Bill Canady says most business goals are just wishes. Growing revenue 15% sounds concrete until you realize you can hit it with discounts and low-margin sales that don't actually make money. Real goals need ratios built in, like revenue growth paired with profit margin, so you can't cheat the numbers.
Wish is a goal with the accountability taken out of it. Here's the subtler one. Here's the subtler one. And this is the version that fools sophisticated teams. Grow revenue 15% this year. Now that has a number, it has a date, and still functionally a wish because it has a numerator with no denominator. And a goal with only a numerator can always be won By spending. You can buy 15% revenue growth. You can buy it with discounts, with terms, with small orders from small accounts, with a product line extension that nobody asked for. You will hit the goal and you'll be poor. We actually wanna make money at this. That's why the goal is expressed as a ratio or as a dollar figure paired with a ratio. Margin has a denominator. It cannot be gained by adding volume because volume shows up on both sides of the line.
