How to Achieve the Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) using OKR

Daniel Madhan
Apr 29
6 min read

Big Hairy Audacious Goals (BHAGs) are seemingly impossible ambitious long-term goals that can take a company or organization to the next level when achieved.

The term, Big Hairy Audacious Goals was first coined in 1994 by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in their book "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies." BHAGs is are inspiring, long-term ambitious goals that have the capacity to take your company to a greater height.

BHAGs are seemingly impossible daunting tasks that could take 10-25 years to complete.

BHAGs are clear and compelling targets for an organization and everyone in the organization to strive to attain.

By setting these ambitious goals, you’re pushing the boundaries of your company, including every employee and challenging them to achieve the seemingly impossible task.

BHAGs should be intriguing enough to inspire your employees to take action towards achieving them.

These goals take more than just hard work and know-how. To accomplish these seemingly impossible goals, you have to believe that they’re possible.

Types of BHAGs

There are different types of Big Hairy Audacious Goals that you can set for your company. The four different types of BHAGs are:

1. Target-oriented BHAGs

Target-oriented BHAGs are the most traditional goals. They’re the most common types of BHAGs that organizations set. Target-oriented BHAGs are target goals that an organization sets for itself to achieve within a certain time frame. These goals are often quantitative and also qualitative.

How to set target-oriented BHAGs:

Target-oriented BHAGs are long-term goals that will take at least 10 years to achieve.
These goals should focus and encompass your organization’s objectives.

Example of target-oriented BHAGs:

Microsoft’s goal to put "a computer on every desk and in every home."
Walmart’s 1990s goal to achieve $125 billion in sales by the year 2000.

2. Competitive BHAGs

Competitive BHAGs are goals that help you to unite your team together against a large competitor. Uniting as a team against a larger competitor will definitely intrigue your employees.

Knowing that your company is behind but has a good shot of winning a competitor can be a powerful motivator for your team.

Competitive BHAGs are also a great way to get your employees working hard with team spirit. Competitive BHAGs serve as a focal point for everyone in an organization to intensify their efforts and work in unison for the greater good of the organization.

How to set competitive BHAGs:

Identify a company or someone that your team is competing against, and want to triumph over.
Establish if you want to win them in one area, many areas, or all areas.
Share the goal with your team and let them be inspired and intrigued to work towards achieving the goal.

Examples of competitive BHAGs:

NASA’s goal to land a man on the moon before 1970. It was a competitive BHAG because the United States was competing with the Soviet Union to be the first country to land a man on the moon.
Nike‘s goal in the 1960s was to crush and overtake Adidas.

3. Internal transformation BHAGs

Internal transformation BHAGs represent a large or major change to your business model. If you’re pivoting or changing your business strategy, you can use internal transformation BHAG to represent that change.

These types of BHAGs provide a different approach to the ways you and your team have been doing things in your company, as well as provide a different result.

How to set internal transformation BHAGs:

Identify a large, organization-wide change you need to make for the growth of the entire organization
Give good reasons why you made the change
Identify the results you’re expecting from the change

Example internal transformation BHAGs:

Netflix’s transition from mailing DVDs to becoming the world’s first streaming service.
Best Buy’s transition from an in-person shopping store to becoming a digital leader in technology.

4. Role model BHAGs

Role model BHAGs are goals you set after a company or person you take as a role model. A role model is something or someone that you want to be like.

To set these goals, identify a company or organization that’s working well and set a goal to emulate their success. You can use role model BHAGs to emulate the success of a competitor. Role model BHAGs are usually developed by startups or growing companies.

How to set role model BHAGs:

Identify something or company(s) that you admire and set goals to be like them.
Identify a goal someone else has achieved that you like to achieve.

Example of role model BHAGs:

Stanford University was founded 249 years after Harvard was established. However, Stanford University nick-named itself the “Harvard of the West.”

How can BHAGs complement OKRS?

BHAGs can help a team re-imagine the industry they are currently in. Once your team has a BHAG in mind, OKRs are the ways or strategies on how they are going to achieve every step towards attaining that goal or what they’ve imagined.

How do I make a big hairy audacious goal?

To create and achieve a BHAG does not take a day. You need to put in hard work and work tirelessly and consistently towards achieving it.

To create a BHAG, you need to:

1. Conceptualize It

The first step towards creating BHAG is to take a reasonable amount of time to think through and conceptualize a goal that has the capacity to change your business. Creating a goal big enough to call a BHAG could take several weeks, months, or even years.

When creating a BHAG, you don’t need to think of how you can achieve it, you only need to imagine and think big. Let go of constraints and let your imagination take over. Your BHAG should be very ambitious and seemingly impossible to attain.

Your BHAG should;

Take a minimum of 10 years to achieve
Be action-oriented
Be innovative
Compelling and exciting

2. Test It

After creating or having a goal in mind, the next step is to run it through a feasibility check to really know if your goal can be called a BHAG and also if it is one that you can dedicate the next 10-30 years of yourself and your team towards achieving.

Your BHAG should:

Be long-term
Be something your team will understand when you share it
Require you to stretch yourself and your team out of the comfort zone
Be measurable and life-changing
Create momentum
Be exciting to you and your team
Should be challenging enough to want to achieve

3. Commit to It

To achieve a BHAG, you will need to commit to it consistently and tirelessly. When you start, do not relent.

You can break it down into smaller, measurable chunks to make it easier for you and your team. Check in on your progress regularly to know whether or not you’re making headway.

Who coined big hairy audacious goal?

Big hairy audacious goal was coined in the book "Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies" by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras.

James C. Collins is an American researcher, author, speaker and consultant born in 1958. He is focused on business management and company sustainability and growth. He has written several books including:

Beyond Entrepreneurship: Turning Your Business into an Enduring Great Company, co-authored with William C. Lazier, in 1992.

How the Mighty Fall: And Why Some Companies Never Give In

Good to Great

Great by Choice

Jerry I. Porras is an American organizational theorist born in 1938. He is also a Lane Professor Emeritus of Organizational Behavior and Change at the Stanford University Graduate School of Business.

He is best known as the co-author of the 1994 bestseller; Success Built to Last: Creating A Life That Matters.

His other books include:

Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies, co-authored with James C. Collins

What do BHAGs mean?

BHAGs mean Big Hairy Audacious Goals. They are those seemingly impossible ambitious life-changing goals that you can make for yourself or your company. These ground-breaking goals take a minimum of 10 years to achieve.

What is a good BHAG?

The qualities of a good BHAG include:

It is clear and compelling
It serves as a unifying focal point of effort
It often creates immense team spirit
It is something your team will clearly understand
It requires you to stretch yourself and your team out of the comfort zone
It is measurable and life-changing
It creates momentum
It is exciting to you and your team
It is challenging enough to want to achieve it
It has a clear finish line

Who invented BHAG?

BHAG was invented by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras. The term was first coined from their 1994 book entitled; Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.

What is Tesla's BHAG?

To accelerate the world's transition to sustainable energy.
To accelerate the advent of sustainable transport and electric technology.
To enable human exploration and settlement of Mars.

Big hairy audacious goal examples

Some good examples of BHAGs include:

SpaceX’s goal to “Enable human exploration and settlement of Mars”
Meta or Facebook’s goal to “Make the world more open and connected”
Google’s goal to “Organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.”
Airbnb’s goal to “Create a world where anyone can belong anywhere.”
Feeding America’s goal to “Ensuring equitable access to nutritious food for all.”
Khan Academy’s goal to “Provide free, world-class education to anyone, anywhere.”