Numerical targets are a good thing; they are easy to communicate and therefore bring clarity to the team. "54 40 or fight" helped define our Northern border. Moses Malone of the Sixers said, going into the playoffs, fo', fo', fo'--meaning the objective was three straight sweeps in each best-of-seven series. General Motors management, after their U.S. market share had shrunk from the 40's started wearing buttons with the number 29--"we're flooring out at 29" was the mantra! Well.......
IF they had (a) improved their products, (b) strengthend dealers, (c) thought ahead not behind in consumer's tastes (mileage and entertainment electronics), and (d) recognized the change in tastes and desires in the evolution of the car-buying public; then they might've slid a bit below 29 for an interim period, but would have begun the correct momentum. Instead they slavishly made decisions to hold on to 29 with their fingernails: (a) lost a grip on safety and desirability, (b) added marginal dealers who temporarily and theoretically added some incremental sales while at the same time weakening their stronger dealers, (c) continued to emphasize power and engine performance while ignoring improved operational economics and consumer tastes for improved in-car electronics, and (d) did silly things like acquiring Hummer, ignoring their aging buying population, and relying on lobbying the government for loose monitoring and exceptions to the even-then meager fuel mileage standards. Yes they did all the wrong things in hopes of, each quarter, hanging on to their holy grail 29.
The same thought applies to any business. If you strive for incremental growth, in revenues or operating profits, in the short term by doing short term things that cost you in the long term: guess what, they cost you in the long term. The electronics distributor who adds another slew of low volume, low margin products because "each one brings in additional gross profit" fails to recognize the growth in inventories and administration necessary to keep up. The iPhone apps manager who continues to bring on more apps because "each one contributes" fails to recognize the potential that the mass confusion resulting from 1000's may become daunting to the potential audience and actually decrease total sales. Oh, and yes, the automobile company that continues to add new models on the basis that each one creates incremental revenues, may fail to recognize that the organization's quality and design departments are spending all their time on this creation and not on making each existing model special and tailored to the consuming public. That's the way it works!
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