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Within the context of the Balanced Scorecard, objectives are the end game that supports the strategic intent of the organisation.  Based on the traditional "Perspectives": Financial, Customer, Internal Processes, and Learning and Growth; objectives are derived from the strategic direction within these four perspectives.  

The objectives are a call to action with a defined resultant outcome from the application of organisational resources to support both the strategy and perspective.  An objective of increase sales by 10% in itself is meaningless, but this objective defines the scope of the actions that need to be determined to achieve this.  Drilling down of this objective will facilitate the allocation of resources to the various tasks that will facilitate the achievement of this objective.  

Objectives will also be constrained by time, so suitable planning, milestones and time frame needs also to be determined.  Once tasks are identified, various metrics can then be ascertained and targets developed and results monitored.  Objectives without the detailed task assessment, metric determination and subsequent control and action provides little guidance to management to improve performance.  Objectives need to be comprehensively defined, within the context of strategy, with suitable accountability and a realisable time frame.