A good BHAG (with https://1investing.in/) is specific, numeric and has a time-based component. It should also connect to the heart and inspire us to work hard to reach it. BHAGs are an essential part of any organization’s operations.
- The idea is to dream beyond short-term goals and push the boundaries of your organization into new territory.
- It requires focus and stepping way outside your comfort zone.
- Key Results, which track progress towards the objective, can be set at the department, team, or individual level, and can span anywhere from a month to a year.
- This has enabled them to continue to expand with even more advanced product features and attract billions more users worldwide, contributing to unwavering brand loyalty amongst customers.
- Take Walt Disney as an example of someone whose passion drove him to achieve amazing things.
With LogRocket, you can understand the scope of the issues affecting your product and prioritize the changes that need to be made. LogRocket simplifies workflows by allowing Engineering, Product, UX, and Design teams to work from the same data as you, eliminating any confusion about what needs to be done. Some of the best examples of big, hairy, audacious goals are bold and eye-catching. They make you raise an eyebrow and question whether they’re really achievable. Setting a BHAG slightly beyond the reach of your organization means employees will need to expand their current capabilities to meet those goals.
The latter, on the other hand, is about a qualitative measure. This BHAG can be about being a dominant force in the industry you are in. The companies of the past have attained BHAGs in order to get them to the next level. If we are to be bold, we can say that BHAGs are as old as the concept of competition itself. For example, by the 1960s, Abbott Labs hadn’t invested enough in R&D to compete with major pharma companies like Merck.
So far, they are the first private company to successfully reach the International Space Station and invent the first-ever reusable rocket. If you desire to arouse a feeling of competition amongst your employees, this is why you should use BHAGs. Naming the common enemy is a great strategy to make people work towards that aim. If you can envision the big picture and are ready to take a bold and life-changing step, then it’s time to develop a BHAG. Making BHAGs a part of your operations is the first step toward long-term success.
Your people will embark on a crusade to achieve greatness. BHAGs are a powerful way for organizations to set their sights on ambitious, game-changing goals. By working towards them, companies can promote a culture of collaboration focused on the future. They are not just about setting ambitious goals but also about fostering an environment of innovation.
What is BHAG: Big Hairy Audacious Goal? Understand With Examples
From disrupting traditional industries to creating new markets, these BHAGs demonstrate the transformative power of visionary leadership and bold aspirations. President John F. Kennedy’s goal in 1961 to put a man on the moon within the decade. The pronouncement was clear and ambiguous, expressing a direct and exciting goal.
In 2008, Mark Zuckerberg set the ambitious goal of reaching 1 billion active users globally by 2012. By utilizing innovative technology and targeted marketing strategies, Facebook successfully achieved this goal two years ahead of schedule. This has enabled them to continue to expand with even more advanced product features and attract billions more users worldwide, contributing to unwavering brand loyalty amongst customers.
Target-oriented BHAGs are often quantitative—for example, hitting a certain revenue target by a certain year. The goal to land on the moon by a certain date, for example, is a qualitative target-oriented BHAG. The main difference between a corporate vision and a company’s big hairy audacious goals is the level of boldness or daring involved. Generally, vision is more reasonable and there is consensus that the goals of the vision can be reasonably achieved.
BHAGs tend to be broad, stretch goals that push employees to think big and challenge them out of their comfort zone. They are the goals that will make people feel “we could never reach that” but also inspire them to try. Do you know why setting goals for companies is essential? Because that will encourage them to focus on the future and unite the company. It can help measure progress, build morale, create a company culture, and boost motivation. Researchers Jim Collins and Jerry I. Porras found that visionary companies set and achieve Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs).
The Big Hairy Audacious Goal and the Hedgehog
Become a more recognized name than Starbucks or McDonalds. This can also work in other fields by changing it to becoming as recognized a name as McDonald’s in your chosen field.11. Turn your restaurant into the go-to caterer of world leaders and royalty throughout the world. In fact, you need to break down your BHAG into many sub-goals in order to work steadily toward the big picture and measure your progress. One of the biggest differences between BHAGs and traditional goals is the mere scope of the goal.
They are designed to stretch an organization and its employees beyond their current capabilities and limitations. BHAGs can be a powerful tool for aligning team members toward a common purpose and igniting passion in pursuing a meaningful, audacious objective. Suppose you’re interested in setting a BHAG for your organization. In that case, you can start by brainstorming aspirational, bold, and compelling ideas and then work to break the goal down into manageable achievable steps over time. Now that you have a clear and intentional understanding of the fundamentals of your business, your Hedgehog Concept, you are ready to begin working on your BHAG.
Master Collaborative Goal-Setting for Effective Team Management (with examples)
Simply put, a BHAG is a long-term goal that changes the very nature of your business’s existence. The goal needs to be one that is designed to be long-term yet create an urgency to get it done. The goal isn’t meant to be easily attained, as are most goals.
Developing and implementing these goals will take a lot of planning, effort, and dedication, but the rewards will be worth it. By learning from the strategies and tactics of successful companies, businesses can apply those lessons to their operations. That will allow them to grow and reach the next level of success. Visionary companies aren’t complacent; they know that the work isn’t done just because they’ve reached a goal. Instead, they have other BHAGs lined up and employ other ways to stimulate progress. Without another BHAG to pursue, they end up becoming stagnant.
Every year, every milestone and every key initiative should directly correlate to your BHAG to ensure that you can reach your goal and keep your team aligned around its long-term strategic vision. When creating your execution-ready quarterly plan for your 13-week race, you must devote enough energy to keep progressing toward your goal. Meaning that when people hear it for the first time, they must swallow hard to take it all in.
As we’ve discussed, visionary companies are driven by something greater than profit. They are driven by a compelling urge to keep pushing the bounds of impossibility while remaining firmly grounded in their core ideology. If it’s easy to achieve, then it’s not big, hairy, and audacious. A BHAG should push your company out of its comfort zone, because that’s where growth and progress happens.
Internal transformation BHAGs are different from the other three types of BHAGs in that this type represents a large change to your business model. If you’re pivoting your business strategy, you can use a BHAG to represent bhag examples that change—and what you hope to get out of it. LogRocket identifies friction points in the user experience so you can make informed decisions about product and design changes that must happen to hit your goals.