Transformation Framework: Vision & Audacious Goals

Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAG) are used to stimulate progress and motivate people towards a major enterprise goal.[1] ?A BHAG typically stretches an enterprise even to the point of unreasonableness to maximize its impact, increase momentum, motivate people, and improve the larger corporate system. Some evidence even suggests a BHAG is often effective only to the extent it is pursued but not attained.[2] ?For a workforce with the right level of discipline, such failure offers the opportunity to improve more still.[3] ?Dozens of preceding missions did not attain that purpose. Commercial examples of this are evident in Sony and WalMart. In 1952, Sony was considered a manufacturer of cheap goods with varying, if not poor quality.[4] ?New leadership drove the change of this perception by intentionally attacking major consumer electronics competitors.[5] ?Similarly, though WalMart started as a corner store concept, Sam Walton decided to pursue a dramatically different direction – an all-in-one, store-in-a-store concept, built on?a big box model, which targeted a rural constituency.[6] ?Other examples include Boeing’s gamble that its 747 would represent a quantum leap in the ability to travel large distances despite an as-of-yet undeveloped market.[7] ?Finally,?Disneyland?represented a massive venture and, to some, a maddening expansion of “entertainment” for a then no-profit film company.[8] ??In short, BHAGs underscore a “commitment to risk.”[9] ??????

Despite their intentional pursuit of risk aversion, a visionary corporation always focuses on the goal not its leader.[10] ?More specifically, CEOs of visionary organization ensured the corporation, and the systems (people, process, technology, infrastructure, quality, budget, etc.) they used to accomplish its vision, mission, and goals were always better than when they began. Their focus remained on what needed to be done, providing guidance where necessary, then trusting people to accomplish their aims, trusting in the entrepreneurial environment that had been created along with other leaders and managers mutual desire for success.[11] ?In contrast, CC tended to exhibit a drop in success after the departure of a CEO.[12] ?Having often been the center of attention, and the dominant decision-maker similar to the genius with a thousand-helpers model, CC were less able to weather the perturbation of a CEO’s departure.?

[1] ?Last, 94-95.

[2] ?Last, 94.

[3] ?Last, 94.

[4] ?Last, 98.

[5] ?Last, 99.

[6] ?Last, 99-100.

[7] ?Last, 101.

[8] ?Last, 101.

[9] ?Last, 121.

[10] ?Last, 105.

[11] ?Last, 111-113.

[12] ?Last, 108.