In The BHAG Plan to stay small forever? We didn't think so. One way to shoot for the big leagues is to think big--Big, Hairy, Audacious Goals, that is.

Right now, Don Speer runs a company that providesgaming-operations consulting to American Indian casinos and runs ahandful of budding online gaming sites. In five years, however, hehopes to be somewhere very different. "Our goal," saysthe chairman, president and CEO of Inland Entertainment Corporationin San Diego, "is to be the most successful casino in theworld."

That's a grand objective, but what might sound likebraggadocio to some, is clearly recognizable to others as a BHAG.The acronym stands for "Big, Hairy, Audacious Goal" andis pronounced "bee-hag." It's a concept popularizedin the 1995 business bestseller Built to Last: Successful Habits ofVisionary Companies (Harper Business) by Jim Collins and JerryPorras.

In their book, Collins and Porras examined a group of large,successful companies and found one of the things that distinguishedthem from similar but less successful competitors was that the moresuccessful companies had one or more very ambitious, clear andinspiring long-term objectives. They dubbed these goals"BHAGs" and claimed that having a good BHAG was one ofthe best ways a company could improve its chances for long-termprosperity.