fall short of a goal

When a company announces that it will fall short of a goal, investors head for the exits.

To be a failure in this way, you have to do more than merely fall short of a goal you set yourself.

For the nationalists, the results fell short of a goal set by the party's ideological progenitors in the mid-1920's, when an independence movement was beginning to make inroads on British colonial rule.

While the difference was considered statistically significant, it fell short of a goal set by the F.D.A. for approval of obesity drugs, which is a 5 percent weight loss beyond that caused by a placebo.