Survival and profit maximisation

1. Survival: the business is not chasing a large profit yet, only trying to take in enough money to keep the doors open.
   1. A new independent café sets this objective in its first year, when customer numbers are still unpredictable and the owner has borrowed to fit out the premises.
   2. An established firm returns to survival when trade collapses in a recession, because every other objective is only available to a business that is still trading.
2. Profit maximisation: the business pushes revenue as high as it can and holds costs as low as it can, so the gap between the two is at its widest.
   1. It is pursued by raising the price where customers will still pay it, selling more units, or cutting costs such as wages, rent and materials.
   2. Profit pays the owner an income and leaves retained cash the business can spend on new equipment or new sites without borrowing.

Growth and market share

1. Domestic growth means getting bigger inside the UK, which Greggs has done by opening shops in retail parks, supermarkets and petrol stations as well as on high streets.
2. International growth means selling into other countries, which JCB does by exporting diggers built in Staffordshire.
   1. Selling abroad reaches customers the UK market cannot supply and spreads the risk, because a downturn in one country need not stop sales in another.
3. Increasing market share means winning a bigger slice of the same market, which can only be done by taking customers from rivals.
   1. Aldi has taken grocery share from Tesco and Sainsbury's by holding prices down, and the larger share it now holds gives it more bargaining power over its own suppliers.
   2. Share can rise even while total sales fall, so it measures the business against its rivals rather than in absolute size.

Customer satisfaction

1. The target is repeat custom. The business aims to meet customer needs well enough that buyers come back and recommend it, which is tracked through review scores, repeat orders and the number of complaints.
2. Keeping a customer costs less than finding one. Satisfied customers return without being advertised to, so the business spends less on winning replacements for the buyers it has lost.
   1. A restaurant chain such as Nando's watches its online review scores closely, because a falling score cuts bookings before it shows up in the sales figures.

Social and ethical objectives

1. Ethical objectives concern how the business treats people: paying suppliers a fair price, paying staff above the legal minimum, or refusing to buy from factories with poor working conditions.
2. Social and environmental objectives concern the effect the business has on the wider world, such as cutting packaging waste, lowering emissions or reducing food waste.
   1. The National Trust exists to conserve historic places and open them to the public, so its objectives are written about conservation work and visitor numbers rather than profit for owners.
   2. A social enterprise trades like any other business but puts its surplus back into a social purpose instead of paying it out to owners.
3. These objectives usually raise costs. Fair prices to suppliers and lower-waste packaging cost more than the cheapest option, so a business that sets them is accepting less profit in exchange for a stronger reputation.

Shareholder value

1. This objective belongs to companies. It applies where the business is owned by shareholders, and it matters most in a plc such as Barclays whose shares are traded on the stock exchange.
2. Shareholders gain in two ways. They receive a dividend, which is a share of the profit paid out in cash, and they gain if the share price rises above what they paid.
3. It shapes what the directors do. Shareholders can sell their shares or vote directors out, so a board that delivers a poor return risks losing its jobs or seeing the company taken over.