Goals are good
September 14th, 2005
I’m a big believer in goals. If folks know what the goals are, a company can do anything. So just for fun, I am going to share some of my favorite goals we are working on right now at Brains on Fire. Who knows, maybe by opening it up to the entire world, we’ll get even more focus.
In order to make more people aware of Brains on Fire, we have set a goal of attaining a certain number of hits to our website and blog per day by the end of the year. It’s a fun one, because it is so easily measured. (In fact, if you are reading this right now, thanks for your help and if you feel so inclined, please send our website or blog to a friend to help our cause.)
Anyway, it’s mid September and we have just hit our “what once seemed out of the ballpark” goal. Next for this particular goal, will be the stretch goal of doubling the original number by the end of the year. That’s another thing to love about goals – you can always aim higher.
But this next goal is my all time favorite. My partner, Greg Cordell, flew this past me last week. “By the year 2010, every CEO in every organization in America will have heard the name Brains on Fire.” I love it. And I am working, thinking and writing about it so that I can come up with some concrete measurable things that will make that goal a reality. Like getting Fast Company to write a compelling story about Brains on Fire (We’ve got them if anyone from Fast Company is reading). Or writing a book that fascinates business owners… all the usual ideas.
But since this goal was just birthed last week, I am looking for other ideas and thought I would try a little experiment. Help me out. Give me your thoughts (keep it legal if you will). Come on — be that 6% that actually comments on blogs. You know you have something to say.
Other posts by Robbin.
Matt Galloway says:
WHAT BRAINS ON FIRE ASKED FOR: By the year 2010, every CEO in every organization in America will have heard the name Brains on Fire
WHAT I SUGGEST INSTEAD: By the year 2007, someone from Brains on Fire has coffee (or other appropriate beverage) with every CEO from a list of companies that Brain on Fire employees are most passionate about.
I really likes this exercise - I thought about it a lot. Why does Brains on Fire care is every CEO had heard of them? How many of those CEO’s do you actually want as customer? Now, think before you answer - “all of them” is a marketing response, not the _real_ response. And besides how do you measure this? (HINT: You can’t.)
As an alternative, let’s say you create a FIRE scale from 0 to 10. ‘0′ is assigned to companies that are so clueless that is would be sole sucking to even try to help them. You don’t want these folks as customer - and, thankfully, they don’t want your help.
‘2′ or ‘3′ might be companies that are beginning to realize that the world does not revolve around them and they want to BE better, they are just not at the point that they are ready to make the hard decision to get there.
‘8′ is where companies look, act, taste, smell and feel like they get it - because they are.
‘9′ is nearly impossibly amazing (maybe Apple, IDEO or Brains on Fire)
‘10′ - I’ll know it when I see it.
(This scale, of course, probably needs a lot of work - but you get the idea.)
I suspect that Brains on Fire spend most of it’s time taking companies from 3 or 4 to say 7 or 8. This is pretty amazing and rewarding.
But what might be more amazing and rewarding is taking companies from 7 or 8 to 9 OR HIGHER. This also reinforces the idea that you are the premium Identity Company as opposed to the other guys.
So how do you do this…
You poll your employees (sounds like you do this anyway). Ask them each what 5 companies they are most passionate about. Your employees will be most rewarded by helping companies that they already believe it. AND, if Brains employees are passionate about them - they are probably already at least a 6 on the FIRE scale.
Now, make a master list and prioritize. Then take say the top 50 companies - The 50 Prospects with the most FIRE Potential
Finally, pick a goal and metric - “By 2007 one of us will have coffee with every CEO of the FIRE 50.”
At the risk of overstating the obvious, the idea is to focus on companies where there is tremendous reward and opportunity on both sides of the fence - symbiosis if you will. Instead of asking “What customer can we have?”, ask “What customers do we want?”
So how did I do?
-Matt
February 18th, 2006 at 1:41 pmRobbin says:
I was hoping this one would get some blood flowing. Thanks Matt.
February 18th, 2006 at 1:42 pmMatt Galloway says:
Another thought is to set a goal to have your clients new identities talked about in Fast Company or where ever instead of Brains on Fire directly. Is the goal for people to think Brains on Fire is awesome… or alternatively is it for people to think that clients of Brains on Fire are awesome. The difference is subtle but important. This is different from the traditional case study (which is still useful and important) - this is about amplifying the clients “I rule” experience. Inevitably people are going to ask “I read that article about you in Fast Company - where did you get the idea to…” This has got me thinking that perhaps a good metric would be to measure your clients improvement instead of your own. This approach would also help you pick the right clients - the ones that are more likely to embrace the change needed for real success. Okay, I’ll be quiet now. -Matt
February 18th, 2006 at 1:43 pmRobbin says:
No.No. No need to be quiet, Matt. This ia all great. You are absolutely right! And have helped me focus and re-define this new goal a lot in a very short time. Thank you for not holding back. More about this one later, I am sure.
February 18th, 2006 at 1:43 pmDavid Burn says:
Nothing against Fast Company, but you don’t need them. You have this blog and bloggers like me ready to pull content from this blog. Tell the Brains On Fire stories here, or tell them to me (and others like me) and let the mainstream media play catch up.
February 18th, 2006 at 1:44 pmOlivier Blanchard says:
“Never (…) allow gradually the traffic to smother with noise and fog the flowering of the spirit,” Steven Spender said once. Wise words, especially for having been written in 1933. A feature in Fast Company wouldn’t suck. A cover would be even better, sure. But are you ready for what comes afterwards? The deluge of calls? The pressure to meet expectations on such a huge scale? Resisting the temptation to take on too many new clients? Are you ready? Looking two, three, five years in the future, to 2010, to 2020, will you still dig who you are as a company? Will you still be as passionate about your work, your art, as you are now, being THE identity company? It’s an ‘eyes closed’ kind of thing. You actually have to close your eyes and frown real hard and envision it all, just like a little kid trying to picture Christmas morning in October. You have to squint as hard as you can and hit your brain’s fast-forward button and see where it all takes you. If you don’t know that you’re ready, that’s a sure-fire way of finding out. You guys are already on the level of IDEO and Apple in your own very specific patch of the magic forest. You’re nothing like any other creative company I’ve run into. You are truly unique. It’s just that you haven’t been discovered yet. I’m guessing, that yes, you’re ready. You wouldn’t be jonesing for Fast Company to look you up if you weren’t. You wouldn’t be talking about the coffee club. So let’s say Fast Company were to call you tomorrow, what would you tell them about you? What would your story be? What would that six page feature be about? What about it would change my life?
February 18th, 2006 at 1:45 pmDavid Burn says:
As for lofty goals and the quest to be universally known, I think most companies achieve that by becoming more than a mere company that sells goods or services. They become a force for social change. Patagonia is one such company. For instance, through their commitment to buying organic cotton, they helped create a viable industry for organic cotton. I tend to see Goodby Silverstein and Wieden + Kennedy in the same light. They’re about more than smart advertising. The work they do creates the kind of impression that makes it a central part of popular culture, and thus it has the ability in the best of moments to make important contributions to that culture. Janet Champ’s poetic work for Nike’s womens line in the mid-1990s was such work.
February 18th, 2006 at 1:45 pm