OGSM · The one-page strategic plan
Simplify strategy.
Then actually execute it.
OGSM puts your whole plan on a single page — one objective, three to five goals, the strategies you’re actually choosing, and the measures that tell you whether it’s working. Simple enough to repeat from memory. Specific enough to say no to something.
Free templates and examples · 90+ articles · No sign-up to read anything
See the shape of it
O
Objective
Where you’re going, in one sentence.
G
Goals
What winning looks like, with a date.
S
Strategies
The choices you’re making.
M
Measures
Is it working?
The one-page method behind strategic plans at Procter & Gamble, Coca-Cola and Mars — and small enough for a business of five.
What is OGSM?
Four letters, read left to right.
Each one is built on the one before it. That order is the whole method — skip ahead and you get a plan that falls apart the first time it costs you something.
WHAT — where you’re going
HOW — what you’re choosing to do about it
O
Objective
Where you’re going, in one sentence. Qualitative, specific, and it rules something out.
G
Goals
Three to five numbers that say what winning looks like — each with a baseline and a date.
S
Strategies
The choices you’re making, each with a named owner — and the list of what you will not do.
M
Measures
A dashboard that tells you if it’s working, and an action plan that makes it work.
A Claude Skill
It won’t write your strategy for you.
Ask any AI to write a strategic plan and you’ll have one in two minutes. It will look right, and nobody will change what they do on Monday because of it.
The OGSM Strategy Builder does the opposite. It turns Claude into a facilitator: asking the questions a good one asks, holding you to the standard, and pushing back when an answer is too comfortable. It drafts options and makes you choose — because a strategy nobody chose is a strategy nobody defends.
0 Diagnose · 1 Reality · 2 Objective · 3 Goals · 4 Strategies · 5 Measures · 6 Stress test · 7 Deliver · 8 Review
Two to four hours of real work. Your finished one-pager as HTML, Excel, PowerPoint and PDF. $49 until 31 October 2026, then $99.
Why OGSM?
Two-thirds of strategies fail in the doing, not the thinking.
Clarity
One page anyone can read, repeat and argue with. If your strategy doesn’t fit on it, it hasn’t been decided yet — it’s been described.
Alignment
Ask five of your leaders what the strategy is and you’ll get five answers. Cascading an OGSM turns a plan you wrote into a plan they own.
Execution
Every strategy gets a named owner and a date. Reviewed monthly, so drift gets caught in March rather than discovered in December.
Start here
Three ways in, depending on how much of it you want to do yourself.
Free
Learn the method
The complete OGSM guide, 90+ articles, worked examples across six industries, and every template as a free PDF.
From $4.99
Take a template
Pre-formatted, fully editable OGSM templates for Excel and PowerPoint, plus SWOT, PESTEL and the rest of the toolbox.
$49
Build it with Claude
All eight phases, facilitated end to end, with your finished one-pager in four formats and a review that keeps it alive.
Latest from the blog
OGSM · AI
How to Build Your OGSM With AI: A Step-by-Step Guide
All eight phases, the real questions to expect, and the quality bar each one holds.
Strategy Process
Why AI Should Facilitate Your Strategy, Not Write It
What AI is genuinely good at in a strategy session — and the four places you have to decide.
Tools
The OGSM Strategy Builder: One Phase at a Time
What the session actually looks like, and why the strategies phase is designed to be uncomfortable.
The book
In preparation
Seven reasons good strategies die quietly.
Andy inherits his father’s company at the worst possible moment. Revenue is falling, a sharper competitor is winning his customers, and in three weeks he has to stand in front of the Board. When he finally asks his leadership team the simplest question — what is our strategy? — the answer tells him everything that’s wrong.
A short, sharp story about how real strategy actually gets built: one clear direction, a handful of choices, and the discipline to say no. Along the way Andy learns to spot the Seven Cardinal Sins of Strategy, and the one-page OGSM that cures them.
Coming in print. Follow the book’s progress and be first to hear when it’s out.
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