Henry Ford famously said: “That which can be measured, can be managed.” When he met with his company’s sales managers approximately a century ago, he told them that he could get the best out of them by telling them to do their best, but rather, he set specific goals that: (1) were few in number so that focus would not stray; (2) were measurable; (3) contained a deadline; (4) were tangible and realistic; and (5) resulted in an award if they were met. Notably, he would offer $500 sales bonuses to any executive who could achieve a monthly sales goal of $10,000, and then he would add an additional $100 bonus for each goal level reached above that.
With investing in publicly traded stocks, it is tricky to set a specific goal because so much is out of your control and the best targets focus as exclusively as they can … Read the rest of this article!