The Plague Of Strategic Goals
How an audacious strategic goal can crush a great company
Jim Collins, the author of Built To Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, coined the term BHAG, Big Hairy Audacious Goal, thirty years ago, in 1994.
His intentions were good, so he had no idea how much damage he caused.
We love bold goals. We call them ‘North Stars’ and ‘Moonshots.’ We believe they can help us stretch our imagination and push beyond possibility.
Setting a bold goal has its (questionable) advantages. But we shouldn’t forget about the three points that reflect the dark side of big goals:
We don’t know the future
A ‘North Star’ can pave us the way to dead ends
Setting BHAGs biases our strategic thinking (yes, it’s true)
A strategy lesson from Steve Jobs
On October 24, 2010, Steve Jobs sent a very important email.
It contained the agenda for the Apple’s upcoming “Top 100” retreat, a top-secret offsite management meeting reserved for 100 of the most influential employees.
Let’s look at Jobs’s part of the agenda:
“2011 strategy – SJ
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