Baskerville’s experience with them in the business world suggests otherwise, but that’s not to say they are immediately embraced. He notes that Kennedy’s call to put a man on the moon and return him safely to earth by the end of the 1960s was viewed skeptically by some, especially given the enormous complexity of the project, yet it was maintained over three presidential administrations and finally accomplished in July 1969.
“It’s been my experience that if a company either has a new opportunity, a major new opportunity they have never been in, or perhaps they need to move for survival reasons, that with stretch targets — long-term targets — the first reaction in an organization is always can’t do it, shouldn’t do it, nobody has ever done it, and we don’t have the resources to do it,” he states. “If the senior leadership maintains that commitment and indeed provides some of the resources, it’s amazing what companies can do.”