Alchemy + BHAG = Meaningful Innovation
It has been said that a colloquial definition of BHAG is Big Hairy A** Gorilla – so we felt it a good metaphor for what we do - help companies radically transform (alchemic) huge ideas (BHAG) into something meaningful for our civilization.
_____________________________________________________________
Derived from the Arabic word al-kimia (الكيمياء, ALA-LC: al-kīmiyā’), is both a philosophy and an ancient practice focused on the attempt to change base metals into gold, investigating the preparation of the “elixir of longevity”, and achieving ultimate wisdom, involving the improvement of the alchemist as well as the making of several substances described as possessing unusual properties.
Alchemy has been practiced in ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia (modern Iraq), India, Persia (modern Iran), China, Japan, Korea, the classical Greco-Roman world, the medieval Islamic world, and then medieval Europe up to the 20th and 21st centuries, in a complex network of schools and philosophical systems spanning at least 2,500 years.
__________
Many businesses set goals that describe what they hope to accomplish over the coming days, months or years. These goals help align employees of the business to work together more effectively. Often these goals are very tactical, such as “achieve 10% revenue growth in the next 3 months.”
The term Big Hairy Audacious Goal (“BHAG“) was proposed by James Collins and Jerry Porras in their 1996 article entitled Building Your Company’s Vision. A BHAG encourages companies to define visionary goals that are more strategic and emotionally compelling.
In the article, the authors define a BHAG (pronounced BEE-hag) as a form of vision statement “…an audacious 10-to-30-year goal to progress towards an envisioned future.”
A true BHAG is clear and compelling, serves as unifying focal point of effort, and acts as a clear catalyst for team spirit. It has a clear finish line, so the organization can know when it has achieved the goal; people like to shoot for finish lines.—Collins and Porras, 1996
Collins and Porras also used this concept in their book Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies.
In this book they have taken 18 visionary companies and studied them, and also studied 18 comparison companies. Collins is also the author of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap… and Others Don’t a management book that aims to describe how some companies transition from good to great and why others fail to make the transition.
