This week we’re looking at setting Crazy goals for your business.
Setting Crazy goals
Whether you call them Big Hairy Audacious Goals, as Jim Collins does in his book Good to Great, or whether you prefer the more reserved language of the boardroom – targets, objectives and company missions, augmented by the setting of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), they’re all about verbalising something that is essential for the success of any high performing management team.
In fact, setting Crazy goals is an integral part of the Will It Make the Boat Go Faster vision of business success which stems from habitual excellence. Those businesses that have set Crazy goals and have absolute clarity about what they are, and how they will be achieved, become the successful and (very often) visionary companies who stand head and shoulders above their competitors.
Business Success
In the Open programme workshops where we challenge business leaders to adopt a set of Olympic-winning strategies for business success, we often get feedback that it is often harder to define a Crazy goal in business than in sport.
Ben Hunt-Davis, one of the founders of Will It Make the Boat Go Faster? and the author of the book of the same name, features in this short video encouraging people to check and revisit their Crazy goal regularly.
His analogy is the shift that happens with time. For example, one of the initial Crazy goals for the Olympics in 2000 was to focus on qualifying for the team. That Crazy goal then shifted to winning the gold medal.
Successful businesses and Crazy goals
Tom Barry, the co-founder of Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? recently visited Piggs Peake winery whilst on holiday in Australia.
Here are some of his thoughts on how this successful business has achieved their Crazy goal and been described as “one of the most talked about young boutiques in the Hunter” – and for good reason, with fellow reviewers like Franz Scheurer and James Halliday ranking wines like Semillon, Cabernet Merlot and Zinfandel in the top few that Australia produces.
Market changes – they were able to identify how the market was developing and were prepared to respond to what was going on in their sector.
As a result, the owners of the winery fashioned a clearly defined vision of where they wanted to be – they formulated their Crazy goal.
They were brave – and created a business plan based on identifying a niche audience for their product. They market their products specifically to customers who are after unusual but high quality wines, and who are prepared to pay for that.
This clear direction was possible only after defining who their customers are, and equally, who they aren’t.
With that clear plan, they are able to focus on what is and isn’tmaking their boat go faster.
Sadly, their wines aren’t available in the UK – yet! With an approach that represents the very essence of the Will It Make The Boat Go Faster? business development programmes, we don’t think it will be long before they are world beaters.
