OKRs for All

CHAPTER 2Why OKRs?

OKRs have proven to be one of the most effective ways to align outcomes, create transparency, and motivate employees to achieve breakthrough productivity.

In The 2021 State of Goal Management, our survey of 4,500 US and UK working professionals, we found that those using OKRs do a number of things better than their counterparts who either manage goals using a different framework or use no goal management framework at all.¹

OKR users indicate that:

• They feel empowered to take risks more frequently than users of other goal frameworks.
• They are more inspired by their work.
• They rate company culture higher than users of other goal frameworks do.

These benefits are more necessary now than ever before. A recent study by McKinsey found that the average lifespan of companies listed in the Standard & Poor's 500 index was 61 years in 1958.²

Today, in 2022, it is less than 18 years. McKinsey believes that, by 2027, 75% of the companies currently quoted on the S&P 500 will have disappeared.³

Why? Some reasons are business uncertainties, including technology‐driven disruptions, global upheavals like COVID‐19, mergers and acquisitions, and, perhaps most significantly, the challenge of staying agile to face all these situations as your company grows.

The problem is, as companies grow, increased complexities and inefficiencies lead to greater vulnerabilities and risk. As Emeritus Professor Stéphane Garelli of IMD Business School puts it, “The larger the company, the more ...