Setting the goal was not the problem here: the problem was the way they chose to achieve that goal. Building better cars might, rather than doing everything to sell crappy ones, would have had a much better chance for success.
The problem comes from a short-sighted approach to making more money now at the expense of making money later, which is what GM did. If they'd decided to sell more cars by making better ones, it probably would have taken longer to get to that point, but they'd have been in a much better position to compete with the other car makers.