Coming Face to Face with a BHAG

BHAG (noun): [pronounced beeHAG] Acronym for Big Hairy Audacious Goal

One of the services that BullzI provides is facilitating the process for organisations to define their long-term vision, their mission and very often, their BHAG

Like every goal, a BHAG is action oriented and clear. Where a BHAG must necessarily differentiate is by being compelling and gripping. People need to ‘get it right away’ – it must ‘hit you in the gut’ and –’give you goose bumps’ by the sheer audacity and ‘wow’ scale it envisions.

A BHAG is a classic bootstrap to initiate an organizations journey to transformation.  We have seen the adoption of their BHAG put a company on a path of transformation from an ‘also ran’ to a top 5; another well on its way to trebling itself and a third betting its future on a line of business which was believed to be ‘niche’.  The transformative power of a BHAG adopted across levels, backed by sound strategy and rigorous execution is an inspiring stage in an organisation’s development.

Working with different organisations through this transformative process of Visioning, BHAG and strategy formulation have provided us insights and understanding that we are often constrained to share. These are mostly classified data.

There is one, however, that inspired me personally and I have the permission of the client to share with you.

Touching the world

Ashoka is a global organisation that has created and organized a network for social entrepreneurs (Ashoka ‘fellows’) who are the ‘engines’ of social change. Operating across 5 continents, this 29 year old organization today boasts of a staggering network of over 3000 fellows.  6 years ago, Ashoka set up a focused group dedicated to the vision of achieving a world where everyone is a ‘Full Economic Citizen’ or FEC.

FEC is not a niche ‘Ashoka concept’. The United Nations provides a very specific definition for the FEC and lays out a charter delineating specific human rights that most nations have signed up to. The charter confers on nations the responsibility to provide access, to its under-served citizens, to basic services like food, housing, clean water, healthcare and power (energy).

The truth, however, is that more than two-third of theworld’s population today do not have access to one or more of the basic services that are required for FEC.
The Ashoka FEC team, spread across 4 continents espoused the concept of HVC™ – envisioning a world where businesses – either mainstream or a social enterprise or a complimentary Corporate – CSO combine – transform their business models to profitably serve the ‘Bottom-of-the-Pyramid’. The concept is radical, innovative and transformative. It is also counter intuitive and hence difficult to sell. Imagine getting a bank to advance a loan to a person who does not have a permanent address or a salary slip OR getting an NGO to distribute ceramic tiles for a profit!

The Ashoka FEC team decided on engaging themselves and their network to launch pilots that would prove to the world that HVC™ was a model that worked – and worked well. Housing improvement projects in Colombia and Brazil were launched, India & Egypt have affordable housing pilots and Mexico started work with small farmer irrigation projects.

Six years and multiple pilots later, the team was experiencing a restlessness that seemed to them to signify that a tipping point is imminent. The time to make that big leap had arrived.

A process that had begun through e-meetings (to restate the Vision and Mission) culminated in the global team getting together at Udaipur this summer.  Their objective: arrive at the BHAG and the way forward.

Define their BHAG they did. And how. The team set for themselves a goal of  ‘Ensuring that ONE BILLION of the world’s neediest people would have at least ONE BASIC SERVICE in the next TEN YEARS.’

The true Davids

The global Ashoka team is currently all of 19 people. 19 fiercely committed and smart social entrepreneurs, who are experienced in dealing with large transformative projects in different parts of the globe. If ever there was a team on whom you had to bet to achieve a goal like this, it would be this one.

Like in any thinking group, agreement was not instantaneous. There were a barrage of questions and critique. Every sentence was dissected, every word analyzed.   It did not matter who proposed what – the Head of the Organisation was questioned fearlessly by the youngest and newest members of the organisation. Driving consensus was hard – but buy-in was all pervasive at the end.

Articulating the BHAG, triggered the tipping point: The conference moved into a decidedly higher gear and tremendous ground was covered in identifying key issues, initiatives, responsibilities, personal change plans. I was impressed by their ability to move fast – stuff that takes a good week to do, this group did in two days! The ‘fly wheels’ of the organisational machine were visibly in motion, inexorably driving the big wheels.

I knew I witnessed something special there. An inspiring goal to transform the lives of a billion underserved people, adopted by a highly motivated bunch of changemakers who continuously punch above their weight and make the seemingly impossible seem probable.

On the right path of achieving the BHAG

I have a feeling that this group will succeed in achieving their BHAG. It is not just an intuition but a firm hypothesis based on some of the observations about this team:

• The right people are on the ‘bus’. Driven, entrepreneurial, individually committed to making a difference
• Total buy-in from the group achieved after rigorous critique and discussion.
• Open communication, willingness to question self and strategy. Will have the ability to adapt and change.
• Ability to move fast & execute well
• A clear roadmap.

Transforming a billion lives in 10 years is truly a Big Hairy Audacious Goal. For the sake of mankind, I wish them an unqualified success.