Strategy · Organising to Scaling
The BHAG: one big goal with a finish line
You'll know whether it's time for a BHAG, and if it is, you'll write down one goal for 10 to 25 years with a finish line your team can repeat back to you.
Does this sound familiar?
- A new hire asks where the company will be in ten years, and your answer is something about 'keep growing'.
- You've got a big goal in your head, but you've never said it out loud. What if you don't make it?
- Your website says something about 'the best partner in the region'. Nobody knows when you'll be that.
- You've only just started and a coach asks about your goal for 2040. You don't even know who your second customer will be.
Who it's for, and when
For founders whose company is growing without knowing where it's heading. It matters from the end of Organising onwards, once you know where you win and the day-to-day work is running. In Searching and Proving it's too early; this lesson explains why.
The model
“A BHAG is clear and compelling, needing little explanation; people get it right away.”
BHAG stands for Big Hairy Audacious Goal: a big, bold goal with a finish line. The best-known example is the Moon landing. In 1961 Kennedy said America would put a man on the Moon before the end of the decade and bring him back safely. In ten to twenty-five years you can say: we made it, or we didn't. It's so big you don't yet know how; Collins and Porras reckon on a 50 to 70 percent chance. Any lower and your team won't take it seriously.
The BHAG says where you're going. The lesson Why you exist covers why you're here, and that's never finished. The lesson 3HAG: your company in three years makes the first three years on the way to the BHAG concrete. And the exit goal is about what you want to do with your company over the next few years; the BHAG is the company's own goal, and it still stands after you've left.
Not every company is ready for one. In Searching you don't yet know which problem you solve, or for whom. In Proving a pivot can still turn your market and your product upside down. A BHAG at those stages is a gamble your team takes seriously, and one you'll take back at the first pivot. Do what the phase asks instead: talk to customers, choose a segment. Write it down from the end of Organising onwards, once you know where you win.
Jim Collins and Jerry Porras, Built to Last (1994), and their article Building Your Company's Vision (Harvard Business Review, 1996), with the four types of BHAG below. Verne Harnish included it in Scaling Up, with the 10 to 25 years that's also on the canvas.
A goal with a number
An amount you reach: customers, revenue, locations, people you help. 'By 2040, 500 construction firms in the Netherlands work with our software.'
An opponent
You choose who you'll overtake. In the sixties Nike wanted to beat Adidas. It works well in a market with a clear number one.
A role model
You want to become what someone else already is, in your market. In the forties Stanford wanted to become the Harvard of the West. It works when everyone knows the example.
A transformation
The company becomes something other than it is now. From a handyman business to the largest maintenance company for schools in the east of the country.
Pitfalls
Too small, out of fear
You choose a goal you're sure to hit, so nobody can hold you to it. Then it challenges nobody, and it's really just a plan.
Only in your own head
A BHAG your team doesn't know does nothing. It only works once you say it out loud and keep repeating it.
Watch and read
The best-known example, in just over a minute: Kennedy explains why they're going to the Moon even though it's hard.
Watch on YouTubeThe man who came up with the BHAG, on what to do when you fail along the way. With a 50 to 70 percent chance, you'll sometimes miss.
Watch on YouTubeA short explanation from the Scaling Up camp on why a goal for 10 to 25 years works, and the mistakes people make when they write one down.
Watch on YouTubeRead
Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies
Jim Collins en Jerry I. Porras · 1994 · ISBN 9780060516406
The book where the BHAG was born, with the examples of Boeing, NASA and other companies that stayed ahead for generations. Published in Dutch as Gebouwd voor de toekomst (ISBN 9789058712134).
View the bookApply it
- 1
Is it time yet?
Do you know who your customer is and where you win, and can a pivot no longer easily turn that upside down? If not, leave the box empty and look at what your phase asks of you now.
The five growth phases - 2
Which year?
Ten to twenty-five years ahead. Write down the year, not 'in twenty years': that way it doesn't keep moving.
- 3
Which three versions?
One with a number, one with an opponent or role model, one with a transformation. Pick the version that moves you most.
- 4
On what day will you know you've made it?
Will there be a day when you can say: we made it? If not, make it measurable with a number, a place or a name.
- 5
How big is the chance?
If you already know exactly how you'll get there, it's too small. If your team laughs, it's too big. Estimate the chance together: around 50 to 70 percent is right.
- 6
Can your team repeat it back?
Put it to them, and the next day ask whether someone can repeat it back to you. If they can't, make it shorter.
Examples
Three versions to start with
Number: By [year], [this many customers, locations or people] [get this from us]. Opponent or role model: By [year], we're [who you overtake or what you become] in [your market]. Transformation: By [year], we're no longer [what you are now], we're [what you are then].
An installation company
First: 'Be the best installer in the region.' After testing it: 'By 2040, every school in Gelderland (a Dutch province) is gas-free, and we've done half of them.' That has a finish line, and everyone can picture it.
A software company
The founder didn't dare say anything bigger than 'keep growing'. His BHAG became: 'By 2038, 5,000 care organisations in Europe plan their rotas with us.' He doesn't know how yet, and his developers asked about markets abroad that same week.
Do this in your own business
Everything up to here is free. What you fill in for your own business, you keep in Boldcaster.
- You write the BHAG (10 tot 25 jaar) section of your strategy, and it stays on your strategy page.
- You assign the lesson to your team and see who has done it.
- The quiz counts towards your progress, and you see which lesson comes next.
Four weeks free. You'll land straight in this lesson.
Quiz
6 situations. You need 5 of 6 right. You can try again at any time.
1.A founder writes as their BHAG: 'Be the best partner for our customers.' What's missing?
2.You have eight customers, and two of them buy again. Your leadership team wants to agree a BHAG for 2040 at the away day. What do you do?
3.Your BHAG is 'by 2036, twice as much revenue as now'. You can already map out exactly the steps to get there. What does that tell you?
4.A founder announces: 'By 2030 we'll be world market leader.' His team look at each other and laugh. What's going on?
5.A founder says: 'Our BHAG is making people healthier.' Why does that belong in another box?
6.A founder wants to sell the business for eight million in four years' time. He writes that in the BHAG box. What's wrong?
Nothing is saved here. In the app, the quiz counts towards your progress.
Read next
- Profit per X: what you make your money on · You pick the one unit your company makes its money on, work out the profit per unit and see where your engine leaks or gains leverage.
- 3HAG: your company in three years · In five or six sentences you describe what your company looks like on a date three years from now, specific enough that your team can make their own choices based on it.
Not sure where to start? Take the growth scan