Ever heard of a BHAG? Spend enough time at an ad agency or with a group of entrepreneurs and you will hear the acronym. In a past life, our Agency President pulled up a slide on the projector screen that looked like a cross between an alien and a large ball of hair. Of course, it was neither. It was actually a metaphor for a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
At the time, it was a goal that seemed impossible. Heck, it was impossible. But that wasn’t the point. It was so far out there that we didn’t worry about actually meeting the specific goal. The message was clear. We were not going to settle for what the data said, for what other people said was attainable, or for the limits that we as human beings naturally apply to ourselves. This was about leading rather than settling. Pushing beyond the boundaries of anything we thought was impossible was just the beginning.
As we finish January with U.S. car sales already outpacing estimates, DOM360 is throwing out a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. We are leading the charge for the automotive industry to aim for selling 18 million cars in 2018. I know a lot of pundits and naysayers are going to talk about allocation and production and a whole lot of reasons that selling 18 million cars this year is not feasible. If that is how you want to respond to this challenge, you are missing the point. This is about taking advantage of the most positive consumer sentiment in 20 years. It’s about leveraging your best and brightest to challenge the norms in the business. It’s about not wanting to use more video content or launch that digital retail platform. Our #18in18 goal is about way more than just selling cars or hitting an absolute number.
This is a rallying cry. This is a movement. This is a Big Hairy Audacious Goal.
If you want in, start closing your posts with #18in18. Let’s do this!