Some of the most stirring words delivered to others were about the most lofty of goals. These goals were the motivation of people to strive and do better, go farther and reach higher. John F. Kennedy gave a speech that promised to place a man on the moon by the end of the decade. Martin Luther King told of his dream. Winston Churchill would never give up.
Some would say that these are great to motivate society, which they did, but can’t be done in business. I believe that lofty goals are required for a business to thrive. Simon Sinek talks about the Why. And the Why is essential as the foundation. A great mission statement that incorporates and reverberates the Why helps employees as well as the public know who you are and why you are in business. Once the Why is established the question moves to What. And the What is where goals come in.
Not a Goal and Certainly Not Audacious
Many times the business plan has as a goal to increase sales by 6.5%. Sounds ambitious but it looses credibility when sales have increased by 6.5% each of the last 3 years. Not a real goal. Same for goals about cost reductions or inventory levels and other mundane but necessary business activities and measures. These are the costs of business and not a goal that can motivate employees to actually do more than their best.
Hundreds of articles have been written about Apple and Steve Jobs. Steve Jobs wanted to transform the personal computing environment and ecosystem. He had what Ray Dalio calls “audacious goals”. We also see and hear the result of these transformational goals in some of our everyday activities, the development of the cell phone, chip technology to provide greater security for transactions, the use of a device connected to your cellphone that can swipe the new credit card with the chip in it.
Audacious Goals
To appropriate a phrase, too many workers live lives of quiet desperation. Workers are desperate for big, bold ideas and goals. They want to be a part of something that can transform the business they are in. It requires that the owner of the company develop his own dream, beyond buying another house or boat or going on a trip. Survival of the company requires a dream that all of the employees can share, both in its success and to learn together in the process of getting to the dream. In many respects it is the journey not the destination.
I worked for a wonderful little niche product company that had an 80% market share, was extremely profitable, and was considered not only the pioneer but the industry and innovation leader. The problem came when complacency crept in. Life was good for the owner as well as the employees. Morale was high. Everyone was comfortably busy but nobody was being stretched. When sitting down with the owner to have him at least put some goals in place for the future, he saw no value because things were going along just fine. This was attempted several times over a number of years. The general manager knew the financial condition of the business and employed very conservative measures to ensure the well being of the company. There was no pressure to innovate as we had the lion’s share of the business and our only serious competitor was similarly complacent.
All For The Lack of What
All that changed when the economy opened up wide. Sales doubled in a year and without having to spend a dime to advertise or market or develop new products . This kept up for about 3 years, and then the bottom fell out. We had lots of money in the bank, more employees than ever before, but now we had no direction. The mission was unchanged and the owner and employees still believed in that mission. The Why still existed. But there was no goal or dream to be better or do greater things. The internal processes to innovate had come apart and the rebuilding process was hampered by indecision. Countless hours with outside facilitators tried to help the owner and the management team come to a consensus to only be undone in the meeting the following month because people changed their mind. So a new consensus was developed at that meeting, with it eventually being tossed and starting over again the month after that. All the while our competitor had chosen a direction with a new product. Then another new product. Then another. Telephone surveys of customers acknowledged that we had lost the “innovator” title to the competition.
Hundreds of thousands of dollars were spent internally and externally with nearly 2 years of tramping around in a jungle. All wasted for lack of a dream or a goal. The company is slowly making its way back but the innovation process is still hampered and drags. New product development involves too many people that think they need to be in every meeting which decreases the amount of time devoted to development. It will take many years, maybe never to reach the level of profitability it had, and just as long to gain back the respect of being the innovation leader in the industry. All for the lack of a dream.
So dream big, create “audacious goals”, commit to your dream, be passionate about the dream, talk about the dream, motivate others by involving them in your dream. Your survival is at stake.
Originally published in Medium - June 6, 2018