Many companies and their CEOs today are experiencing relentless pressure to grow their revenues. Public companies must meet quarter to quarter earnings guidance, and the owner/CEOs of private companies often worry about whether their businesses are growing fast enough to attract the selling-out valuations they desire.

Personally, I am a big believer in big goals, audacious goals, and even big hairy audacious goals. Big goals cause us to think bigger, to stretch ourselves, to constantly work to improve our performance. Regardless of whether we actually achieve a specific goal, people tend to achieve more than they would have had they not set big goals.

But those goals need to be realistic; they need to be achievable. Take revenue goals for example. A business’ revenue can only grow as fast as the market will allow it to grow. Pushing and shoving may extract a few more dollars or pull some sales forward from a later period, but that extra revenue will not be sustainable.

The challenge is to understand the market and develop the best possible marketing and product plans to maximize revenue opportunities without putting the organization under such stress that it becomes dysfunctional.


Link to original post