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Can a business succeed in the long run by focusin…

Can a business succeed in the long run by focusing on profit as its primary objective? What are ot…

Can a business succeed in the long run by focusing on profit as its primary objective? What are other objectives of a business?

Chiranjibi Mar. 22, 2018

Business enterprises pursue multiple objectives rather than a single objective, however it is generally asserted that private enterprises are primarily motivated by the objective of profit. All other objectives are facilitative objectives and are meant to be subservient to the profit motive. However, profits cannot remain primary objective in long run.

Although some profits are necessary, organizations need to pursue other objectives such as survival, stability, growth and like. These objectives also change with the changes in the environment.

Organisations monitor the changes in the environment, analyse their impact on their own goals and activities and translate their assessment in terms of specific strategies. In general, all organizations aim for optimum utilization of resources and economy in operational costs.

Some of the other important objectives of a business are as follows:


Survival is a basic, implicit objective of most organizations. While survival is an obvious objective, it gains more value and prominence during the initial stage of the establishment of the enterprise and during general economic adversity. The ability to survive is a function of the nature of ownership, nature of business competence of management, general and industry conditions, financial strength of the enterprise and so on.


Another important objective of business enterprises is stability. It is a cautious, conservative objective that is often employed when things are not very conducive. It is a strategy of least resistance in a hostile external environment.


This is a promising and popular objective which is equated with dynamism, vigor, promise and success. Enterprise growth may take one or more of the forms like increase in assets, manufacturing facilities, increase in sales volume and so on. Growth may take the enterprise along relatively unknown and risky paths, full of promises and pitfalls.


Business enterprises seek efficiency in rationally choosing appropriate means to achieve their goals. In a sense, efficiency is an economic version of the technical objective of productivity – designing and achieving suitable input output ratios of funds, resources, facilities and efforts. Efficiency is a very useful operational objective.