Set Your Business a ‘Rainbow Goal’

Lots’ of rainbows in windows and on TV at present aren’t there. What would a rainbow look like for your business at the end of 2020? Where would you like your business to be at that point. I guess many people at the moment will be thinking ‘it would be good to survive’ and that getting through this crisis is the place to start. That of course is essential for anyone. Any business needs to survive. But be careful not to confuse what you need with what you want and set your goals to the ‘want’ part of it. If you looked back from the future in six months’ time what would you want to have achieved.
For example, having a survival plan in place and telling your organisation that this is what we need to do and this is what you as teams/ individuals must do to achieve this will do one thing – it will set you up for survival at best. What do I mean? Think about this statement:

‘The sorts of action steps an organisation comes up with, the sorts of knowledge it seeks, the sorts of thinking it uses, are directly related to the size of the goal in people’s heads’

Let’s look at this through an example. You have a 10% share of a particular market and you put your plan together to achieve a 12% share in the following year. When briefing your organisation what will they think about and come up with if given this goal? The answer is logical, plans that will hit the 12% – increased marketing activity, new product sold into current distribution channels – action plans that are designed to hit that 12% figure AND NO MORE. The result will probably be a bit of success and maybe an 11% share.
Let’s now think about what might happen if the goal was changed to ‘doubling our share in the next 12 months.’ Yes, the initial reaction might well be ‘how are we going to do that?’ but if you thought about this and got your team to think creatively about what your business would need to do to achieve this goal, they will think about the very things that might just do that…..for example in this case new product and new distribution channels, new market opportunities Internationally and what needs to be done to achieve those things. A different plan that is designed to double market share to 20%.
The team that set out to think about challenge B will definitely achieve more than those focused on challenge A. Even if they fall short of the double share goal the result will be better.
Going back to the current situation – don’t set goals just based on survival – set goals on what you want and get the team to put action plans together against the latter – you may not hit the Rainbow goal but you’ll have a much better performance and clear the survival ‘bar’ more handsomely.

‘When you reach for the stars you may not quite get one, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud either’
– Leo Burnett

Of course you must budget for definite survival but set those Rainbow Goals and get the team thinking about how to achieve them – the outcome will be significantly better and ensure that your business not only survives but thrives.

Do you want some help in doing this? To book a free/ no obligation meeting to discuss how we do it just contact us at ignite@tinderboxbusinessdevelopment.co.uk, or call on 0116 232 5231

Alternatively, contact me directly at the points below:

david.t@tinderboxbusinessdevelopment.co.uk

07747 023610

David Turner

Managing Director