The Big Hairy Audacious Goal was introduced in the 1994 book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies. The method of stimulating progress by setting a clear, possibly unreasonable objective and chasing it relentlessly is called the BHAG. Collins was thinking of Boeing's race to develop the 707, but he also applied the concept more broadly. The climbing of Mount Everest is a classic BHAG. Sending humans into space is a possibility. Some executives prefer to use the term "anatomical" in their presentations, preferring to use true norths and north stars, Manhattan Projects and Marshall Plans, and, most of all, moonshots.
Rich Barton is the chief executive officer of Zillow Group Inc. Barton founded an online travel agency. He walked into a meeting with Steve Ballmer and asked for a $100 million marketing budget. Ballmer laughed the young executive out of the room but later blessed a plan to take the company public. Barton tackled the housing market. His plan to sell homes at auction was a flop. He and his co-founders came up with a better idea, which was to track home values as if they were stock prices.
All Rights Reserved © 2024
