Target-setting – like trying to drive a car blindfolded, looking out of the rear window

hate setting targets.  I don’t know why they even bother to get Brand Managers to set their own targets, when all they do is change them to what they want anyway.

Today we presented all our estimates on sales for individual Brands – hours of work and thought had gone into the rationales.  The Sales and Marketing Directors basically just said, “No, that’s way too conservative”, and just change it.

Or, they’d come up with some bullshit sell-story as to why the Brand would do better – when all they’re really trying to do is meet the targets they’ve been set by Head Office.  Why don’t they just save us the work and give us our target in the first place, so we can get on with meeting it?!

At Uni, I really believed in zero-based budgets, and yet I have never seen it – this is my third role/company.

Why are large companies so in love with the status quo and business-as-usual?