The authors could have explained their observations simply as follows: 1. Enduring great companies decide what core values it holds to be core, largely independent of the current environment, competitive requirements, or management fads. When defining values focus on "actual" verses "should" values. The core values can be anything and they do not have to reflect moralistic, humanistic, or enlightening values. 2. The core purpose for the organizations being. The core purpose reflects the importance people attach to the company's work and taps into the idealistic motivations. Purpose should not be confused with specific goals or business strategies. A purpose should be able to last 100 years. A purpose does not change, yet it inspires change. Core ideology and envisioning the future are not the same. BHAG is envisioning the future. Defining the core ideology is discovery, whereas, BHAG is creativity. BHAG is creating the future not predicting the future. Most companies want to analyze their way into the future and this does not work. "The envisioned future must be truly exciting to those inside the organization, otherwise it's just not a full-fledge BHAG. Indeed, the envisioned future should produce a bit of the gulp factor when it dawns on people what it will take to achieve the goal and the level of commitment to the goal, there should be an almost audible gulp"[Learn More ...]

&Links