How does your SMB set its goals today? Most of us have been trained in the SMART framework: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Timely. It’s a sensible approach for ensuring clarity and achievability, right?

But what if I told you that traditional SMART goals can be inherently self-limiting? What if adhering strictly to “Attainable” and “Realistic” means your business never truly reaches its disruptive potential and, in fact, risks stagnation? It might sound like heresy, but let me explain.

The Pitfall of Incrementalism

Under conventional wisdom, we spend considerable effort defining “stretch” goals that, while challenging, we are confident our teams can attain with high performance. Think of typical targets: “achieve 10% year-over-year sales growth,” “reduce operational costs by 10%,” or “increase our sales pipeline by 20%.” These sound reasonable and fit the SMART model perfectly.

These are also the types of goals that established giants like IBM (for mainframe sales), GM (in its traditional manufacturing lines), or Yahoo! (for its early search efforts) might have set. The problem? Their competitors were thinking differently. They set goals like: “reduce the cost and size of a computer by 90%,” “achieve 80% productivity gains in six months through radical process re-engineering,” or “index the entire internet and deliver sub-second search results.”

To a traditional SMART mindset, these goals would seem incredulous, unrealistic, and certainly not “attainable” with existing methods. Yet, history shows us that Altair and Tandy revolutionized computing, Toyota redefined manufacturing efficiency, and Google completely changed our relationship with information; all by pursuing what initially seemed impossible.

Why Incremental Goals Limit Breakthroughs

Traditional SMART goals often drive incremental gains. A 10% sales increase might come from slightly better scripts or marginally improved lead quality. A 10% cost saving from minor process tweaks. These are improvements, yes, but they rarely lead to market disruption or create significant competitive separation.

Radical goals, on the other hand, fundamentally change the conversation. When you set a truly audacious target, your team is forced to abandon conventional thinking and incremental approaches. They must rethink everything from the ground up.

A New “SMART” for Transformational Results

If you aspire to lead your industry and potentially disrupt your competition, I suggest a shift in how we interpret “SMART”:

• S – Specific: Clarity is still crucial.
• M – Measurable: Progress needs to be tracked.
• A – Audacious: This is where the magic begins. Set goals that inspire and stretch imagination.
• R – Radical: Aim for goals that require a fundamental shift in approach, not just doing more of the same.
• T – Thought-Provoking: The goal itself should provoke new thinking, new questions, and new methodologies.

Forget “Attainable” and “Realistic” in the traditional sense if you’re aiming for breakthroughs. The first two letters – Specific and Measurable – remain vital because they help everyone understand that achieving these radical targets demands entirely new methods. As your fractional CIO, I often see that pursuing such audacious goals is where strategic technology adoption and process innovation become not just helpful, but absolutely essential.

The Upside of Aiming High

Consider this: if you shoot for a 90% reduction in costs or a 250% increase in sales and only get halfway there, your business is still light years ahead of where it would have been targeting a “realistic” 15% or 20%, even if you fully achieved that smaller goal.

What’s Next

Radical goals force us out of our comfort zones and compel us to innovate. They are the catalysts for true transformation. Think about your organization today – are you driven by any truly audacious, radical, and thought-provoking goals? Or are you inadvertently limiting your potential with purely incremental targets?

If you’re an SMB leader ready to explore how radical goals, supported by a transformative technology strategy, can unlock new levels of success for your business, Succeed Sooner Consulting can help you redefine what’s possible.