Creating the Organization 355
with the company’s core ideology and is ideally set 10 to 30 years in the future. It is a
goal, not a statement, and should be clear and compelling—no explanation needed.
Finally, a BHAG needs to reach outside the comfort zone. It may be ridiculed by out-
siders who do not know the firm, but to insiders it is motivating, challenging, and
inspirational.
The founder’s next step is to write a vivid description of what the company will be
like when it achieves its BHAG. This should be specific. For example, Ford Motor
Company founder Henry Ford was quoted as saying, “I will build a motor car... so
low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one... the horse
will have disappeared from our highways.” The future he envisioned came to pass.
Recommendations for Entrepreneurs and Founders
Collins and Porras have some final recommendations based on their “preserve the core,
stimulate progress” findings:
- Develop cult-like cultures (preserve the core): Make the company a great place to
work only for those who buy into the core ideology; reject those who do not.
- Homegrown management (preserve the core): Promote from within, and make sure
senior managers are steeped in the core ideology of the company.
- Big Hairy Audacious Goals (stimulate progress): Make a commitment to challeng-
ing and audacious goals and projects.
- Try a lot of stuff and keep what works (stimulate progress): High levels of action
and experimentation—often unplanned and undirected—produce new and unex-
pected paths of progress.
- Good enough never is (stimulate progress): Institute a continual process of relent-
less self-improvement with the aim of doing better and better far into the future.
THE ORGANIZATION’S BOUNDARIES
The previous discussion concerning the creation and maintenance of a top management
team assumed that there was sufficient justification for building an organization. That
is, the entrepreneur needed help, and the best way to secure this help was to form a
TMT. But is it possible to be an entrepreneur without a TMT and, implicitly, without
building an organization? A founder could conceivably rely solely on outside contract-
ing and a network of independent suppliers and distributors to produce, deliver, and
market the product or service. To understand the choice entrepreneurs face when deter-
mining whether to remain on their own or build an organization, we need to understand
the forces that determine the organization’s boundaries and to consider relationships
beyond those boundaries—e.g., in its networks and alliances.
The Virtual Organization
In Chapter 2 entrepreneurship was defined as “the creation of an innovative economic
organization (or network) for the purpose of gain or growth under conditions of risk
and uncertainty.” It was, therefore, possible for an entrepreneur to develop a virtual
organization. The virtual organization could be the model for global business organi-
