 annual report, or SEC filing (in the case of a publicly held organization). Thorough work involves scanning trade magazines and publications for articles about the company, and consulting administrative staff for insight into the executive agenda. One must base the business case on the company's mission, value statements, strategic goals, and business objectives. Most organizations promote mission and values, strategies, goals and objectives. Selling technology to upper management generally requires drawing synergies with these. Only when one understands the organization's (or business unit's) objectives, can one think in terms of the results that matter to that organization. An organization's mission describes its purpose and its market. Values, the abstract ideas that guide thinking, provide the basis for the mission statement. Together, mission and values drive the goals and organizational structure. While mission and values remain consistent throughout the organization, goals differ between functional areas. Goals are future states or outcomes that the organization desires. An organizational goal might be to increase market share or to improve customer service. By contrast, an objective is a specific, measurable, target. Following are examples of goals: Goal: Enhance competitive position through improved communications Goal: Improve quality standards on a global (national, regional) basis Goal: Increase the global market share of product X Goal: Improve product time-to-market schedule Goal: Improve productivity within the corporation Goal: Get closer to the customer/ improve customer service Goal: Retool the organization in response to our changing market. Here are some sample objectives: Objective: Include European management in 200x planning meetings Objective: Reduce customer complaints by 20% by year-end Objective: Establish operations in Singapore and Australia by Q4 Video Communications: The Whole Picture Objective: Get FDA approval on projects X and Y within nine months Objective: Improve the output o