A BHAG, short for Big Hairy Audacious Goal, is a bold long-term goal, often set 10 to 25 years out, that focuses an entire organization on one vivid ambition. Coined by Jim Collins and Jerry Porras in Built to Last, it is meant to be clear and compelling enough to need no explanation, the opposite of an incremental annual target.
A BHAG works at a different altitude than a quarterly goal. It is not checked weekly or scored at the end of a cycle; its job is to set a direction so compelling that years of OKRs, initiatives, and everyday choices line up behind it. Collins described several flavors, from a target number to out-competing a named rival or remaking the organization itself.
The risk is a BHAG that stays a poster on the wall. A decade-long ambition only matters if the nearer-term goals beneath it visibly ladder up to it, so the long horizon actually shapes what teams choose to do this quarter.
Microsoft in its early years: a computer on every desk and in every home. NASA in 1961: land a man on the Moon and return him safely before the decade is out.
Vindaris runs OKRs, KPIs, EOS, OGSM, SMART goals, the Balanced Scorecard, and Hoshin Kanri in one place, each goal linked to the traceable work moving it. Start free, no credit card.
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