In a changing world dominated by fierce competition, it is imperative that companies have the necessary agility to adapt to the market constraints where they operate, investing in frameworks that promote the achievement of planned results. There are many tools that can help managers in setting goals; however, one became very well-known because it helped large companies like Google to achieve success: OKR – objectives and key results. When compared to others, OKR is still little publicized and used, leaving open some questions that the authors intend to answer in this work. A case study was carried out in a Brazilian company using a qualitative methodology and interviews and document analysis that only defines goals
TopIntroduction
Globalization offers numerous benefits and potential for organizations. These benefits come, in part, from companies like Google, which operate globally and have been transforming today's market. The company's mission is to store, structure and make information available. Make it universally useful and accessible to all (Doerr, 2018).
On the other hand, this globalization not only brings benefits, but also great challenges. Today, existing is not enough to survive or succeed. The business, which a few years ago only needed to have its doors open to the public, today needs to invest time and money in marketing actions, resource management, innovation, in studying the market and knowing the needs of the consumer and, mainly, in defining and implementing strategies to succeed (Grant, 2013).
Time for discussion and reflection is hard to find in organizational life, devising a strategy that doesn't get outdated quickly is a difficult task. Several authors recognized this barrier and proposed different approaches that help managers in this desideratum. Mintzberg (1987) proposed five different approaches to looking at strategy. Several tools to support the implementation of the strategy, goals and objectives have been developed, and some have been more successful and disseminated than others, namely, SWOT Matrix, CANVAS business model, Five Porter Forces analysis, BCG Matrix, Balanced Scorecard, Objectives and key results (OKR), among others.
Despite having proven effective as a strategic tool in large companies such as Intel, Google, LinkedIn, Oracle (Zhou & He, 2018), Spotify, Twitter and Airbnb (Castro, 2020), and also in small and medium-sized companies around the globe (Niven & Lamorte, 2016), the OKR approach has not reached the level of dissemination and implementation of other tools.
“Any company that embarks on an implementation of OKRs will realize soon after starting work that it is much more than a measurement project” (Niven & Lamorte, 2016, p. xiii).
This fact makes clear the importance of better understanding how the OKR approach works, what are the challenges and benefits it brings. Three central questions need answers:
- 1.
What are the reasons for using the OKR approach?
- 2.
How to implement the OKR approach?
- 3.
What is the expectation of success?
A case study developed at Sebrae Meier, a Brazilian company, aims to find answers to the questions raised. Through document analysis and interviews with those involved in the process, employees, manager and consultant, information was collected to answer the questions posed.