outcome and when described as an activity we fall into a big trap.  Let me explain
with an example.  I have a goal to generate more clients.  Generating clients is an
activity and I have not defined an end state, a goal.  The trap is there is no end to
amount of work I can do.  I much prefer to have a finite goal and do the least work to
achieve the desired outcome.

The second distinction relates to the level of detail involved.  The GOST model
distinguishes between high level and low level details.  This is important because we
need both consistency of direction and flexibility to change to direction as needed. 
The high level detail provides that consistent general direction.  The low level details
are specific and can change without altering the high level general direction.

You can see both distinctions in the following diagram:

DEFINING GOST ELEMENTS

Now you understand the framework, let’s define each of the GOST elements:

1. Goals – these are high level descriptors of the outcome you wish to create. 
They are described using broad qualitative terms eg leader, etc.  Example: To
become the market share leader.
 2. Objectives – these are the specific outcomes that define your goal.   They are
often described in specific quantitative measures.  Example: Grow segment
market share to over 40% before the end of the year.
3. Strategy – This is the high level plan you will follow to achieve the
goals.  Example: Introduce new product and leap frog our competition.
4. Tactics – They are specific actions you will take to achieve the
goals.  Example:  Run comparative campaign to advertise product at time of
launch.

These simple definitions serve our purpose well.  I use the GOST framework to create
a simple outline of what I want to do and how I am going to do it.  By keeping things
simple, I have much more clarity and I find it easier to know where I am going and if I
am on track to get there.  It is also a brilliant way to explain your goals and plans to
others.

Check out the GOST job aid at the link below.  It contains a summary of the GOST
model and a simple template you can use to put it into action.