32 AGRIC. ECON. – CZECH, 51, 2005 (1): 32–40 INTRODUCTION Objectives represent a managerial commitment to producing specified results in a specified time frame. They direct attention and energy to what needs to be accomplished. The main purposes of objectives are (Kotler 1972): (i) Company objectives provide ultimate criteria for resolving difficult company decision. (ii) Company objectives are the basis for long-range planning. (iii) Company objectives produce consistency in the decentralized decision making of company execu- tives. (iv) Company objectives provide employees with a sense of purpose that makes their works worthwhile. Tere are two types of objectives: long-run ob- jectives, and short-run objectives. The company's long-run objectives, such as maximization of return on investment, and societal welfare, are permanent and called organizational goals. Short-run objectives, on the other hand, such as maximization of sales volume, maximization of profit margin, maximiza- tion of customer satisfaction, reinforcing company’s competitive position are taken up for a short period (a year, quarter, ... etc.) to reflect the most important beneficial focus of the top management. Short-term objectives are adjustable and adoptable periodically to cope with the rapidly changing environmental forces and economic conditions, such as fluctuating costs of resources, changing competition level, new forecasts, new technology, new ideas and products, new opportunities, new threats, new regulations and taxes, and other various changing variables. The problem of setting short-term objectives of an enterprise have been dealt with subjectively, in that it is usually a decision which is based on the pure judg- Fuzzy logic identifier of the short-term objectives Fuzzy logický identifikátor krátkodobých cílů S. ALY, I. VRANA Czech University of Agriculture, Prague, Czech Republic Abstract: Tis article presents a new science-based approach which identifies the most effective current-period short- -term objective of an enterprise, which is usually set based on the pure judgment of top management members or enter- prise’s experts. Te method is based on fuzzy-decision-making system and makes robust utilization of enterprise’s experts’ knowledge, intuition and expertise. A simple illustrative example is provided to demonstrate how the method can be effici- ently and effectively used in practice. Te proposed approach can be used to identify the short-term objective of any profit- -making-enterprise, and is specially applicable to business industries that are full of qualitative, stochastic, uncertain, and vague variables such as the case in agricultural business (e.g., agro-food companies, fertilizers, and agro-chemical produ- cers), and industrial firms (e.g., electronics, home appliances, machine tools companies ... etc.), and is generally applicable to any other business sector. Keywords: short-term objectives, fuzzy decision-making-system, fuzzy expert-system Abstrakt: Článek uvádí novou metodu, která vědecky identifikuje nejefektivnější krátkodobý cíl podniku, který se obvykle stanovuje na základě pouhého posouzení vrcholových manažérů nebo podnikových expertů. Metoda je založena na fuzzy systému pro podporu rozhodování a zdůrazňuje využití expertní znalosti a intuice. Jednoduchý ilustrativní příklad demon- struje jak lze metodu účinně a efektivně použít v praxi. Předkládanou metodu lze použít k stanovení krátkodobého cíle libovolného zisk vytvářejícího podniku a je obzvlášť vhodná pro podniky, kde je mnoho kvalitativních, stochastických, ne- jistých nebo neurčitých proměnných. Typickým představitelem jsou podniky agro-potravinářského komplexu (zemědělská prvovýroba, výroba hnojiv a zemědělských chemikálií, zpracovatelský sektor, odchod), ale je obecně použitelná i v dalších podnikatelských sektorech (např. domácí spotřebiče, elektronika, výroba strojů, apod.). Klíčová slova: krátkodobý cíl, fuzzy systém pro podporu rozhodování, fuzzy expertní systém