The CEO’s Dilemma

You are a management consultant and have been hired by a very worried and newly appointed CEO of a very large company with sales outlets in most of the towns and cities in England and Wales. The cause of the CEO's worries is that, in spite of the expenditure of increasing amounts of cash and manpower, sales do not seem to be improving

One of your first tasks was to review the performance of the sales teams and produce the following graph.

In the course of reviewing the performance of the sales teams you were shocked to find:

1. The sales targets were set by senior sales team staff without regard for the profitability of the company.
2. The means of achieving the sales team targets were set by senior sales staff without regard for the feasibility of achievement.
3. The means of achieving the sales team target figures were now firmly entrenched among the sales team members.
4. The company had operated for over a decade without any signs of significant improvement (and  you wondered in what other organisations would such a situation be allowed to continue?)

.What advice would you give the CEO?