Columbus had a goal. And some modern knowledge. He decided to assume the earth was a ball. Consequently, he reasoned that there must be a way to India sailing west on water. That would definitely have been a huge advantage, because it would have saved all ships the unpleasant and time-consuming way around Africa.
🙂 Well, as we all know, the Suez Canal did not yet exist at the time.
But then he discovered America and – in accordance with his idea – called the people he found Indians.
🙂 However, the Panama Canal did not exist either, which means that the way to India via the new America would have been even longer.
Basically, we can say that Columbus was way off his mark …
And yet he became a famous man. Some say he changed the world. This is not what I believe: I am sure another sailor would have had the same idea a few years later, which would then have led to the discovery of the new continent. But perhaps such a different sailor would have realized a little earlier that his assumption was wrong and then the Indians would not be called Indians.
It must be the goal of an enterprise to develop business. But then, this is a rather weak goal. After all, it is more like something that goes without saying. To me, this sounds a lot like “every human being should have the goal of getting enough to eat!”.
I think you should take a closer look at the word “goal”, instead of determining your goals too easily. You will find a polemic article about this topic in my entrepreneur’s diary (Unternehmertagebuch eine Polemik ). It is about “strong” and “healthy” goals. Also, you have to differentiate between the term “goal” and other terms, such as “intention” or “success”.
For instance, if I define as my “goal” to work until 8 p.m. instead of 6 p.m. in order to catch up on all the work that has accumulated, then this is not a goal. It is a (perhaps laudable) intention.
And especially in businesses, I keep discovering goals such as “next year, we want to increase our turnover by one million Euros”. As I see it, these are intentions, rather than goals. And there is a huge difference, even linguistically, between “intending to do something” and “setting a goal”. Perhaps this note will make you a little more sober with respect to (often very rhetorically) expressed goals.
”We want to be a success!” – might well sound nice as a goal. But, naturally, this, too, is not a goal. And I do not mean because it is so banal. Instead, you want to remember that “success” is a very individual thing. Consequently, the first thing you have to clarify is what exactly your own and very individual success criteria are. And why they are so important for you. And how you can come to a mutual agreement in your team. Then you could formulate as your goal – both individually and as a team – that none of the formulated success criteria must be neglected and that you wish to finally live up to the criteria as a team by, maybe, 80 %.
Now I will write about the profane goals. A much-loved goal often formulated by business leaders is: “We want to become the leaders of the market (if possible world-wide)”. Or. “We will manage to come up with a USP (unique selling preposition)”. Because we assume that said USP will carry us through the market on wings.
Except that now the market is constantly changing at high speed. And how am I supposed to create a static USP that can be of long duration in a highly dynamic system? How is anybody supposed to describe a goal and set criteria along which to define one’s destination if the coordinates of the market are constantly fluctuating? And besides, my product and enterprise should always take this permanent change as a mark of orientation. If you see it under this light, goals can easily turn against yourself and become a massive liability.
”Healthy goals” will inevitably always be “flexible goals”. But how to explain this to an old-fashioned manager whose only definition of reality is facts, plans and numeric input?
Please do not misunderstand:
I am actually very much in favour of such extreme goals as “becoming the market leader” or “developing a USP”. Except that both the markets and the USB-s are very dynamic. Consequently, the right and constructive goals must constantly change with the surroundings. We arrive at the so-called “moving targets”.
This means that a goal can only look constructive if the goal – along with the assumptions the goal is based on – are constantly under scrutiny and permanently adapted to the never-ending changes in our world. To me, it seems extremely difficult to get a grip on these challenges with instruments and tools. You will easily end up in the situation of the poor hare of the fairy tale: “The Hare and the Hedgehog”.
Perhaps it is time to again remember “entrepreneurial intuition”? I am sure this is also a dangerous path, but perhaps it is no worse than the alternatives.
And you should always keep in mind that, even if you reach your goal exactly like planned, this is still far from a guarantee for your success. The results you achieved through reaching your goal will probably not be as optimal as they looked when you first defined the goal. Consequently, reaching your goal will have far less value than you had initially assumed.
The worst case is that reaching your goals actually is detrimental or even fatal. Because your surroundings have changed completely. There are many examples for enterprises where the great goal was achieved and shortly afterwards they had to liquidate. You only have to think hard!
Let me finish this article, too, with one of my very attackable comparisons:
”Entrepreneurial Life” is something you can understand like a Sailing Trip (Segeltörn). Together with many others, you steer a ship. It crosses in the winds, survives many calamities and eventually reaches the harbour, regardless of all the challenges. A true entrepreneur should be very careful not to fall victim to “thinking in terms of the Titanic” and then end like the Titanic.
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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