Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) – KEY TIPS FOR SUCCESS!

Well kia ora folks. Thanks very much for taking the time to come and check out today's vlog.

When I chat to people about their strategic planning or their business planning, an answer I quite often get is, "I know I need to do something, but I just don't quite know what to do". So that's why, over the next couple of months, I'm going to do a series of vlogs talking about both strategic planning, that really big picture side of things, right down to business planning, along with implementation plans and how to make things happen.

At the really conceptual broad level I came across a term a number of years ago when I was reading one of Jim Collins' books: Good to Great. It's called the Big Hairy Audacious Goal, or the BHAG. It was a concept that Collins came up with for all the companies that he looked at and analysed over the five-year period when the companies went from average to great. All had a really compelling BHAG, something big that they were striving towards.

So I just want to talk a bit about that today and give you a couple of examples: Microsoft wanted to have a PC on every desk; Starbucks wanted their brand to be stronger than Coca-Cola; Sony wanted to change that whole 'made in Japan' perception that was in place at the time; Kindle wanted to have every book in any language on a device within 60 seconds. And at a local level there was Sir Michael Hill from Michael Hill Jewellery – initially it was seven stores in seven years then it was a thousand stores by 2022.

All these companies had really strong and compelling BHAGs. Now, whether they achieved their lofty goals is slightly irrelevant and Michael Hill is a really good example. I think pre-COVID the number of stores they had was only 304, and I say only 304, but you can't deny that the Michael Hill story is a really successful story.

So BHAGs are about stretching imagination, stretching the thinking and I just want to give you four outcomes that Collins talks about to start with when you're looking at developing your BHAG.

#1. Number one is the time frame.

If you've heard me chat before I normally talk in five plus years, 12 months and 90 days. The concept of the BHAG is that 10-20 year picture, the long term vision. And in saying that, the second point is really important ...

#2. A BHAG does need to be action orientated.

It's no good just having words on paper, it actually needs to lead to activities and action.

#3. The third one is it needs to be compelling and exciting.

#4. And the fourth is it needs to be innovative, it's no longer just business as usual.

And so the purpose really is to engage everybody to be thinking about not just the now, but what the future looks like. So I want to give you six factors that you can test your BHAG against.

i. The first one is, is it long term?

ii. The second one, will people actually understand what you're talking about if you share it with people – so keep it nice and simple.

iii. The third point is, does it require people to stretch out of their comfort zone? You know Collins talks about the gulp factor, it makes you nervous, it gives you butterflies when you talk about it.

iv. And the fourth one is the knowledge that you've only got a 50-70% chance of succeeding. This is something that you're not sure if you're going to get to and it's really going to stretch the horizons.

v. The fifth one, it requires a really big step in your capabilities. It's a quantum leap in the way you think and do business, it's not just a case of setting a goal, but really stretching and pushing yourself further out there.

vi. Number six, does it create momentum? It's got to have that action orientation.

vii. And the last one is, does it excite you and stimulate you?

So a BHAG is all about that bigger thinking, giving yourself the gulp factor, but also giving yourself permission to go and push those boundaries out. So go and have a chat with your board of directors, with your senior advisory team, with your team members, bang some ideas around, you never know where you may get to and remember, even if you don't get there, my view is that by setting a BHAG, making that really long term vision, is much better for your business than just setting a very achievable goal.

Ok, thanks very much for watching, feel free to share this with anybody else and as I said I'll be doing a series of vlogs over the next couple of months around strategy and more importantly how we implement that. If you'd like a hand with your strategic or business planning feel free to contact me, I'd love to hear any thoughts. But until next time, thanks for watching, catch you later.

For more about making your business a success, give me a call on 021 748 142 or flick an email to john@planaconsulting.co.nz