Written by

Bernard Marr

Bernard Marr is a world-renowned futurist, influencer and thought leader in the fields of business and technology, with a passion for using technology for the good of humanity. He is a best-selling author of 20 books, writes a regular column for Forbes and advises and coaches many of the world’s best-known organisations. He has over 2 million social media followers, 1 million newsletter subscribers and was ranked by LinkedIn as one of the top 5 business influencers in the world and the No 1 influencer in the UK.

Bernard’s latest book is ‘Business Trends in Practice: The 25+ Trends That Are Redefining Organisations’

View Latest Book

Follow Me

Bernard Marr ist ein weltbekannter Futurist, Influencer und Vordenker in den Bereichen Wirtschaft und Technologie mit einer Leidenschaft für den Einsatz von Technologie zum Wohle der Menschheit. Er ist Bestsellerautor von 20 Büchern, schreibt eine regelmäßige Kolumne für Forbes und berät und coacht viele der weltweit bekanntesten Organisationen. Er hat über 2 Millionen Social-Media-Follower, 1 Million Newsletter-Abonnenten und wurde von LinkedIn als einer der Top-5-Business-Influencer der Welt und von Xing als Top Mind 2021 ausgezeichnet.

Bernards neueste Bücher sind ‘Künstliche Intelligenz im Unternehmen: Innovative Anwendungen in 50 Erfolgreichen Unternehmen’

View Latest Book

Follow Me

OKR Examples: Real-World Objectives And Key Results

2 July 2021

If it’s good enough for Google, right? The Objectives and Key Results (OKR) management framework popularised by Google has gained enormous traction in recent years. But what does the OKR approach involve? In this article, I’ll give a very quick overview of the OKR process, followed by plenty of practical OKR examples.

What are OKRs?

I’ve written in depth about OKRs, so I’ll give just a very brief summary of the framework here.

The OKR framework is a process for setting goals. It’s broken down into two parts: your Objective (what you want to achieve) and your Key Results (what success looks like). So, each goal has an O, supported by related KRs.

In other words, OKRs give organisations a means to set a goal then define how they’ll get there. That, in a nutshell, is pretty much it.

OKR examples

OKRs work at all levels of a business, meaning you can have company-wide OKRs, team or department OKRs, and individual employee OKRs. Ideally, the company-wide OKRs will inform the team OKRs, which, in turn, will inform the individual OKRs. This fosters a sense of everyone in the business working towards common goals.

Perhaps the best way to explain this is with a practical example. Imagine a fictional yoga-wear company with a growing high street presence. This business (let’s call it “Downward Frock” just for fun) might set a company-wide OKR of…

Objective (O), company:

– Increase revenue by 15% in FY2019.

Key Results (KRs), company:

– Reach monthly revenue of £150,000.

– Number of online sales increased by 25% by end of Q4.

– Two new stores opened per quarter.

This might, in turn, lead to the following OKR for the marketing team…

Objective (O), marketing:

– Grow brand awareness by achieving record marketing metrics in FY2019.

Key Results (KRs), marketing:

– Mailing list subscribers grown to 50,000.

– Website visitors grown to 100,000.

– Instagram followers grown to 70,000.

Meanwhile, an individual marketing executive might have an OKR of…

Objective (O), marketing exec:

– Implement a weekly email update for subscribers.

Key Results (KRs), marketing exec:

– Content strategy finalised by end of January.

– Number of subscribers grown by 20% per month, reaching 50,000 by year end.

– Email open rate of 20%.

– Click rate of 3%.

Different OKRs for different business functions

Hopefully, the above examples have given you a solid idea of how OKRs work. Now let’s look at some sample OKRs across a range of different business functions.

Human resources:

O: Increase employee engagement.

KR: Employee Net Promoter score increased from 6 to 8.

KR: Absenteeism reduced by 25%.

KR: Number of signups for wellness programme increased by 40%.

Finance:

O: Improve accuracy of annual sales forecasting process.

KR: Train line managers in BI reporting tool by end of July.

KR: Half-day planning sessions conducted with each department head by end of October.

KR: All forecasts completed by end of November.

Marketing:

O: Improve understanding of customer behaviours.

KR: Map customer journey.

KR: Survey 100 customers on what influences their buying decisions.

Sales:

O: Improve sales lead process.

KR: 4,000 calls per salesperson per quarter.

KR: 90% of enquiries followed up within 24 hours.

KR: Create scripted questions to capture sales lead data more accurately.

Customer service:

O: Improve customer experience of contacting us.

KR: Call wait times reduced to under 1 minute.

KR: All non-urgent complaints resolved within 24 hours.

KR: Urgent complaints resolved within 90 minutes.

Product design:

O: Create a product that delights our customers.

KR: Build user testing into design phase.

KR: Net Promoter Score increased from 6 to 8.

Where to go from here

If you would like to know more about the OKR approach to objective setting, cheque out my articles on:


Business Trends In Practice | Bernard Marr
Business Trends In Practice | Bernard Marr

Related Articles

The Amazing Ways Coca-Cola Uses Generative AI In Art And Advertising

Some say that in the very near future, we’ll need to either adopt artificial intelligence (AI) or be made redundant by it – or by others using it.[...]

The 5 Biggest Risks of Generative AI: Steering the Behemoth Responsibly

In our contemporary world, the pressures of the professional sphere often encroach upon our personal space, giving rise to stress and an overwhelming sense of dread.[...]

3 Ways To Reinvent Your Products And Services For The Future

With the rise of the metaverse and web3 technologies, there’s no denying the next evolution of the internet is already underway.[...]

Virtual Influencer Noonoouri Lands Record Deal: Is She The Future Of Music?

Teenage influencer Noonoouri has 400,000 followers on Instagram and has starred in fashion campaigns for Dior, Balenciaga and Valentino.[...]

Managing Stress at Work: 5 Top Tips Anyone Can Follow

In our contemporary world, the pressures of the professional sphere often encroach upon our personal space, giving rise to stress and an overwhelming sense of dread.[...]

6 Roadblocks Stopping Web3 And The Metaverse Becoming A Reality

With the emergence of the metaverse and web3 technologies, it’s clear that the next evolution of the internet is already underway.[...]

Stay up-to-date

  • Get updates straight to your inbox
  • Join my 1 million newsletter subscribers
  • Never miss any new content

Social Media

0
Followers
0
Followers
0
Followers
0
Subscribers
0
Followers
0
Subscribers
0
Yearly Views
0
Readers

Podcasts

View Podcasts