Driven by Objectives - Whose !

The Objectives setting exercise in an Organisation is a mandatory one and every Packaging Manager needs to set his/her Objectives in the beginning of the year and work towards it or rather get driven by it.

The question that one has to often answer as to where should he/she draw his/her Objectives from, should it be from the Marketing strategy or the Technical strategy or the overall Corporate strategy.

The obvious answer is that it has to be completely and clearly aligned to the Marketing strategy as ultimately that is aimed at delivering the consumer needs and packaging is one 'P' in the complete marketing mix. While there is a clear positive to this, there are several negatives as well. The Brand strategies more often than not are focused on short to mid long term as the pressures of competition are very live and have to be dealt with NOW ! . The other very stark reality is that the Brand Managers come and go with the stints lasting a maximum two years, where their energies are locked with dousing the immediate fires and delivering the obviously expected.

Packaging today is becoming more and more complex and has a much wider implications not only on Brands, Organisations, Countries but on the entire humanity and infact on the Planet Earth itself. If the Packaging Manager has to look at the very long term issues of packaging he/she has to set Objectives which can look much beyond the immediate Brand needs.

Today more and more Corporates are setting Objectives which are aimed at not only delivering the bottom line but becoming more and more inclusive towards delivering the larger cause of the humanity and the society. Should the Packaging Manager allign himself/ herself to these larger goals and contribute in the Overall corporate Objectives, if yes how should he/ she set the Objectives, budgets and the targets.

The reality is that while many Organisations do talk a lot of the societal and the global objectives the here and now continues to get the larger focus. Hence even if the Packaging Manager were to set Objectives of greater implications, he / she is time and again dragged into the here and now. There are also the parochial perspectives which are purely what appeals to individuals and

to 'Me' , which often one has to contend with.

The answer clearly lies in bringing in fresh perspectives , putting together proposals of universally challenging nature and pushing more and more functions to see the benefits. Lets keep the search on and keep on building Ones Objectives with the very large and long term goals for packaging in sight. The challenge is to not just get driven by the Marketing objectives or the Corporate Objectives, one has to set ones own Objectives , have faith and conviction in them and work towards making others also see reason in them. Yes it is difficult, but then what is easy !