The best OGSM dashboard is a simple visual that shows you — at a glance — whether your Measures are green, amber, or red, who owns each one, and when it was last updated. You don’t need expensive software. A Google Sheet, a PowerPoint slide, or even a whiteboard wall can do the job. The goal is to make progress (or the lack of it) impossible to ignore.
Why Most OGSM Implementations Stall at the Tracking Stage
You built the OGSM. You ran the workshop, aligned the leadership team, printed it on a nice slide. And then… nothing. Six weeks later, nobody’s looking at it.
This is the most common failure point in OGSM execution — not the strategy itself, but the absence of a tracking rhythm. Without a dashboard that makes it painfully obvious whether each Measure is on track, the OGSM becomes a once-a-year exercise rather than a live management tool. I’ve seen this in organisations of every size. The strategy is sound. The execution tools are non-existent.
The problem isn’t that leaders don’t care. It’s that nobody built a simple visual to anchor the weekly conversation. A dashboard removes the friction of having to ask “where are we?” It puts the answer in the room before the question is asked.
The fix isn’t a fancier tool. It’s a visible, consistently-updated display of your Measures that forces the conversation every single week.
What a Good OGSM Dashboard Actually Shows
Before you look at examples, understand what your dashboard needs to communicate. A useful OGSM tracking dashboard surfaces four data points for each Measure:
RAG status — Red, Amber, or Green. No percentages. No nuance. Just a colour that tells you whether this Measure needs attention this week.
Trend — Is it getting better or worse compared to last week? An up arrow, down arrow, or flat line is enough.
Owner — One name. Not a team, not a department. One human who is accountable for moving it.
Last reviewed — The date this Measure was last discussed in a meeting. Stale dates are a red flag that your review rhythm is slipping.
That’s it. Four data points per Measure. If your dashboard shows more than that, you’re adding complexity that slows down the review conversation and gives people reasons to debate methodology instead of fixing problems.
Example 1: The RAG Spreadsheet (Google Sheets or Excel)
This is the default for most teams and the right starting point.
Layout: One row per Measure. Columns: Measure name | Target | Current value | RAG status | Trend | Owner | Last reviewed | Notes.
How it looks: Use conditional formatting to colour the RAG status cell automatically — green if you’re at or above 90% of target, amber if you’re between 70–89%, red if you’re below 70%. The colour-coding does the work. You scan the column and instantly know where to focus. No interpretation required.
Who it’s for: Any team that already lives in Google Workspace or Microsoft 365. Zero extra cost, zero setup friction. Export it as a PDF and paste it into your weekly agenda so the data is in front of everyone before the meeting starts.
Illustrator note: A clean table with six rows (one per Measure), a vivid RAG colour in column 4, and simple up/flat/down trend arrows in column 5. Use a muted grey background for the header row. Keep the font clean and the layout uncluttered.
Example 2: The One-Page Slide Dashboard (PowerPoint or Google Slides)
When you’re presenting to a leadership team or board, a single slide works better than a spreadsheet.
Layout: Four quadrants — one per Strategy. Inside each quadrant, list the 2–3 Measures for that Strategy with their RAG dot and owner initials. At the top of the slide: the Objective in bold, and a single RAG status for the overall OGSM. One slide, total picture.
How it looks: Think of a 2×2 grid with a header bar. Each cell is a Strategy, labelled clearly. The Measures inside are concise — five to seven words max. A large coloured dot (●) sits to the left of each Measure name.
Who it’s for: Executive teams who meet weekly or fortnightly and need a single artefact to anchor the conversation. Print it double-sided — OGSM on the front, action log on the back. It’s also the right format for a board update where you have five minutes to communicate strategic health.
Illustrator note: A clean slide with a bold title bar (“OGSM Dashboard — Week 19”), four coloured quadrant boxes in two columns, and RAG dots beside each Measure name. Minimalist, data-forward. White background, dark text.
Example 3: The Wall Chart (For In-Person Teams)
If your team shares a physical office, nothing beats a wall chart you can see from across the room.
Layout: Print your OGSM on A0 paper (or use a large whiteboard). Use sticky dots — green, amber, red — to mark each Measure’s current status. Add a “last reviewed” date label under each dot using a marker.
How it looks: A large printed OGSM framework with physical coloured dots stuck on each Measure. The dots are changed during the weekly stand-up. When the whole left column is green, there’s a visual satisfaction that no digital tool replicates. When something goes red, the whole team sees it instantly — no email needed, no login required.
Who it’s for: Operations teams, manufacturing floors, agile product teams, any group that physically gathers. The wall chart creates social accountability — everyone walking past can see the state of play. It’s also useful for teams that find screen-based meetings draining.
Illustrator note: A large printed OGSM on an office wall, with circular sticky dots next to each Measure. One person (illustrated from behind) is updating a dot — swapping a red dot for an amber one. Bright, energetic office setting.
How to Run the Weekly Dashboard Review (5 Steps)
Having the dashboard means nothing if you don’t use it. Here’s the five-step process I recommend for teams running a weekly strategy review:
Update before the meeting. Each Measure owner updates their RAG status the morning of the review. No surprises, no data gathering during the call. If data isn’t ready, the status defaults to amber.
Start with the reds. Open every review on the red Measures only. Greens don’t need airtime. Cap each red discussion at five minutes.
Identify the single next action. For each red or amber, agree on one action, one owner, one deadline. Write it in the notes column immediately.
Take five minutes on trend. Even if something is green today, a downward trend is a warning sign. Flag it before it becomes a red.
Update the “last reviewed” date. This sounds trivial. It isn’t. A date that hasn’t moved in two weeks tells you the review rhythm is breaking down before anyone has to say it out loud.
The whole review should take 30 minutes or less. If it’s taking longer, you have too many Measures or too many people in the room.
Common Dashboard Mistakes
Tracking activities instead of outcomes. “Delivered 12 training sessions” is not a Measure — it’s a task. Your dashboard should show what changed as a result of those sessions: retention rate, engagement score, time-to-competency.
Updating the dashboard retroactively. If owners are backfilling data to make things look green, your RAG status is fiction. The discipline of real-time updates is where most teams fall down. Build it into the meeting ritual, not the prep work.
Too many Measures on one dashboard. An OGSM should have 6–10 Measures total across all Strategies. If your dashboard has 25 rows, you’ve confused activity tracking with strategy tracking. Go back to your OGSM framework and cut ruthlessly.
Get the OGSM Template
If you’re building your first tracking dashboard, start with a template rather than from scratch. The free OGSM template includes a pre-built RAG spreadsheet with conditional formatting already set up — add your Measures and you’re ready for your first weekly review.
OGSM is one of the most practical strategic planning frameworks available for small businesses — and it is almost certainly better suited to your needs than OKRs. In a single page, OGSM forces you to define your Objective, the measurable Goals that prove you’re achieving it, the Strategies you’ll pursue, and the Measures that track progress. No software required, no quarterly review cycles with twenty stakeholders, no alphabet soup of HR frameworks. Just a one-page plan you can actually run a business from.
Why Do OKRs Keep Failing Small Businesses?
OKRs were invented at Intel and popularised by Google. That lineage should tell you something. If your business has fewer people than Google has people on its Snacks Procurement Team, OKRs probably aren‘t your best fit.
Here’s why they keep failing for smaller teams:
Too many layers. OKRs are designed to cascade – company OKRs feed into team OKRs which feed into individual OKRs. At a 500-person company that’s appropriate. At a 12-person company, you’re creating coordination overhead for its own sake. You don’t have three levels of reporting hierarchy, so why build a three-level planning framework?
They require dedicated tooling. Every OKR implementation I’ve seen at small businesses eventually hits the same wall: where do we track these? The answer is always some combination of spreadsheets, Notion databases, and a SaaS subscription that three people actually log into. That’s not strategy execution – that’s tool management.
They weren’t designed for one-page clarity. OKRs produce lists of objectives. A properly done OKR cycle at a 30-person business might generate 40+ key results across the organization. That’s not a plan. That’s a backlog.
What Is OGSM? (In Plain Language)
OGSM stands for Objective, Goals, Strategies, Measures. It was developed at Procter & Gamble and has been used by companies from global multinationals to ambitious independents for decades. The core idea is elegantly simple: your entire strategy fits on one page.
Here’s what each element does:
Objective: Your qualitative, inspiring destination. Where are you going and why does it matter?
Goals: Specific, measurable outcomes that define success. These are your proof points – when you hit these numbers, you know you’ve achieved the Objective.
Strategies: The choices you’re making about how to get there. Not actions – choices. What will you do, and what will you deliberately not do?
Measures: The metrics and milestones you’ll track to know your Strategies are working.
A small landscaping company might set an Objective of becoming the most trusted residential landscaping provider in their county. Their Goals might include reaching $1.2M revenue and 78% repeat customer rate by year-end. Their Strategies might include referral-only new business acquisition and a premium maintenance contract product. Their Measures would track referral conversion rates, contract renewal percentages, and monthly recurring revenue.
That’s a complete strategy. One page. Thirty minutes to build the first draft.
If you want a deeper walkthrough of the framework itself, our complete OGSM guide covers every element in detail.
Why OGSM Suits Small Businesses Specifically
I’ve helped businesses of all sizes implement strategic frameworks. The smaller the business, the more OGSM tends to outperform everything else. Three reasons:
One page forces the right conversations. When your strategy has to fit on a single page, you can’t hide behind complexity. You have to make real choices about what matters and what doesn’t. Most small business strategies fail not because of poor execution but because everything is a priority, which means nothing is. The OGSM’s constraint is its greatest feature.
No software required. Your OGSM lives in a shared Google Doc, Excel or printed on the wall of the office. There’s no onboarding process, no admin permissions to manage, no SaaS renewal to argue about at budget time. The simplest possible format is almost always a well-structured one-page document.
It runs at the right cadence. OKRs typically operate on quarterly cycles with complex scoring rituals. Most small businesses I work with can’t sustain that overhead – especially when the founders are also doing the delivery work. OGSM reviews are typically monthly or quarterly, but they’re conversations, not ceremonies. You look at your Measures, you discuss what’s working, you adjust.
Building Your First Small Business OGSM: A Walkthrough
Let me walk you through how a fictional SME – let’s call them Clearview Accounting, a 15-person regional accounting firm – would build their first OGSM.
Step 1: Start with the Objective. The founders want to stop competing on price and become the firm of choice for e-commerce businesses in their region. Their Objective: “Become the leading specialist accounting partner for e-commerce businesses in the North West by 2027”
Step 2: Set measurable Goals. The Goals need to define what “cleading specialist partner” actually means in numbers. Clearview lands on three Goals:
Grow e-commerce client billings to 60% of total revenue (from 22% today)
Achieve a Net Promoter Score of 65+ from e-commerce clients
Reach $2.4M total revenue
Step 3: Define Strategies. This is where most small businesses need to do the hardest thinking. Clearview decides their Strategies are:
Reposition all marketing and content around e-commerce specialism
Build a referral network with Shopify and WooCommerce development agencies
Develop a fixed-price e-commerce accounting package to replace hourly billing
Notice what they’re not doing: they are not chasing retail clients, not competing on price, not expanding into payroll services. Strategy is as much about what you say “no” to.
Step 4: Track the right Measures. Clearview’s Measures include: monthly e-commerce client billings as a % of total, NPS survey results (quarterly), referral conversations generated per month, and package conversion rate.
The whole thing fits on a single page. Every member of the leadership team can see exactly where the business is going and why. That’s OGSM in practice.
You can grab our free OGSM template to build your own version in under an hour.
Common Objections Answered
“Our business is too simple for a strategic framework.”
If your business has a revenue target and more than one way to achieve it, you have a strategy question. OGSM doesn’t add complexity – it removes it. The discipline of completing a one-pager will surface assumptions you didn’t know you were making.
“We tried something like this before and it just sat in a drawer.”
That’s a review cadence problem, not a framework problem. The OGSM document only works if you schedule a monthly 30-minute review where someone is accountable for the Measures. Without that, any framework gathers dust. Build the review into your rhythm before you build the plan.
“OGSM vs OKRs – can’t I just use both?”
You can, but you probably shouldn’t. Mixing frameworks tends to dilute accountability rather than strengthen it. If you want the full comparison, we’ve covered OGSM vs OKRs in depth – but the short version is: OKRs are built for scale, OGSM is built for clarity. For most small businesses, clarity is the more pressing need.
How Can You Start Using OGSM This Afternoon?
You don’t need a strategy day, an offsite, or a consultant to start your OGSM. Here’s how to begin:
Block 90 minutes with your co-founder or leadership team. Open a blank document with four sections: Objective, Goals, Strategies, Measures.
Start with your Objective. Finish this sentence: “By [year], we will be known as the [description] in [market/geography].” Don’t overthink it – a draft Objective is better than no Objective.
Set three Goals maximum. Ask: if we achieve our Objective, what three numbers will definitely be true? Revenue, customer satisfaction, market share, margin – pick the three that matter most and make them specific.
Define two or three Strategies. Ask: what choices will we make that our competitors aren’t making? Your Strategies should feel slightly uncomfortable – if they don’t, they’re probably not choices at all.
Agree your Measures and schedule the first review. Without this step, the document stays a document. With it, it becomes a management tool.
That’s it. Your first OGSM won’t be perfect. It will still be more useful than anything sitting in a slide deck from the last strategy session you held.
OGSM for Small Business: The Complete Strategic Planning Guide (With Real Examples)
Most strategic planning frameworks were built for companies with dedicated strategy teams, quarterly board reviews, and the kind of budget that covers three-day off-sites. If you run a business with 5 to 200 people, that’s not your world — and borrowing those tools wholesale is one of the fastest ways to waste a month and achieve nothing.
OGSM for small business is different. This guide is the most complete practical resource you’ll find on using OGSM as a small business owner, founder, or general manager. You’ll get the framework explained in plain language, a step-by-step build process, three real-world small business examples, a review cadence you can actually sustain, and a list of the mistakes that derail most first attempts.
By the time you finish reading, you’ll have everything you need to write your first OGSM — or fix the one that isn’t working.
Here’s the strategy planning mistake I see most often in small businesses: the owner spends a weekend writing a 20-page strategic plan, presents it to the team on a Monday, and by Friday nobody can remember what was in it.
The plan isn’t bad. The format is.
Long documents don’t drive execution. They sit in a folder on Google Drive, opened maybe twice before the next planning cycle. Meanwhile, the business runs on gut feel, whatever’s urgent that week, and the priorities of whoever shouts loudest. That’s not a strategy — it’s organised chaos.
Why Complex Frameworks Fail at Small Business Scale
OKRs, Balanced Scorecards, and similar frameworks are genuinely powerful at the right scale. The problem is they’re expensive to run. OKRs require a dedicated quarterly cycle with cascading objectives through layers of the organisation. The Balanced Scorecard needs someone who understands the four perspectives, a way to measure leading indicators, and regular calibration across departments. When you have 12 people and everyone has a day job, that overhead kills adoption.
I’ve watched founders burn out trying to implement OKRs as if they were running Google. The system becomes the work instead of supporting it.
What OGSM Solves
OGSM — Objectives, Goals, Strategies, Measures — was originally developed at Procter & Gamble as a way to fit an entire business strategy on a single page. That constraint is the feature, not the bug.
For small businesses, that single page does three things frameworks like OKR can’t easily do at this scale:
Alignment at a glance. Every person in your business can see the whole strategy, understand where they fit, and hold themselves accountable without a manager explaining the cascade every quarter.
Honest prioritisation. When everything has to fit on one page, you’re forced to choose. Most small businesses don’t have a strategy problem — they have a prioritisation problem. OGSM fixes that.
Low-friction review. You don’t need a strategy function to run a monthly OGSM check-in. A 30-minute team meeting against a shared document is enough.
If you want the deeper comparison between OGSM and other frameworks, read our OGSM vs OKR guide — but for most small businesses, OGSM is the right starting point.
What Is OGSM? The Four Elements Explained for Small Business Owners
OGSM stands for Objective, Goals, Strategies, and Measures. If you’ve never used it before, here’s what each element actually means — and how they fit together.
Objective
Your Objective is a single sentence describing what your business is trying to achieve in the next 12 to 36 months. It’s qualitative, directional, and inspiring. It’s not a revenue target — that comes later.
Think of it as your “why we’re pushing hard right now” statement. A good small business Objective sounds like:
“Become the most trusted supplier of commercial kitchen equipment in the Pacific Northwest.”
One sentence. No metrics. If your Objective needs a paragraph to explain, it’s too complicated.
Goals
Goals are the 3–5 measurable outcomes that define what success looks like for your Objective. This is where numbers enter the OGSM.
Goals are specific, time-bound, and measurable. They make your Objective concrete. For the kitchen equipment business above:
Grow annual revenue to $4.2M by end of year
Achieve net promoter score of 60+ among commercial clients
Expand product range to cover 90% of commercial kitchen categories
Retain 85% of accounts year-over-year
If you hit all four of those, you’re probably the most trusted supplier in the region. That’s the test: do your Goals prove your Objective was achieved?
Strategies
Strategies are how you’ll achieve your Goals. For each Goal, you identify 2–4 Strategies — the specific approaches, initiatives, or capabilities you’ll build.
Strategies answer the question: “What are we actually going to do?” They’re more directional than to-do lists but more concrete than vague intentions.
Goal: Grow revenue to $4.2M → Strategies: Launch outbound sales programme targeting hospitality groups; build preferred supplier agreements with three commercial kitchen designers; expand service contract offering to existing accounts.
Measures
Measures are how you’ll know your Strategies are working. Each Strategy should have at least one lead indicator (a measure of activity you control) and ideally a lag indicator (a measure of outcome).
This is where OGSM gets sharp. Most strategies fail not because they’re wrong but because nobody ever checks whether they’re working. Measures force that discipline.
Strategy
Lead Measure
Lag Measure
Outbound sales programme
Calls made per week
New accounts opened per quarter
Preferred supplier agreements
Agreements signed
Revenue from partner channel
For real-world examples of strong lead and lag Measures across different business types, our OGSM measures examples guide is worth bookmarking. For a deeper explanation of how Goals and Measures differ — and why confusing them is the most common OGSM mistake — read our OGSM Goals vs Measures guide.
The Worked Example: Coastal Home Cleaning Co.
Let me pull this together with a fictional small business so you can see how it looks in practice.
Business: Coastal Home Cleaning Co. — 18-person residential cleaning service, 3 years old, founder wants to expand to a second city within two years.
OGSM:
Objective: Become the premium home cleaning brand in our region, known for reliability and trust, ready to scale to a second market.
Goals:
Reach $1.8M annual revenue by end of Year 1
Maintain 4.8+ star average across all review platforms
Build a waitlist of 50+ qualified residential clients in Target City B
Reduce staff turnover to below 20% annually
Strategies (selected):
For Revenue Goal: Launch referral programme targeting existing 5-star accounts; introduce quarterly deep-clean packages at premium price point
For Expansion Goal: Hire city lead for Target City B by Q2; run localised digital ads in Target City B from Q3
For Retention Goal: Introduce team lead structure and performance bonus tied to client satisfaction scores
Measures:
Weekly: referral sign-ups; new bookings from ads
Monthly: revenue vs. target; review score; staff turnover YTD
That’s a complete OGSM. It fits on one page, every team member can understand it, and you can review it in 20 minutes.
How to Build Your OGSM: Step-by-Step
Building your first OGSM takes longer than maintaining one, but even a first attempt shouldn’t take more than a few focused hours — or a single 90-minute workshop. Here’s the process.
Step 1: Write Your Objective
Start here. Don’t try to write Goals first or you’ll anchor too quickly on today’s numbers and miss the bigger picture.
Ask yourself: what does winning look like for this business in the next 12–24 months? Write a sentence that captures that ambition. It should be inspiring enough to motivate people but honest enough to be credible.
Avoid objectives that are really Goals in disguise. “Reach £2M revenue” is a Goal. “Be the go-to accountancy firm for tech startups in London” is an Objective.
If you get stuck, try the formula: [Verb] + [Who/What] + [Qualifier].
“Become the most recommended [category] in [geography]”
“Build [business type] that [distinctive position]”
Step 2: Write 3–5 Goals
Now make it measurable. For each dimension of your Objective, identify one concrete Goal. Most small businesses need Goals in three to five areas:
Revenue / financial performance
Customer satisfaction / retention
Operational capability
Team / people
Market position / growth
Don’t write more than five. Five Goals means five things you’re truly committed to. More than that and you don’t have priorities — you have a wish list.
Each Goal needs a number and a timeframe. “Grow revenue” isn’t a Goal. “Grow revenue to $2.5M by December 31” is.
Step 3: Identify 2–4 Strategies Per Goal
For each Goal, ask: what do we need to do differently to achieve this? Strategies are not business-as-usual activities — they’re the moves that make the difference.
A useful stress-test: if you kept doing everything you’re currently doing but added nothing new, would you hit this Goal? If yes, you don’t need a Strategy there — just execution. Strategy is for the gaps.
Write each Strategy as a clear action phrase: “Launch X,” “Build Y,” “Partner with Z,” “Discontinue A.”
Limit yourself to 2–4 Strategies per Goal. Small businesses don’t have the bandwidth for more.
Step 4: Assign Measures With Owners
For each Strategy, set a lead and lag measure, and put someone’s name next to it. Unowned Measures don’t get tracked.
Lead measures matter more than most people think. Revenue is a lag measure — by the time it moves, the ship has already turned. Your lead measures tell you whether the ship is turning now. For a sales strategy, the lead might be “number of discovery calls per week.” For a retention strategy, it might be “NPS survey sent and response rate.”
Name the owner. In a small business, this is usually straightforward: the founder, a team lead, or a manager who will stand up in the review meeting and report the number.
The 90-Minute OGSM Workshop Agenda
If you want to build your OGSM with your team (recommended), here’s a workshop format that works:
Time
Activity
0–15 min
Framing: where we are now, what’s changed, what’s at stake
15–30 min
Draft Objective: each person writes one, group votes and refines
30–50 min
Goals: generate candidates, pressure-test with “does this prove the Objective?”
50–70 min
Strategies: breakout by Goal owner, rapid-fire, filter to 2–4 each
70–85 min
Measures: assign lead/lag for each Strategy, name owners
85–90 min
Review the full OGSM on one page: does it hang together?
You don’t need a facilitator. You need a shared document, a timer, and someone willing to kill ideas that don’t belong on the page.
What Do Real OGSM Examples for Small Businesses Look Like?
Three complete examples across different sectors. These are fictional businesses, but the numbers and strategies reflect what I’ve seen in real-world small business planning contexts.
Objective: Build a profitable direct-to-consumer brand with a loyal community of customers who buy more than once.
Goals:
Reach $900K annual revenue with 30% gross margin
Grow repeat purchase rate to 35%
Build email list to 25,000 active subscribers
Launch in two new product categories without compromising hero line margin
Strategies:
Revenue/margin: Reduce reliance on paid social by 20%; negotiate better COGS through bulk order commitments
Repeat purchase: Build post-purchase email sequence; launch loyalty programme with early access perk
Email list: Run quarterly lead magnet campaigns; partner with 10 micro-influencers on co-created content
New categories: Test two categories with limited drops before committing to stock; gate expansion on hero margin holding above 32%
Measures (selected): Weekly: email sign-ups, ad ROAS, inventory turns. Monthly: revenue, GM%, repeat rate, list size.
Example 3: The Salt Room (Hospitality — Boutique Hotel, 22 staff)
Objective: Position The Salt Room as the destination coastal stay in our region, with strong direct booking and a reputation that outlasts any single review platform.
Goals:
Achieve 80% average annual occupancy (up from 67%)
Grow direct bookings to 60% of total (currently 38%)
Occupancy: Target shoulder season with “slow travel” packages; build corporate retreat offering
Direct bookings: Launch loyalty programme; invest in SEO and email capture on website; reduce OTA commission by shifting incentives
Rating: Introduce guest experience check-in call at 24 hours; empower front desk to resolve issues on the spot up to £50
Events: Partner with local food/drink producers for quarterly events; test monthly supper club format
Measures: Weekly: bookings by channel, occupancy forecast. Monthly: occupancy, direct booking %, review scores, events revenue.
How Do You Run an OGSM Review?
The OGSM you write in January is only as good as the reviews you run in February, March, and beyond. The review rhythm is where most small businesses fall down — not the planning.
The Monthly OGSM Check-In (30 minutes)
Once a month, bring together whoever owns the Measures and run through the numbers. Keep it short. The agenda:
RAG status (5 min): For each Goal, is it green (on track), amber (risk), or red (off track)?
Lead measure review (10 min): Are activity levels where they should be? If a lag measure is red, check the leads first.
Blockers (10 min): What’s preventing progress? Who needs to make a decision?
Next 30 days (5 min): Confirm priority actions per Strategy.
No presentations. Pull up the OGSM document, go row by row. If something is amber or red, talk about it. If it’s green, move on.
The Quarterly Review (90–120 minutes)
Every quarter, do a proper review. This is where you decide whether your Strategies are still the right ones — not just whether you’re executing them.
The monthly tells you how fast you’re running. The quarterly tells you whether you’re running in the right direction.
Agenda additions vs. monthly:
Is each Strategy still valid, or has the market shifted?
Do Goals need adjusting based on what you’ve learned?
Any new Strategies to add? Any to retire?
This is also the moment to celebrate wins. Small businesses underdo recognition. If a Goal was hit, mark it.
The Annual Reset
Once a year, start fresh. Don’t just roll your existing OGSM forward. Ask the harder question: is the Objective still right?
Markets change. Businesses evolve. The Objective you wrote 12 months ago may no longer be the right ambition — or you may have achieved it and need a new one.
The annual reset is a full workshop. Bring your full leadership team (even if that’s just you and two others), block a half-day, and rebuild from the Objective down.
What Tools and Templates Do You Need for OGSM?
You don’t need software to run OGSM. A shared Google Doc or spreadsheet works perfectly for most small businesses with fewer than 50 people.
That said, the right template makes a real difference to first-time adoption. We have a free OGSM template designed specifically for small businesses — structured so your team can fill it in during the workshop, with built-in Measures tracking for monthly reviews. Download the free OGSM template here.
When You Don’t Need Software
If you have fewer than 30 people, a shared document and a monthly meeting is enough. Don’t buy strategy software to run a one-page framework. The overhead will kill the habit before it forms.
When Software Starts to Help
Once you have multiple teams or departments, each with their own strategies and measures, a dedicated tool makes alignment easier. You can cascade the top-level OGSM into team-level plans, link Measures to dashboards, and run reviews asynchronously.
At that point, you’re moving toward the enterprise OGSM model — and our main OGSM guide has what you need.
What Are the Most Common OGSM Mistakes Small Businesses Make?
These are the mistakes I see specifically in small business OGSM attempts — different from the errors enterprise teams make.
1. Writing the Objective Last
Most small business founders start with Goals (because they’ve been thinking about revenue targets for months) and then reverse-engineer an Objective. The result is an Objective that’s really just a restatement of the Goals in vague language.
Start with the Objective. It should be hard to write. If it comes easily, it’s probably not ambitious enough.
2. Confusing Strategies With Tasks
“Update the website” is not a Strategy. “Build direct booking capability to reduce OTA dependency” is. Strategies describe the approach — the how-we-win logic. Tasks sit inside Strategies. If your OGSM looks like a project plan, you’ve gone one level too deep.
3. Not Assigning Measure Owners
“We’ll track revenue monthly” is not a Measure with an owner. “Maria tracks revenue monthly, reports in team standup by the 5th” is. Without ownership, Measures don’t get reported, which means Strategies don’t get reviewed, which means the OGSM is just a document.
4. Too Many Goals
I’ve seen small business OGSMs with 9 Goals. That’s not a strategy — it’s a bucket list. With 9 Goals, you have no priorities. Everything is equally important, which means nothing is. Three to five Goals is the discipline that gives OGSM its power.
5. Treating the OGSM as a Once-a-Year Exercise
Writing the OGSM is not the work. Running the reviews is the work. A perfect OGSM that’s reviewed twice a year is less valuable than a decent OGSM that gets reviewed monthly by an engaged team. Build the review habit before you worry about OGSM perfection.
6. Hiding the OGSM From the Team
Some founders treat the OGSM as a leadership document and share a watered-down version with the team. That kills the alignment benefit entirely. If you’re worried about a Goal being sensitive (e.g. acquisition planning), leave it off the shared version — but share as much as you can. The team has to know what winning looks like to help you win.
FAQ
How long does it take to build an OGSM for the first time? Budget 90 minutes with your team for the first draft, plus 30 minutes of solo refinement after. Don’t try to make it perfect on day one. A 70% OGSM reviewed monthly beats a 100% OGSM that sits in a drawer.
How often should I update my OGSM? Review monthly. Adjust Strategies and Measures quarterly if needed. Reset the Objective and Goals annually, or when something significant changes in the business or market.
What’s the difference between OGSM Goals and KPIs? Goals are the finite outcomes that prove your Objective was achieved — you set them once per cycle and they don’t change month to month. KPIs (or Measures, in OGSM language) are the ongoing tracking metrics that tell you whether your Strategies are working. One Goal may have multiple Measures. For more on this distinction, see our OGSM Goals vs Measures guide.
Can I use OGSM for just one department or team? Yes. Team-level OGSMs work well when they cascade from a company-level OGSM. The team’s Objective should support one or more of the company’s Goals. If your team’s OGSM has nothing to do with the company’s Objectives, you’re not aligned — you’re just busy.
What if I’m a solo founder — is OGSM still useful? Yes, but simplify the format. You don’t need 5 Goals and 4 Strategies each. One page with a clear Objective, 3 Goals, and 2–3 Strategies per Goal is enough. The value is still the forced prioritisation and monthly review habit.
Is OGSM better than OKRs for small businesses? For most small businesses with fewer than 50 people, yes — OGSM is simpler to implement and easier to sustain. OKRs require quarterly cycles and often a dedicated champion to avoid drifting. If you want a detailed comparison, read our OGSM vs OKR guide.
Your strategy doesn’t need to be complex to be good. It needs to be clear, owned, and reviewed. OGSM gives small businesses exactly that — a one-page framework that fits how you actually work, forces real prioritisation, and builds the review habit that turns planning into execution.
Start with the Objective. Make it honest. Then build from there.
An OGSM Strategy is a deliberate choice about how your organization will achieve its Goals. It sits between the ambition (Objective and Goals) and the proof (Measures) — and it’s the element most teams get wrong, either writing vague generalities or confusing Strategies with tasks. This article gives you 30 concrete OGSM strategy statement examples across six industries, the rules for writing one properly, and the tests to apply before you lock in your own.
What an OGSM Strategy Actually Is (vs. a Goal)
Before diving into the examples, the distinction matters.
A Goal tells you what you want to achieve: “Grow revenue to £10m by year 3.” It’s a measurable outcome with a timeline. A Strategy tells you how you’ve chosen to get there: “Build a direct-to-consumer channel to remove distributor margin and shorten the feedback loop with buyers.” It’s a directional choice — something you’ve consciously decided to do instead of other things you could have done.
If you’re new to the framework, what OGSM actually means is worth reading before this article. The distinction between Strategies and Measures is also subtle — the OGSM Measures guide covers that in full.
The most common mistake teams make: writing OGSM Strategies that are actually Goals (“Increase market share”) or tasks (“Launch a website”). A well-written Strategy is a choice. It implies a trade-off. It gives the team direction without dictating the detail.
The 3 Rules for Writing a Good OGSM Strategy Statement
Rule 1: A Strategy implies a choice. Every real Strategy has an implicit “instead of.” “Build a direct sales team” implies “instead of relying on resellers.” “Focus on enterprise accounts” implies “instead of chasing SME volume.” If your Strategy doesn’t have an implicit trade-off, it’s probably a platitude — something everyone would agree with, which means it’s not a decision, it’s a wish.
Rule 2: A Strategy is directional, not granular. A Strategy sets a course. The plans, campaigns, and tasks that execute it live underneath in project management tools, not in the OGSM. If your strategy statement runs to three sentences and includes timelines and deliverables, you’ve written an action plan. Aim for one crisp sentence that a new team member could use to make daily prioritisation decisions without needing further instruction.
Rule 3: A Strategy connects to a Goal. Every OGSM Strategy should answer the question: “Which Goal does this primarily help us hit?” If you can’t make that connection, either the Strategy is irrelevant to your plan, or you’re missing a Goal that should be there. Both are worth resolving before you finalise the OGSM.
Keep three to five Strategies on the page. More than five and you’ve stopped making choices — you’ve listed everything you could do and dressed it up as direction.
30 OGSM Strategy Examples by Industry
The examples below are grouped by sector. Each one is a single strategy statement — the format it would appear in an actual OGSM. They’re intentionally specific: generic statements like “improve customer experience” aren’t strategies, they’re aspirations. A strategy tells you how and implies what you’re choosing to do instead.
Retail and E-Commerce
The pressure on retail margins and the shift to direct-to-consumer channels makes strategy choices sharper here. These five examples reflect the kinds of real choices retail and e-commerce businesses are making now.
Launch a loyalty programme that rewards repeat buyers with early access to new product drops and exclusive pricing, to increase purchase frequency in the existing customer base.
Shift 30% of the product range to own-brand labels to improve gross margin and reduce dependence on third-party suppliers with competing distribution strategies.
Open a flagship experiential store in a high-footfall city location to drive brand awareness and build a direct offline data capture capability.
Build a personalised email recommendation engine using purchase history data to surface relevant products at the right moment and increase average order value.
Partner with independent creators in the sustainable living space to reach a first-time buyer audience that paid and organic search channels aren’t converting.
Professional Services and Consulting
For consultancies and professional services firms, Strategies often centre on market positioning, talent leverage, and building thought leadership as a pipeline driver. The choices here determine whether a firm competes on price or on expertise.
Develop a proprietary benchmarking tool that gives prospects a free assessment of their operational maturity against industry peers, to generate qualified pipeline from buyers at the research stage.
Narrow our market positioning to the financial services vertical and deprioritise generalist mandates to sharpen credibility with target buyers and improve win rates.
Build a structured internal training and certification programme to reduce delivery dependency on senior consultants and improve our ability to scale engagements without margin erosion.
Launch a fixed-price entry-level diagnostic service to attract SME clients who can’t afford full engagements, and create a natural upsell pathway to multi-phase work.
Publish a quarterly sector insights report to build credibility with C-suite buyers in target verticals before they enter a formal procurement process.
SaaS and Technology
Growth Strategies in SaaS hinge on a small number of pivotal choices: which segment to target, what the acquisition motion looks like, and how to retain customers through product experience. These five examples reflect strategies at different growth stages.
Build a native Salesforce integration to eliminate the primary implementation barrier cited by enterprise prospects during the sales process.
Launch a freemium tier with deliberate feature gating to capture self-serve users in the SME segment and convert them through in-app upgrade prompts.
Redesign the onboarding flow end-to-end to reduce median time-to-first-value from 14 days to under 48 hours, making early retention the primary growth lever.
Establish a customer advisory board drawn from our top-ten power users to co-develop the product roadmap and reduce feature mismatch as a driver of early churn.
Enter the European market through an established regional reseller network rather than building a direct sales team, to test market fit before making a fixed-cost commitment.
Manufacturing and Operations
Operations Strategies are often about cost structure, supply chain resilience, and quality. The choices made here determine whether a business competes on efficiency, consistency, or capability.
Consolidate from six suppliers to two preferred partners across core materials to reduce procurement complexity, lower unit costs, and improve quality control through closer relationships.
Implement a lean manufacturing programme across all production lines over 18 months, targeting the six highest-waste processes first, to reduce rework and improve throughput.
Automate the three most labour-intensive assembly stages to reduce per-unit cost and create a consistent output quality that manual processes can’t sustain at volume.
Develop a direct-to-customer fulfilment channel for a curated range of products to reduce dependence on distributors and capture margin currently lost in the channel.
Pursue ISO 14001 environmental management certification to meet the procurement requirements of key European customers and position ahead of incoming regulatory requirements.
Non-Profit and Charity
The Strategies that work for charities look different from commercial businesses — the constraint is usually unrestricted funding and volunteer capacity rather than market share. These examples reflect real choices non-profit leaders make.
Build a corporate partnership programme targeting 10 mid-sized businesses in the region for multi-year unrestricted funding commitments, reducing dependence on grant income.
Launch a peer-to-peer fundraising platform to activate the existing supporter base as active fundraisers, not just passive donors, for major annual campaigns.
Expand service delivery into three new regional areas by partnering with established local organisations rather than building direct delivery capacity, to grow reach without adding fixed costs.
Develop a fee-generating social enterprise arm that provides commercial services to businesses, using surplus to cross-subsidise core charitable activities.
Create a structured volunteer development pathway — induction, role progression, recognition — to improve 12-month retention and reduce the cost of ongoing volunteer recruitment.
Healthcare and Wellness
Healthcare Strategies must balance clinical quality, patient experience, and the operational realities of capacity and regulation. These examples span both clinical and commercial dimensions.
Introduce a hybrid care model that combines in-person initial consultations with structured remote follow-up, to increase practitioner capacity without proportional headcount growth.
Build a formal referral partnership programme with GP surgeries in the catchment area to increase new patient registrations through a trusted clinical channel.
Launch a corporate wellness subscription programme targeting local employers of 50 or more staff, to diversify revenue beyond direct patient fees and smooth the income curve.
Develop a digital self-management tool for patients to use between appointments, to improve adherence to clinical recommendations and reduce avoidable re-attendance.
Pursue a quality excellence accreditation by embedding a continuous improvement programme across all clinical and operational teams, to differentiate on quality and meet rising commissioner expectations.
Common OGSM Strategy Mistakes
Even experienced leaders get these wrong. Here’s what to watch for.
Strategies that are actually Goals. “Increase market share” is a Goal. “Launch a mid-market product tier at 60% of our flagship price to compete for volume buyers we’re currently losing to lower-cost alternatives” is a Strategy. If your Strategy sounds like a target, it belongs in the Goals row.
Strategies that are actually tasks. “Redesign the website” is a task. “Shift our primary acquisition channel from outbound to inbound by building a content and SEO programme targeting mid-funnel buyers” is a Strategy. Tasks belong in project plans. The OGSM holds the choices that determine which tasks are worth doing at all.
Too many Strategies. Three to five is right. If you have ten Strategies, you haven’t made choices — you’ve listed everything you could do. That’s not a strategy; it’s a backlog. The OGSM template builds in the constraint to keep you disciplined.
Strategies that nobody disagrees with. If every person in the room reads your Strategy and immediately nods — no pushback, no alternative view — it’s probably not a real choice. Real Strategies generate healthy debate because they imply trade-offs. If there’s no debate, push harder.
Changing Strategies every quarter. Strategies should be stable for the planning horizon — typically 12 to 36 months. If you’re revising them every 90 days, you’re either reacting to noise or the original choices weren’t credible. Measures should update more frequently. Strategies should not.
How to Pressure-Test Your OGSM Strategies
Once you’ve drafted your Strategies, run each one through these four checks before locking them in.
The choice test. Complete this sentence: “We chose this instead of \_\_\_\_.” If you can’t fill in the blank with a plausible alternative, the Strategy isn’t real enough. A real choice always has a real alternative.
The Goal connection test. Identify which Goal each Strategy primarily supports. If a Strategy doesn’t connect to any Goal, either remove it or add the Goal you forgot to write. Orphaned Strategies are a sign of incomplete thinking.
The granularity test. Read your Strategy out loud. If it sounds like a campaign brief, a project plan, or a specification document, it’s too granular. A Strategy should be something a team lead can use to make a daily prioritisation decision — without needing to ask the CEO what it means.
The disagreement test. Ask someone outside your immediate leadership team whether they’d make a different strategic choice to achieve the same Goal. If they immediately agree with your Strategy without hesitation, probe further. Real choices have real alternatives, and the best strategies have been genuinely tested before they’re locked in.
If your Strategies pass all four tests, you’ve done the hard thinking. From here, the cascade process takes each Strategy and translates it into team-level plans. Read how to cascade OGSM through your organisation for the full step-by-step.
Writing OGSM Strategy Statements: The Short Version
A strong OGSM Strategy is:
One crisp sentence
A genuine choice with an implicit trade-off
Directly connected to a Goal
Stable enough to guide decisions for a year or more
Start with your Goals. Ask “how?” for each one. Write down every reasonable path. Then make the call — which two or three of those paths represent the best route forward given your resources, your market, and your competitive reality? Those are your Strategies. Everything else — campaigns, projects, roadmaps, tactics — lives underneath them.
Most startups have no shortage of ambition. What they’re short on is focus.
OGSM works exceptionally well for startups because it forces strategic focus on a single page — one objective, three to five goals, a handful of clear strategies, and the measures to track them. For a resource-constrained team, that’s not a limitation. It’s the whole point. A well-built startup OGSM replaces lengthy business plans with a living document your whole team can execute from day one.
Here’s how to build one — adapted specifically for the realities of an early-stage or fast-growing business.
Why Startups Avoid Strategy (And Why That’s a Mistake)
The most common objection to strategic planning in startups is speed. Things change too fast. The market shifts. The product pivots. Writing a strategy feels like a waste of time when everything is in flux.
There’s some truth in this — but it misses something important. The problem isn’t strategy. The problem is the wrong kind of strategy.
A 40-page business plan is the wrong kind. It takes weeks to write, goes out of date immediately, and nobody reads it twice. But that’s not what OGSM is.
OGSM is a one-page strategic plan. It takes a few hours to build with your founding team, fits on a single slide, and can be updated in minutes when circumstances change. It doesn’t slow you down. It gives you the clarity to move faster — because everyone on the team knows exactly what they’re optimising for.
The startups that struggle aren’t the ones that plan too much. They’re the ones that move fast in too many directions at once.
Why OGSM Is Particularly Well-Suited to Startups
OGSM has several features that make it especially effective for early-stage businesses.
It’s short. One page forces ruthless prioritisation. You can’t fit everything on one page, which means you have to decide what matters most. That decision is the strategy.
It’s visual. The OGSM is structured as a table — objective at the top, goals and strategies and measures aligned across a single row structure. The entire team can see the plan at a glance. No scrolling through slides. No hunting for the relevant paragraph.
It links ambition to action. The OGSM connects your objective (where you’re going) directly to the initiatives your team works on every week. That connection is what most startup planning lacks. The mission is inspiring but the Monday morning to-do list feels disconnected from it. OGSM closes that gap.
It’s easy to update. When your assumptions change — and in a startup, they will — you update the relevant line of the OGSM and re-share it. A one-page plan adapts in minutes. A 40-page business plan doesn’t.
How to Adapt OGSM for a Startup Context
The standard OGSM structure works well for startups with one adjustment: be more comfortable with uncertainty in your goals and measures early on, and expect to revisit them more frequently than an established business would.
Here’s how to approach each element.
The Objective should describe the future state you’re building toward — not what you do today, but where you’re heading. Keep it to one sentence. Make it specific enough to be meaningful, but broad enough to survive a product pivot. Good startup objectives often describe the problem you’re solving and the customer you’re serving, not just the revenue you want to hit.
The Goals should be 3 to 5 quantitative targets for the next 12 months. In a startup, at least one of these will almost certainly be a revenue or growth target. Others might cover customer acquisition, product milestones, team building, or runway. Be honest with yourself: a goal you can’t measure isn’t a goal, it’s a wish.
The Strategies are where most startups underinvest. A strategy isn’t “grow our customer base.” That’s a goal. A strategy is the specific approach you’ll take: “Grow our customer base by partnering with three complementary SaaS platforms to reach their existing user communities.” The more specific you can be, the more useful the strategy becomes as a decision-making tool — helping your team say no to the things that don’t fit.
The Measures — covering both the metrics you track and the initiatives you’ll execute — should be lean. A startup OGSM typically has two to three initiatives per strategy, not ten. Pick the ones that move the needle. Everything else is noise.
What a Startup OGSM Looks Like in Practice
Here’s a simplified example for an early-stage B2B SaaS startup:
Objective: Become the go-to project management tool for freelance creative agencies by delivering a beautifully simple platform that saves them five hours of admin per week.
Goals:
€500K ARR by December
200 paying customers by Q3
NPS score of 50+ by Q2
Churn rate below 5% monthly
Strategy 1: Win the freelance agency segment by focusing all marketing and product development on their specific workflow needs. Measures: 3 agency partnerships signed, 50 case studies published, product roadmap reviewed quarterly with 5 agency customers
Strategy 2: Drive acquisition through content and community, not paid ads. Measures: 10,000 monthly blog visitors by Q4, 1 active community forum launched, 2 guest posts per month on agency-focused publications
This is a real plan. It fits on one page. The whole founding team can point to it and say: this is what we’re doing and why.
Three Mistakes Startups Make With OGSM
Mistake 1: Setting too many goals. More than five goals dilutes focus. Pick the three to five numbers that genuinely indicate your startup is on the right trajectory, and track those obsessively.
Mistake 2: Writing vague strategies. “Build brand awareness” is not a strategy. “Build brand awareness by publishing two founder-led LinkedIn articles per week targeting our ICP” is. The test: can someone on your team look at a strategy and know exactly what to do on Monday morning?
Mistake 3: Building it in isolation. The OGSM only works if the team that needs to execute it had a hand in creating it. Even in a founding team of two, build it together. The conversation is as valuable as the document.
Start With the Template, Not a Blank Page
If you want to build your startup OGSM quickly, the fastest way to start is with a structured template that gives you the right layout from the beginning. Our OGSM Template for PowerPoint and OGSM Template for Excel are designed to get you from blank page to complete strategic plan in a single working session.
And if you want to see the framework in action before you build your own, our OGSM examples show how real businesses — from a small Italian restaurant to a B2B company — have used it to build plans that actually get executed.
Most B2B SaaS strategies collapse under the weight of too many priorities. Product wants to ship features. Sales wants more leads. Finance wants CAC under control. The OGSM framework forces you to resolve that tension on a single page — before it resolves itself in the wrong direction.
This example shows how a fictional B2B SaaS company — PipelineIQ, a pipeline analytics platform for mid-market sales teams — used the OGSM methodology to align their leadership team around a clear path from $2M to $8M ARR. The numbers, company, and details are illustrative. The strategic logic is real.
PipelineIQ is a B2B SaaS company that helps mid-market sales teams visualize pipeline health, forecast revenue more accurately, and identify deals at risk before they slip. They integrate with Salesforce and HubSpot and sell primarily to VP Sales and RevOps leaders at companies with 50–500 employees.
At the time of this OGSM, PipelineIQ has reached $2M ARR with strong product-market fit signals — high NPS, good retention among customers who fully onboard — but inconsistent trial-to-paid conversion and a growing gap between SMB and enterprise performance. The leadership team needs to decide where to concentrate resources for the next 12 months.
The PipelineIQ OGSM
Objective
Become the leading pipeline analytics platform for mid-market B2B sales teams by accelerating product-led growth and deepening enterprise retention.
Goals
Goals translate the objective into measurable outcomes. PipelineIQ chose five metrics that collectively define what success looks like at the end of the 12-month period.
Goal
Current
Target
Annual Recurring Revenue (ARR)
$2M
$8M
Net Revenue Retention (NRR)
102%
≥115%
Trial-to-paid conversion rate
9%
≥18%
CAC payback period
18 months
≤12 months
Net Promoter Score (NPS)
38
≥50
Strategies
Strategies are the 3–5 high-impact choices that determine where PipelineIQ concentrates its resources. Each is written as a “what-by-how” statement — specific enough to exclude things they won’t do.
Strategy 1: Accelerate trial-to-paid conversion by redesigning the onboarding flow around a fast time-to-value milestone
PipelineIQ’s data shows that users who reach their first “pipeline health score” within 72 hours of signup convert at 3x the rate of those who don’t. The strategy is to rebuild the onboarding sequence around this milestone — removing friction, adding guided prompts, and making the health score the first thing every trial user sees.
Strategy 2: Increase NRR by building a structured customer success motion for accounts above $15K ARR
Churn is concentrated in the $10K–$20K ARR band, typically from accounts that never fully adopted the forecasting module. A dedicated CS motion — quarterly business reviews, adoption scoring, and expansion playbooks — will address this before it compounds.
Strategy 3: Move upmarket into the $20K–$60K ACV segment by targeting RevOps leaders at Series B–D companies through account-based outreach
Mid-market accounts have lower churn, higher NPS, and more expansion potential than SMBs. PipelineIQ will build an ABM programme targeting 200 high-fit accounts per quarter, led by outbound sequences from a newly hired senior AE.
Strategy 4: Build category authority by publishing the annual B2B Pipeline Benchmark Report as the definitive industry reference
Owned research creates durable inbound demand and shortens sales cycles. PipelineIQ will survey 500+ sales leaders, publish findings in Q2, and use the report as the cornerstone of their content and PR strategy for the year.
Measures
Measures define how each strategy will be tracked and executed. For each strategy, PipelineIQ identified 2–3 Key Metrics (the numbers that define success) and 2–3 Actions (the concrete initiatives that will move those numbers).
Survey 500 sales leaders (Q1); Publish with PR push (Q2); Content distribution plan (Q2)
What Makes This OGSM Work
Three things stand out about PipelineIQ’s OGSM that are worth noting for your own strategy work.
The objective resolves a real tension. PipelineIQ could have written a generic objective about “becoming a market leader.” Instead, they named the two specific mechanisms driving growth — product-led growth and enterprise retention — which immediately signals to the team where resources will flow and where they won’t.
The goals are genuinely constraining. An NRR target of ≥115% is not a stretch goal bolted onto an existing plan. It forces a structural change: you can’t hit 115% NRR without a real CS motion. The goal drives the strategy, not the other way around.
The strategies make explicit trade-offs. Strategy 3 targets Series B–D companies specifically — not “all upmarket segments.” Strategy 4 commits to one owned research asset rather than a broad content calendar. These exclusions are as important as the inclusions.
OGSM vs. OKR: Which Framework Works Better for SaaS?
This is a question that comes up often in SaaS leadership teams, especially those that have previously used OKRs.
OGSM
OKR
Output format
One page, full strategy visible at once
Nested list of objectives and key results by team
Strategic choices
Explicit — strategies define what you will and won’t do
Implicit — key results may point in different directions
Execution link
Measures connect each strategy to specific actions and owners
Key results tracked separately; initiatives often disconnected
Cadence
Annual with quarterly measure reviews
Quarterly cycles with annual reset
Best suited for
Full business strategy alignment (board to team)
Team-level goal-setting and performance tracking
Many SaaS companies find that OGSM works better at the business unit or company level precisely because it forces the strategic trade-off conversation. OKRs can sit alongside it at the team or individual level for execution tracking.
Build Your Own OGSM
Use our pre-formatted OGSM templates to build your own one-page strategy. Available for Microsoft PowerPoint (for leadership presentations) and Microsoft Excel (for building, tracking, and updating your plan). Both are fully editable and immediately downloadable.
Two-thirds of all business strategies fail during implementation. And just like the seven cardinal sins, when strategies fail in business often one or more of the seven deadly sins of strategy are at work.
The seven deadly sins of business strategy:
Ignorance – not knowing
Incongruity – not fitting
Confusion – not understanding
Doubt – not believing
Discord – not uniting / not aligning
Incompetence – not able
Inertia – not acting
Become aware of these seven sins of business strategy and how to avoid them and you are on your way to business success. Here’s how.
Ignorance
The first sin is ignorance or not knowing.
Merriam-Webster defines ignorance as “the state or fact of being ignorant: lack of knowledge, […] or awareness”.1
When thinking of ignorance I cannot help but think of the three wise monkeys and the famous maxime “see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil”. However when it comes to business strategy, it would obviously not be advisable to stick your head in the sand and pretend the world around you does not exist.
Running a successful business and developing effective strategies require staring the truth in the eye, relentlessly asking questions, and thoroughly analyzing and understanding the situation you are in.
In his classic book “Good To Great”, Jim Collins calls this “confronting the brutal facts”2. Collins argues that you cannot make good decisions without confronting the brutal facts of reality. You want to create an atmosphere where people are encouraged to raise issues and speak their minds. You want a climate where the truth is heard. How? According to Collins:
Lead with questions, not answers
Engage in dialogue and debate, not coercion.
Conduct autopsies, without blame.
Build “red flag” mechanisms that surface information that cannot be ignored.
Every good strategy process begins with an analysis of the current internal and external business environment in order to situate the strategy in the realities of the business.
Ignorance will set you up for failure. Knowledge, awareness and facing the facts will set you up for success.
Incongruity
The second sin of business strategy is incongruity or not fitting.
Merriam-Webster says incongruity refers to “something that is incongruous”, i.e. “something that is inconsistent within itself”.3
A business strategy can only be effective in delivering results when it fits the situation the business is in. Every business is different. Every strategy is different. Different strategies may be effective at different times. Along those lines, a strategy that may fit another business or at another time does not necessarily fit yours – and now.
I have seen businesses emulating other successful businesses’ strategies hoping that such a strategy would also work for them. Or I have seen new leaders coming to new businesses and attempting to implement the strategies that made their previous businesses successful. I’m not saying that this may never work. But I am saying that the specific strategy must fit the business and the situation that it’s in. If possible, check and adapt.
One important aspect of congruence is that your business must have the necessary knowledge, resources, skills and capabilities to implement the chosen strategy. If that is not the case, the strategy is incongruent with the business and bound to fail.
Starting your strategy process with an analysis of the current internal and external environment and truly understanding what strengths and weaknesses your business has, helps make sure that the strategy you develop fits your business and its situation.
One more important aspect that has served me well over the years: involve your team in the strategy process. Their insights and real day-to-day experiences will help test assumptions and guide the discussions towards the right priorities. Make sure however as noted above that the truth is heard.
With that you set yourself up to develop and execute a strategy that uniquely fits your business and your situation.
Confusion
The third sin is confusion or not understanding.
Merriam-Webster defines confusion as “the act of confusing” or the “state of being confused” and further describes these “to disturb in mind or purpose” or “to fail to differentiate from an often similar or related other”.4
In other words, related to business strategy, the strategy is unclear or not fully understood. And what could be worse than to develop a carefully designed strategy, nestled in the realities of the business, vetted over months, if in the end your team does not understand it.
Being unclear about the company’s strategy or not understanding how one’s own role contributes to the mission of the business are key reasons for employee disengagement. And when your team is not engaged, it is not effective in moving your company towards its objective and goals.
In order to create clarity about your strategy, consider the following three aspects:
Involve your team in the strategy process. Integrating your team’s insights and expertise when deciding where to play and how to win builds in their understanding of what you are trying to achieve.
Keep the strategy simple. Duh, this sounds obvious. But it is actually really hard to do. Calibrating your strategy so that it is not high in the clouds and disconnected from your business while anchoring it in the day-to-day realities without cluttering it with details is the ultimate challenge. Work with your team, follow a structured process, challenge yourself to reiterate until you can boil your strategy down to its simplest essence. Check for clarity, sufficiency, alignment before finalizing.
Communicate, communicate, communicate. Throughout the entire strategy process, communicate with your team. Share your thoughts, test assumptions, possibly involve customers.
A 2009 survey by Forbes Insights and FD revealed that a lack of understanding was the number 2 reason why strategies failed during execution5. What’s the number 1 reason? Unforeseen external circumstances (see Ignorance above).
So invest in clarity and involve your team and you should be well on your way.
Doubt
The fourth sin is doubt or not believing.
According to Merriam-Webster, doubt means “to call into question the truth of” something or “to lack confidence in” something.6
When thinking of business strategy, doubt is sewn when the strategy is not compelling, when the strategy does not have a clear destination or when the destination seems unattractive or out of reach.
A business strategy must spell out the purpose of the business and why moving the business towards its destination is an attractive, worthy cause. It’s strategies that appeal to a larger cause than the products of the company or a financial goal that inspire people and make people believe.
For example, a strategy that aims to “achieve profit X” or to “build product Y” are clear and realistic, but not inspiring. Instead, connect these goals to a larger cause such as serving a key customer need, solving a major problem or overcoming an industry challenge.
A strategy must clearly articulate a vision, a destination so compelling that it moves people to action.
Besides being connected to the realities of the business and being clear and understandable, therefore, a business strategy must inspire people to believe.
Discord
The fifth sin is discord or not uniting or aligning.
Merriam-Webster says discord refers to the “lack of agreement or harmony (as between persons, things, or ideas)”.7
Say you have defined a vision for your business. You have turned that inspiring vision into clear objectives and goals and you have rallied your team to join you on that journey. But what if it is not clear how you will reach your destination or worse what if there is disagreement about how to reach the destination? The energy you created deflates.
The same way there are “a thousand ways to Rome”, there are many ways for a business to reach its objectives. An effective strategy doesn’t only spell out what it aims to achieve, but also how it is going to achieve it. As Lafley and Martin say in “Playing to Win” it’s where to play AND how to win.
Strategy is all about making choices. It’s about allocating your finite resources to those initiatives that give you the highest chance of success. It’s about deciding which ventures to fund, which products to build, which services to offer, and which competencies & skills to develop.
It should not be your ambition to make everyone agree with the strategy. It’s ok to agree to disagree. It’s more important that everyone unites and gets behind the strategy to direct the company’s resources fully towards its vision and strategic objectives. How do you achieve that? Alignment.
During the strategy process, work with your team to translate the objective and goals into strategies that translate your ambitions into results. The strategies describe the ‘how’, the trade-offs, the resource allocation decisions. Then further work with your team on cascading the strategies into objectives and goals for each division, function, and team. In a small business with only a few people, the same process holds. Translate the strategies into clear objectives, goals, and initiatives for each person. The initiatives and actions of each team or person must align with the larger cause like one cogwheel in a system grabbing into another.
When the business is united behind the strategy and your team is aligned on how to reach your destination, you can fully direct your energy towards achieving your goals.
Incompetence
The sixth sin is incompetence or not being able to.
Merriam-Webster defines incompetence as “the state of being incompetent”, i.e. “lacking the qualities needed for effective action”.8
Incompetence or the lack of ability to do something is likely the easiest sin to understand and also the easiest to overcome. Yet, in my experience, incompetence is also the most underestimated.
When defining a strategy and setting the course for your business, it is important to confirm whether your business has the necessary knowledge, skills, and experiences to implement the strategy and achieve the goals. It’s worth reviewing these terms individually. For our intents and purposes, let’s define the terms as follows.
Knowledge – refers to knowing what to do. This means having acquired theoretical and practical knowledge through professional training, university, school or self study. Books are a wonderful source of knowledge.
Skills – refers to knowing how to do it. These are the competencies and techniques needed to complete a job, task or activity. These include hard skills and soft skills as well as generic skills and domain specific skills. Practice or training is a great way to acquire and hone skills.
Experience – refers to having done it before. This means having applied the acquired knowledge and skills in real life. Having faced and overcome the exact situation you aim to master.
Consider a sports example. Knowledge means you have read all about football, you have watched it on TV and have been told what football is and how to play it. Skill means you have practiced football. You have handled the ball, you have trained together with your team members. Experience means you have played the game and have been on the field in the competitive situation of winning or losing.
Having and honing all three, knowledge, skills, and experiences, vastly improve your chances of success and overcoming inertia.
This doesn’t mean that you cannot succeed if you lack any or all of them. Learning by doing or tackling a new challenge that no one has ever faced can be powerful ways to move people to action. Just know that lack of knowledge, skills and experiences can be a reason why your strategy is not progressing.
So audit yourself during the strategy process and check you have the necessary knowledge, skills, and experiences to do what you aim to do. If not, seek to understand whether this is critical for success. If yes, invest in building the necessary knowledge, skills and experiences before setting off on your journey.
Finally, make sure that your key initiatives critical to success are well resourced. Even if you have the necessary abilities, there is no guarantee for success. Ensure you have enough of them and that they are applied persistently.
Inertia
The seventh sin is inertia or not acting.
Merriam-Webster says inertia is the “indisposition to motion, exertion, or change” and defines inertness as “very slow to move or act”.9
In business strategy, inertia is an interesting phenomenon. Your strategy is ready, you have communicated with your team, but nothing happens. Progress is slow. Results are pending. What happened?
In physics, the reason for inertia is resistance. In business, the reasons could be manifold and not due to one single reason.
Inertia could be caused by a lack of focus. If you have too many topics on your plate, you may be working a little on all of them, but not sufficiently on any of them to make a difference or bring a topic to the end. Review the number of initiatives in your business. What matters most right now? What matters most long-term? Prioritize and work on what’s important first. Bring those topics to an end.
Inertia could be caused by a sheer insurmountable challenge. Have you had this before? A problem so big you didn’t know where to start? I have certainly been there and it keeps you from moving ahead. If you face such a situation, break it down. Divide the problem, project or initiative into smaller steps or sub-projects. Consult a colleague or mentor to help you with this when you get stuck. Sometimes another perspective can be powerful. Then tackle one topic at a time. Ensure that each sub-project has the resources and expertise to move forward.
Inertia could be caused by a lack of passion. When you find an activity you love doing, it seems no effort at all. You tackle it readily and you don’t seem to notice the time passing. However, when the opposite is true, when you face an activity you cannot get excited about, it seems to become a chore. You are more likely to put it off and choose to get other things done first. This is quite typical and can also happen with your strategic initiatives. When resourcing your initiatives and finding caretakers, make sure to check for interest to find someone who can get passionate about the project. If this is not the case, consider outsourcing. If it’s important to the strategy, but not core to your business or the passion of your business, find someone for whom it is.
Inertia could be caused by a lack of ability. As noted above under incompetence, lacking the necessary knowledge, skills, and experiences may prevent your team from moving forward. Ensure that you have the ability to succeed and that it is well resourced.
And of course, inertia could be caused by resistance. Sometimes outright resistance to the strategic direction, to the objective and goals, to the approach prevents progress. But resistance itself is not the reason. When resistance exists, there are more fundamental concerns in play that must be understood. Dig in! Approach your team, your customers, your stakeholders openly. Ask questions to truly understand their concerns. Fundamental reasons could be fear and anxiety about changes: plant closures, job losses, benefit changes. These concerns can be very personal and it’s critical they are heard and understood to help people cope. Any such reasons are legitimate. Approach them with empathy. Make it your personal mission to truly understand and then work with the people to overcome their underlying reasons for concern.
So how do you change inertia? Just like in physics, you apply force. No, not physical force. But you do need to give an input to create motion. And that input must come from the business leader.
Engage your team throughout the strategy process and ensure key people are involved. Openly and actively listen to questions and concerns. Communicate, communicate, communicate so everyone understands why you are doing what you are doing and how the team can help.
Engagement and understanding create buy-in. And buy-in helps you overcome inertia.
How to avoid the 7 sins of business strategy
Now that we have learned about the 7 sins of business strategy and heard some thoughts about how to avoid them, how do we set ourselves up for success?
In order to succeed in business, apply the following six principles of business strategy during your strategic planning and implementation.
1. Structured process
Whether you are in a large company or a small business, a disciplined strategic planning process is critical to success
Be deliberate about strategy development and implementation
If you have a team, involve your employees in the strategic planning and the implementation process
Involving your team not only sends a clear message of appreciation, but also helps with anticipating potential obstacles and preparing accordingly
Your team knows the day-to-day challenges and helps with a realistic assessment of opportunities and capabilities.
3. Buy-In & Alignment
When developing your strategy, make sure your objectives, goals, strategies, and measures are congruent with each other. Check whether strategies and measures are sufficient to achieve the objective and goals.
Seek systematic buy-in and alignment of objectives and strategies across your organization. Make sure each function is involved, understands what it takes to be successful, and has the resources and capabilities to succeed.
Systematically break down objective and goals and cascade them throughout the organization. Ensure that every level in the organization is aligned, empowered and pulls in the same direction.
4. Communication
Clarity about objective, goals and strategic priorities is of utmost importance. You cannot execute a strategy you do not understand.
Build communication as an integral part into strategy formulation and execution.
Listen to questions and concerns and consistently explain how initiatives and actions fit with the overall strategy and how each individual can help to achieve the objective and goals.
5. Accountability
While the business leader is ultimately accountable for success or failure of the strategy, the strategic plan must be the common objective for the entire business
Set clear expectations for each function and team and clarify how each contributes to moving the business in the right direction and delivering results.
Hold people responsible for implementing strategic initiatives and delivering expected results. Be a cheerleader for your team and allow no excuses.
6. Execution
Implementation must be considered a strategic initiative, not an operational task
Install a clear cadence when reviews take place and what actions have to be completed by whom and by when
Ensure that key initiatives are prioritized and resourced appropriately with the needed manpower and skills
Conclusion
In summary, to avoid the seven sins of business strategy, work with your team to follow the 6 proven principles of business strategy.
The OGSM methodology is one of the most effective antidotes to all seven deadly sins of business strategy — a clear, one-page plan that the whole team can see, understand, and act on. Download a pre-formatted, fully customizable OGSM Template for PowerPoint or OGSM Template for Excel from the Rock Your Strategy shop and build your strategy on solid foundations.
Looking for inspiration on how to structure your strategic plan? Or just looking for an OGSM example? Get to know Andy and learn how he applies the OGSM methodology to his small B2B company.
OGSM stands for Objective, Goals, Strategies and Measures and is a one-page business plan that defines ‘what’ you aim to achieve and ‘how’ you are going to achieve it. It is a simple but powerful method that enables strategic clarity, alignment and execution. The OGSM can be applied to large companies and small businesses alike.
This fictional story tells the tale about how small business owner Andy used the OGSM methodology to breathe new life into his father’s old business. Scroll to the bottom of this article if you want to skip the story and head straight to the OGSM.
Introduction
Andy hadn’t been able to sleep. Cold sweat on his forehead, he had been tossing back and forth all night. He stared at the marred face in the mirror: tired eyes with deep black rings underneath stared back at him. Andy counted the worry lines engraved on his forehead. His mind was racing. How would he be able to save his company? How would they be able to defend their share – never mind achieve their growth objective? What was he going to tell his investors?
Ever since Competitech had entered the market for fasteners the previous spring, their market share had dwindled. Florian’s Fastener Solutions had been the market leader for nuts, bolds, washers, and screws throughout the entire Northeast ever since his late father had built the company five decades ago. The iconic F-logo was well known in hardware stores and construction sites across the region. Now everything seemed to change. If they didn’t do something fast, they might be running out of cash in 12-18 months.
Florian’s Logo
The annual Board of Directors meeting was coming up in less than 3 weeks. Andy wasn’t sure if he could wait that long. He had to refine his plan and discuss it again with his team.
Andy showered, got dressed, and paused just before descending the stairs. He peeked through the children’s bedroom door. All quiet. He could only hear the steady breathing of his two daughters still fast asleep. “If only you knew how stressful and fearsome this world can be”, he thought to himself. Andy blew kisses to both and rushed downstairs.
Just as he grabbed his bag and ran out to the car his phone rang. “Andy, you up?” asked the familiar voice of his head of finance on the other end of the line. “Good morning, Frank. Yeah, I’m on my way to the office. What’s up?”
“Good! Get down here. The report is back. It’s worse than we thought.”
Founding of an industry icon
Florian’s Fastener Solutions was founded by Florian Walterman in 1965. The son of German immigrants who had fled to the US in the 1930s, Florian worked his way through college by taking any construction job he could find. By the time he graduated, he had made a name for himself as being hard-working, gritty, and determined. No job was too tough. No task was too dirty. If you wanted something done, you asked for Flo. And it was these traits that he infused into his company right from the start.
It was not an easy start however. For the first few years, Florian had a hard time making ends meet. He had to take out a massive loan to afford the heavy equipment. The small shop he rented produced nuts and bolts for some of the construction outfits he had worked for during college. However at the back end of the American construction boom of the 1950s and 60s, there were fewer projects and Florian had to be creative.
Florian began experimenting with different materials and production processes. He tried new metals and blends and added new products. His goal was to make the best fasteners money could buy. If you needed bonding, Florian was determined that it had to be his products to do the job. That also explained his early slogan: Florian’s will fix it!
Ad in local newspaper in the late 1960s
Through sheer will and hard work, Florian persevered. His breakthrough came when a new chain store for hardware and gardening equipment approached him for an exclusive contract. The chain’s plan was to expand all across the Northeast and wanted to carry Florian’s fastener products. When they even offered to fund Florian’s needed expansion through an upfront payment, Florian readily agreed.
In the following years, the chain rapidly grew into American suburbia and with it Florian’s fasteners. Working hard to keep up with demand, Florian built a second site, purchased more equipment and hired more staff. As sales grew, so did the company. But Florian remained as hard nosed, down to earth, and gritty as he had always been.
Florian’s became a household name and its italic F on the bold head a well-known sign of quality and craftsmanship. An industry icon was born.
Family business
Andy had never wanted to get into the family business. Florian’s was his dad’s. It even carried his name. No, ever since being a little boy he wanted to go out to see the world. He wanted to help people who were less privileged than himself.
During high school he worked on a project in Puerto Rico. He was blessed with his dad’s workmanship and strong hands and was glad to put them to good use. In the summer after graduating he led a group of friends to Tanzania to build a school and teach English. He knew he wanted to devote his life to helping others and his choice of college degree was easy.
One day in Fall, Andy had just settled into his 3rd year at the Stanford University social sciences program, his mother called. “Andy, it’s your dad. He had a stroke. Can you come home?”
Shocked how anything could harm his steadfast father, Andy took the first Eastbound flight the following day. When his rental car pulled up the driveway, the last sun rays of the day peaked through the tall pine trees behind his parents’ house as dusk began to settle. Andy had this eerie feeling that more than a day was coming to an end.
“Thank you for coming home, Andy.” said his mother after a long, warm embrace. “Your father is at St. Mary’s hospital. The doctors say he may not make it.” Andy had always had a difficult relationship with his father. Not wanting to continue the business had driven a wedge between them. At this moment however, Andy felt overwhelmed with sadness and regret. All these years he was away while his father was consumed by work. They had not really had a chance to open up about their feelings for each other.
“He always wanted you to be here, you know”, his mother continued. “He loved you very much. He had made plans for you to carry on the company after he retired…” His mother’s voice trembled and tears began streaming down her cheeks. “But retirement never came… and now he’s…”
Andy held his mother tightly. “Let’s go see him”, he said gently.
At the hospital, Andy and his mother sat around his father’s bed. His eyes were closed. It was quiet in the room except for the beeping of the ECG and the hissing of the respirator. The doctors had prepared Andy for what to expect before they entered the room. “Your father has been waiting for you, Andy. He’s not conscious but he can hear you. He doesn’t have much time left. He’ll be happy that you’re here.”
Sitting by his father’s bedside, tears filled Andy’s eyes. He carefully took his father’s hand and whispered close to his ear, “I’m here, Dad. And I’m here to stay. Thank you for everything. I love you very much.” Andy thought he felt a twitch in his father’s hand. It was as if he wanted to say “I hear you, son. I love you.”
Andy looked up at his mother, “I’m ready, Mom. I’ll stay. We’ll get through this together.”
Departure and a new beginning
The funeral of Florian Walterman took place 3 weeks later. It was a beautiful ceremony. Many friends and life companions of the Walterman’s paid their respects.
Afterwards, Andy, his mother and Frank, Florian’s head of finance and Florian Walterman’s right hand man, sat together laughing and telling tales from Florian’s life and achievements.
Suddenly, Frank became serious. “Andy, your father left an envelope with me and asked me to pass to you should he ever leave. The time has come that I pass this letter to you. It includes a copy of his will and his wishes for the handover of the company. It was his wish that the two of you take over the reigns of the company. Please read the letter carefully and let me know if you have any questions. Know that I’m there for you whenever you need me.”
Frank handed Andy the letter, padded him on the shoulder, thanked Andy and his mother for the wonderful ceremony and left.
Andy took a deep breath and opened the letter. His mother knew the contents and looked at Andy while he studied each line and each word.
When Andy looked up, his mother said, “Andy, it’s your company now. I will head the Board of Directors but you run the day-to-day operations. Frank has looked after everything for the last weeks. The company is in good shape but a number of challenges are ahead. We need your foresight, your energy, and your care to take the company into the new millennium.”
Competitech
While Andy was driving to the office, he had to think back to the day 15 years ago, when he took over Florian’s from his father.
The first day in the company after the funeral had been strange for him. His father’s office still had had the musky smell of his old man’s cologne. There had been piles of paper everywhere and it had taken him some time to get sorted. Frank was there for him every step of the way. Frank had introduced him to the team, the operations, and the state of the business. He had taken him by the hand and made sure that Andy learned as quickly as he could. Andy was grateful for Frank’s mentorship. No, Frank was more than a mentor. Frank was like family.
And now Frank was waiting for him at the office with the fateful news he had been dreading all night.
Andy parked his car in front of the building and wished that he had stopped for coffee. Lost in thoughts he drove right by his usual morning coffee stop. “What’s wrong with me?”, he murmured as he stumbled up the steps to the office.
“Andy, finally.” Frank wasn’t much of a small talker, especially not in the morning. “We have an hour until the team gets in. Read this.”
Andy gave Frank a blank stare, took the report from his hand and walked into his office. “Give me the highlights, Frank.”
“Competitech is making much faster progress than we thought. They have taken 2 more retailers on the West coast and are working hard to get into our home base. Stan at Home Improv called me last night. He has Competitech calling him twice a day with new offers. He says he won’t be able to convince his head of purchasing to dodge their prices much longer.”
Andy spun around in his chair, suddenly wide awake. “Frank, I think we have to approach this differently. Let’s stop playing defense. I think we have to take this head on. It’s time to go into offense.”
OGSM Template for Excel
Pre-formatted, easy-to-use OGSM template for Microsoft Excel.
Andy shared with Frank what he had been thinking about all night. When he was finished Frank let out a long sigh. “And you are convinced this will fly?”
“I’m not, Frank. But I think it’s our only chance. Let’s discuss the idea with the team. And then let’s hash out a plan that can beat Competitech, restore our path to growth and convince the Board of Directors and our organization to come on board for the ride.”
Staging a turnaround
It was 8 a.m. by the time the last person sat down in the conference room. Murmurs of “G’morning” made the round. The entire leadership team had followed Andy’s call for the all-hands meeting. The small conference room seemed to be bursting at the seams with all seven leaders in attendance.
There was Frank, of course, the head of finance, who was seated right next to Andy. Next to him was Dan, head of operations, followed by Sharon, head of sales & marketing. Unlike in many other companies, Dan and Sharon usually stuck together. Next to Sharon was Alisha, the head of R&D. On the opposite side of the table, Tom, head of procurement, and Sarah, head of HR, sat in their usual seats.
Florian’s Fastener Solutions leadership team in late 2010s
Andy opened, “Good morning, everyone. Thank you for joining this early on a Monday. We have some important news to share and then some critical topics to discuss.”
Chatter erupted in the room. There was a crinkling of suspense and worry in the air.
“Please guys, let me explain.” Andy cleared his throat. “The market report we commissioned came back this morning… We lost further market share and are now at 15%. Competitech continues its march across the country and is rolling up customers state by state. Their share has swelled to 26%. This needs to stop. If we lose Home Improv or any of our main retail customers here in the Northeast, we will run out of cash as early as next year. I don’t need to explain what that would mean to our company and to the legacy my father has built together with all of you.”
Andy paused and looked around the room. He had everyone’s undivided attention. “Look, I am not going to sugarcoat this. This situation is dire. Competitech is significantly larger than us, offers cut throat prices with their cheap imports, and has a much wider portfolio of fasteners, screws, nails, and other metal products. Competitech is targeting large retailers and wholesalers and is already knocking on Home Improv’s door. If we simply wait and do nothing, they will wash over us like a tsunami. But we will not let that happen!”
Sharon spoke up first, “How do you plan to do that, Andy? Competitech is everywhere. They have a much larger sales force and their prices are 20% lower than hours. My guys are running out of arguments.” Dan nodded. “We cannot compete with their costs. We have optimized our processes over the last years as much as we could. There are no quick wins here.”
Chatter erupted once again as the team began talking over each other. Frank raised his hand and the room fell silent. The sign Florian had established still worked like a charm. “Andy had an idea. It’s risky financially but it’s worth considering. Give him a chance to explain.”
“Thanks, Frank.” Andy continued. “Sharon, Dan, I hear you. You guys have done your utmost to put us – and keep us – in a competitive position. That has contained the impact so far. Thank you for that. However what got us here, will not help us going forward. We have to rethink our strategy and refocus our resources.”
Frank picked up the market report which had been printed and laid out for each team member. “Besides the current market shares and competitive positions, the report also offers an outlook for different sectors of the market in future.” Frank tapped on a graph on page 7 of the report.
US Industrial Fastener Market Report (Source: fictional)
“While the overall fastener industry in the US is growing 2%, the wholesale & retail sector which has been our home market for all these years is going to decline faster in the years ahead”.
Sharon sighed, “I’ve been telling you this, Frank. Retail is dead in the water. No one is fixing up their houses anymore. Young people want to live in the cities. They play on their smartphones all day and have two left hands when it comes to swinging a hammer…”
“You have,” acknowledged Andy. “And we need to direct our attention to what is growing. Look at the chart. Construction, our other main market, remains robust. Automotive, Aerospace, Industrial Machinery are all showing positive growth for the coming years.”
“This is interesting!” Alisha exclaimed. She had skipped ahead in the report and read about the market trends within each of the sectors. “Some of the drivers of growth in Building & Construction are the building of data centers and elevators & escalators. Have we looked at this in more detail yet?”
“You hit the nail on the head, Alisha.” Andy smiled for the first time that day. “We are a small company. We will not be able to take on Competitech with their size. Nor will we be able to satisfy the Automotive industry’s requirement for scale and JIT. Why not use our size to our advantage and focus our attention on growing industries that require custom made products and value-adding services? Such as the IT and Elevator industries.”
The team began discussing the various market segments and debating which ones best fit their capabilities and size. After an hour of reviewing the facts they indeed honed in on IT and Elevators.
“Sounds to me like these are the industries with the highest growth rates in the next few years and for which we are uniquely positioned with our expertise here in the Northeast,” concluded Tom.
“But the industries are still small”, said Dan. “They alone will not be able to sustain us.”
Andy agreed, “It will take time for us to prepare entering those markets. We will need to add new products and new skills. And meanwhile, we must not give up our fortress. We will need to work on our cost position and secure our largest customers. The cash flow from our sales today will need to fund our sales of the future.”
“We will need additional resources for what you have in mind, Andy. We have good standing with our banks, but we will need a clear plan to convince them”, remarked Frank.
“We will need to convince our teams first, Frank. People are nervous. They see our sales declining and are worried that their jobs are at risk.” Sarah reminded everyone what was at stake.
“No one will lose their jobs. We will need everyone if we want to pull this off: you, your teams, the Board, everyone. We need to go back to the values my father instilled in this business to stage a turnaround. Let’s take a break and then resume to make a plan.”
Making a strategic plan
When the team returned to the conference room, Andy had already set up 2 flip charts. On the one in front of the room he had written a timeline.
Andy rolled up his sleeves. “Alright, folks. We have less than three weeks to put together the plan. I suggest we start right away today by setting the framework and then work over the next 2 weeks with our teams to flesh out the details. If we want broad buy-in from the team, we need to involve them as we always have.”
Andy flipped over the flip chart, revealing a process chart. “My dad had sworn by this process. Let’s use it again to guide our discussions. We had a good starting point this morning, but we need to dig deeper into those market segments to better understand their dynamics, customer needs, and competition.”
rockyourstrategy.com Strategy Process
“I suggest we approach it as follows.” Andy pointed to the strategy process. “Let’s focus today on the Mission and Business Analysis steps. Sharon, can you then work with your team on the Industry Analysis until the end of the week? Let’s then resume next Monday with the Vision and Strategic Choices parts before we then develop the Execution Plans with our teams for the remainder of that week. Goal must be to have a plan ready by the end of next week. That’s 10 days, 12 with the weekend. Are you guys ok with that?”
“Wow, that’s a tight timeline, Andy!” Dan was not usually the one to point out the obvious.
“Yes, it is, Dan. This is not going to be easy. I am open to alternative ideas if you have any.” Andy scanned the room, but no one had a suggestion.
“Then let’s get started,” said both Alisha and Sarah in unison. They looked at each other and giggled. “Yes, let’s get started”, confirmed Andy, glad that the mood had lightened. “Frank, can you take over and facilitate?”
Intimately familiar with the strategy process, Frank was happy to. He got up and walked to the front of the room.
OGSM example – the 5 year growth plan
The Leadership team of Florian’s Fastener Solutions went to work. And over the next two weeks worked out a detailed plan with their teams. They summarized their strategy in a simple one-page business plan they called their OGSM.
OGSM stands for Objective, Goals, Strategies and Measures and is a one-page business plan which details what you aim to achieve and how you are going to achieve it.
Andy knew his dad had used the OGSM methodology for years. He had liked its simplicity and the clarity it created. Combining the what and the how moved the team from planning to execution and aligned everyone behind the overall direction of the company.
“If you want your team to follow you, Andy, your team needs clarity where you’re headed!” he had always implored on him. Andy heard his father’s voice ring through his head. He could remember a treasure trove of bumper sticker-like one-liners from his childhood. He barely ever listened to his dad when he talked about work at the dinner table. When Andy took over Florian’s however he had been glad for the lessons his dad had taught him.
“Making the numbers is not a strategy. Strategy is about making choices!”
“Appeal to your people’s hearts and their minds and they will take you anywhere.”
“Take care of your people and they will take care of your customers.”
“A plan is only as good as its execution!”
Andy sat in his office, eyes locked on a copy of the freshly minted OGSM in front of him. He felt good about their plan. Not only did the leadership team work on it with enthusiasm. But the entire organization had pitched in. He was surprised at the commitment everyone had shown. It was as if they had just been waiting to be asked to contribute. And maybe they had been…
Andy felt exhausted as he dialled his mother’s phone number. He wanted to set up a meeting to jointly review the final plan. He had kept her apprised of progress over the past two weeks. Being the chairlady of the Board of Directors, Andy made sure she was in lockstep with the team every step of the way.
With the Board of Directors meeting now days away and the change they proposed significant, Andy did not want to leave anything up to chance. The transformation itself would be enough of a gamble.
Epilogue
Sarah raised a glass. “Andy, on behalf of the leadership team, I would like to thank you! If it wasn’t for your dedication, your optimism and your continued reinforcement of the plan and its execution, I’m not sure whether we’d be here today.” The rest of the team joined in cajoling and shouts of encouragement and appreciation. Sarah threw an icy look before bursting out into laughter. “Quiet, I am not finished yet!”
Florian’s Fastener Solutions leadership team was sitting together on the farmhouse patio of the little vineyard which Florian Walterman had bought years ago. Overlooking Cayuga Lake, the vineyard at Finger Lakes had become a favorite get-away for company events and team celebrations.
It was a beautiful late Summer evening. A slight breeze made the warm air comfortable. Bottles of the vineyard’s signature Riesling were nestled in the ice bucket next to the large table. Andy had invited the team to the vineyard to celebrate the latest contract Sharon had signed the previous week and the progress the company had made in executing their plan.
“When we embarked on this journey three years ago, I was frankly not convinced that we would be able to turn things around.” Sarah said honestly. “Of course I was hopeful. I had faith in our abilities and our team members. But I was not convinced.”
“Boooooh”, Sharon and Dan interrupted Sarah with wide smiles. “Shush, you two”, she responded with an equally wide grin.
“Andy, you kept us going. You convinced your mother and the Board of Directors, you got the funding from the bank, and you led the meticulous execution of our plan every quarter and every month. Here we are 3 years in. We are not done yet. But we are on track and have returned to growth again! Cheers to you! Cheers to Florian’s!”
The team raised their glasses in celebration and the rings of clinking glass could be heard reverberating across the valley. As the sun was setting over Cayuga Lake, the seven leaders kept chatting while enjoying the wins they had achieved. They knew they were not yet at their destination and that more challenges lay ahead. But tonight they enjoyed the wine and each other’s company.
Final Notes
While this story is totally fictional, the learnings can be real. If you would like to learn more about the OGSM methodology, read our introduction to the OGSM methodology here. You can explore other examples and templates via the respective links.
Florian’s Fastener Solutions, all characters and all data points are completely fictional and the brain child of the author. Any resemblance to real life events or circumstances is not intended and may be coincidental. Please excuse us if some data seems contradictory or far-fetched. The story intends to introduce the OGSM methodology and its application. It is not the purpose to provide actual industry information or a real world case study.
If you have any questions or comments, why not leave us a note in the comment box below or sign up to our free newsletter here. We’d love to hear from you.
10-Page Strategy Presentation Template
Fully customizable strategy presentation template for Microsoft Powerpoint
Economic crises can be challenging times for all of us but a grave pandemic such as COVID-19 and the ensuing economic fallout are particularly damaging to small businesses. In steering through this crisis myself, I thought I would write down lessons learnt about how small businesses can survive and thrive through economic crises.
During times of crisis, small businesses must focus on what matters most: your people, your customers, and your cash flow. It is about survival first and then about being prepared to take advantage of the recovery thereafter.
While you are in the eye of the storm, the situation can be damning and it may seem like there is no end in sight. But hold tight and keep in mind that in every crisis there are challenges and opportunities. Here is what I learned during these difficult times and how you can succeed too.
In crisis, focus on what matters most
Whether your small business is hard hit or coasting through, at times of wide-spread economic crisis it is important to focus on what matters most: your people, your customers, and your cash flow – in that order. Everything else is secondary at this time. Nevertheless, look out for opportunities to benefit from the crisis.
Take care of your people
As the old adage goes, your employees are your most important asset. And it does sound like a cliche, but far from it. Your employees run the business. They are in touch with your customers. They make your products. They provide your services. For many small businesses, it’s the employees that make the business special. Take good care of your employees at all times – and especially during a crisis.
The crisis may be a major cause of concern for your employees. More than ever, it is important that you listen to your employees’ concerns and anxieties during a crisis. Will there be enough business to keep the lights on? How will the crisis affect their jobs? Will they be able to keep their jobs? Will I be able to earn a living and put food on the table? These may be just a few of their questions and concerns. Be receptive and empathetic to your employees’ worries and needs.
Your employees look to you for leadership, guidance and a steady hand that navigates the ship through the storm. Communicate as openly, transparently and as often as you can about the situation of business. Tell your employees about the health of the business, what you are doing to keep the business going, and what they can do to help. Be honest, truthful, and candid. Don’t sugarcoat things. Your employees can handle the truth. In fact, anything but the truth may cause further concern and further distraction.
At times of crisis, try everything you can to keep your employees. Whether your employees may have been with you for a long or a short period of time, they hold very valuable knowledge and skills about your business, about your customers and about your business partners. This is knowledge you don’t want to lose. And as you navigate through the crisis and prepare for recovery, you want to have your knowledgeable, skilled people around you to support a recovery out of the crisis as quickly as possible.
If your business struggles through the crisis and gets under cost pressure, cut all other costs first before considering layoffs. Explore all options and find ways to retain your employees. There may be measures available to cut costs that you haven’t thought of. Consider the following measures:
Stop discretionary spending: cut out all the extras, such as free snacks and other office perks. Stop any non-essential travel or entertainment expenses. Delay any non-essential business expenses such as software or hardware upgrades. Freeze bonuses and new hiring.
Offer unpaid leave: consider additional vacation time for employees. Even if it is unpaid, holiday time may be a good compromise instead of layoffs.
Reduced business hours: check feasibility to shorten the workweek or closing your shop early when foot traffic is slow. Reduce salaries in accordance with reduced work hours.
Temporary pay cuts: this may be a tough pill to swallow but is still better than layoffs. Make this measure temporary and allow employees to plan for it. This will go down much better if you as the business owner and the most senior leaders take a bigger pay cut than workers and front line employees. As the business owner, lead the way. Demonstrate that everyone’s in it and allow the broader shoulders to carry the larger load.
Work-from-home arrangements: see whether working from home would be a feasible way to keep the business running and cut expenses. Consider to sublease space that you don’t need or to negotiate a reduced office or shop rent.
Government support programs: I know this may not be popular or may require careful consideration. But check whether there are federal or local government programs available to you. Seek advice and check the fine print. There may be strings attached to accepting government money to retain employees.
Reduce contractors or part-timers: if all other ways are insufficient, consider reducing part-time hours or contractors first before considering employee layoffs.
Whatever you do, speak openly to your employees about the situation and that you need to take action. You are all in this together. Maybe you and your employees can jointly find ideas to cut costs or increase productivity that will take pressure off the business. It’s amazing what a joint brainstorm can do. Find solutions that work for everyone and that allow you to retain your employees. Besides helping the business through the crisis, involving your employees will foster greater trust and may actually boost morale. You will be surprised what is possible when everyone sticks their heads together to jointly find a solution.
When in crisis, making it through the crisis immediately becomes the top priority. When you are on the other side, you will need your employees to build the business back up and you will be glad to have them.
Take care of your customers
Whether you are in the B2B or B2C space, take care of your customers at times of crisis. It is in difficult times that true partners and reliable suppliers separate themselves from the rest.
Remember that it is your customers who you are in business for. They pay for your products and services. Their satisfaction ultimately determines your success – and how you steer through the crisis.
In an unprecedented crisis such as COVID-19 with stay-at-home orders and social distancing measures in place, customer behaviors can certainly change and customer needs may too. Demand for certain products or services may suddenly decline or shift to different offerings or channels.
Consider these consumer examples:
People no longer shop at the mall but purchase daily necessities online
People no longer go to movie theatres but watch movies at home
People buy fewer leisure products and luxury goods and instead buy more hygiene products and cleaning supplies
People do not dine out as much and instead cook at home or order home delivery.
While some of these changes may be temporary, others may have a longer lasting effect. For example, consider someone who has signed up for a home delivery service or an online streaming service during the crisis. Once this person has become accustomed to the conveniences, he or she might be reluctant to change back. If this applies to your business and you have seen your customers’ behavior change, don’t despair. What you still have in any case is the relationship with your customers. So lean in.
Similar to being there for your employees, be there for your customers – through thick and thin. Speak with your customers to understand their situation, their needs and their concerns. Identify ways how your business can help your customers through the crisis. This will strengthen your relationship and put you in the pole position to support your customer also during a recovery after the crisis.
Besides your ongoing business which led you to the supplier-customer relationship in the first place, look for new ways to support your customers or look for alternative business models to serve your customers. For example, are there other products or services you can help your customer with at this time of crisis? Can you shift your offering to another channel or media, e.g. online via webcasts, podcasts, or video conferencing?
Consider the real life example of training and development consultancy Glo Training in Hong Kong. Started in 2018 by Principal Instructor and business owner Gary Lo, Glo Training aims “to inspire and transform lives through creating unique learning experiences in 3 areas: personal growth, professional skills and coaching” (www.glo-consulting.institute). When the pandemic hit, corporate clients cancelled training and sent their employees into home offices. Gary adjusted and shifted his programs online. Since the start of the pandemic, Gary has provided more than 70 webinars and has recorded numerous online video courses. You can find Glo Training’s YouTube channel via this link.
In addition to serving your existing customers differently the way Gary has done, changes to your offering may allow you to pick up new customers who you weren’t serving before.
Imagine the fictional example of Tony’s Pizza I have written about in a separate article (see the Tony’s Pizza example here). Tony decided to transform his pizza parlor into an Italian family restaurant. During this COVID-19 crisis, Tony’s pizza delivery service with the added menu of the family restaurant may appeal to new customers who would previously not have ordered only from the pizza menu.
Take a look at your business and your existing customers. Audit yourself and check whether you can transform your existing business in a way that serves your existing customers differently and picks up new customers.
Ask yourself these questions. The list is non-exhaustive but might get your own creative juices flowing:
Can you provide your products and services to your customers online?
Can you turn your knowledge & expertise into a service for your customers?
Can you give your customers access to your equipment and machinery?
Can you mobilize your business from a physical shop to a business “on wheels”?
Find ways to keep in touch with your customers and remain a valuable partner and source of information, hope and courage also during the crisis. Remember that strong customer relationships come out stronger after the crisis when weathering the storm together.
Take care of your cash flow
Last but certainly not least, take care of your cash flow. When the crisis hits and the business stops in its tracks what matters most is liquidity, i.e. cash.
According to businessdictionary.com, liquidity is “a measure of the extent to which a person or organization has cash to meet immediate and short-term obligations” (source). And that is what it is about in a crisis: having sufficient funds to pay salaries, pay bills, and survive.
At any time really, but particularly during times of crisis, as a small business owner be the master of your cash flow. Closely manage your cash inflows and your cash outflows and aim to achieve anet positive cash flow. A positive cash flow means that your cash inflows are larger than your cash outflows. Hence, your cash balance increases.
Cash inflows
Your cash inflows are primarily the payments you receive from customers for the products and services you provide. In accounting terms, these are cash flows from operating activities. Cash inflows can however also come from bank loans or credit lines. These are called cash flows from financing activities. Finally, cash inflows can also come from investing activities such as selling assets including e.g. shareholdings, property and equipment.
During a crisis review all your cash inflows and identify assets that can be turned into cash most easily. These are usually accounts receivables and inventories which together make up your working capital.
Accounts receivables are your customers’ outstanding bills to you. Follow up with your customers and make sure you are getting paid. When a crisis hits, your customers may be similarly affected and might likewise require to manage their cash flows. Place an emphasis on bill collection to reduce the risk of bad debts.
If a customer has payment problems, work with your customer and agree on measures to get paid. Consider for example creating a payment plan in installments over time instead of a lump sum payment all at once. This might create just enough flexibility to help both you and your customer with cash flow.
In addition, try as much as possible to reduce your working capital by turning your inventories into cash. Inventories are your raw materials and in-process materials held for production and your finished goods held for sale to your customers. Review all your inventories and find ways to reduce them and turn them into cash.
For example, review aging or slow moving stocks and consider a promotion or sales event to clear them at reduced prices or discounts. Check whether you can bundle products and move slow-moving goods in combination with products that sell well.
Cash outflows
Your cash outflows can equally be categorized into operating, financing, and investing cash flows. Review all your cash outflows and identify ways to minimize your cash outflows at times of crisis.
Minimizing your cash outflows effectively means reducing your expenses and outstanding payments as far as possible. Review again the list from above for ways to reduce your expenses. Stop or significantly reduce:
Discretionary spending
Entertainment expenses
Business travel
External hiring
Avoid any non-essential spending at this time.
This may include your investing activities – review these next. If your business is capital intensive, there might be large opportunities to preserve cash from reducing capital expenditures. Investments may include the purchase of new equipment, machinery or other property. Check whether you can postpone these activities or avoid them altogether.
Next, review your accounts payable. Accounts payable are your open bills and invoices towards your suppliers (for sake of accuracy, accounts payable also count towards your working capital). These may of course also include interest expenses towards banks or other creditors.
Speak with your suppliers about payment extensions to postpone making payments. Make sure to discuss and agree on measures with your suppliers or partners instead of deciding unilaterally to delay or withhold payment. This may cause late fees or penalties – especially when dealing with creditors, utilities or government entities – which will increase the burden later. Instead try to make deals such as agreeing on payment plans (see above). You may be surprised how accommodating some of your partners might be. Just ask!
In any event, try to reduce any other expenses before you turn to your personnel expenses. As noted above, take care of your employees and work with them to make it through the crisis. There are several measures discussed above that might help you manage your cash flow without letting go of your people. Your people are your most important assets. Involve them in the process. Exhaust all your options before letting go of people.
One additional thought which might be a bit late if you are already fighting the crisis. Here it is anyway: If your business depends very strongly on your cash flow to run the business, then you want to make sure to have enough of a cash cushion to make it through a crisis. Jim Harmer and Ricky Kessler of Income School advocate for private persons to keep cash reserves that cover 3-6 months of expenses. They call this an emergency fund. The same holds true for businesses!
If you don’t yet have an emergency fund, consider creating one as soon as you can. This is cash you leave in the bank and that you don’t touch unless you have an emergency that requires you to tab into your cash reserves. If you have to use it, fill it back up as soon as you can. Again, as I said, it might be a bit late right now to build this fund if you are already in the crisis. But make sure to begin building such a cash cushion as soon as you can.
If you are hit hard by the crisis, try to avoid any cash out that is not essential to keeping the business running. Maintain a net positive cash flow to build a cushion that allows you to survive the crisis and come out stronger on the other end. When the situation improves you want to be able to use your cash to take advantage of the recovery.
Take care of yourself also!
One more thought: besides your people, your customers, and your cash flow, don’t forget to take care of yourself! Focus on your health and well-being and find time to reflect, recharge, and re-energize. Your business and your people need you at your best in times of crisis so invest the time that you need.
It’s easy to forget about yourself while being there for your team and keeping the business afloat. But just like on the airplane, when we are told to put on our own oxygen masks first before helping others, make sure you’re OK yourself so that you can help others.
When investing in yourself, consider both your mental health and your physical health. Make sure that you get plenty of sleep, eat well, and get sufficient movement. These times are stressful so make sure that your body and your mind are ready to cope. Your business needs you are your peak performance ability.
Conclusion
When in crisis, focus on what matters: your people, your customers, and your cash flows.
Focus first on survival and helping your business weather the storm. Then look out for opportunities to come out of the crisis stronger than you were before.
How are you managing through the crisis? Where do you place your focus? We’d love to hear from you. Feel free to drop a comment below. We hope you are healthy and well and are finding a way to cope. Take care!
In small businesses strategic planning is often brushed aside as being too costly and time-consuming and taking too much attention away from operations. However, without a strategic plan, a business would lack the clear sense of direction it needs to be successful. So as an aspiring small business owner myself, I explored the question whether a small business really should do strategic planning or not and I found some interesting answers.
In short, strategic planning is not only for large corporations but for small businesses too. Clarity about the vision of the business, its objectives, where to play and how to win are critical for any business. A well-crafted, well-communicated, one-page strategic plan is however sufficient for a small business to succeed.
Such a one-page strategic plan does not need a lot of time or money to create. It only takes some strategic thinking about a few key questions. I’ll explore these questions in the following but first let’s understand why small businesses should do strategic planning.
Why small businesses should do strategic planning
The easy answer to the question whether small businesses should do strategic planning is of course: yes! But why really? Strategy is about making choices. But when you are just getting started, you don’t have much of a choice and pretty much jump at every opportunity you get to gain a customer and make a sale.
But even as a small business your resources are finite, your time is limited and there are millions of ways you can spend your time. You want to make sure your time and talents are directed towards those activities that will help you reach your objectives – fast. And for that you need a plan.
A plan helps you define what success means for you and how you are going to achieve it. Anyone who has ever aimed to reach any objective will tell you that any endeavor with a plan is more likely to succeed than one without. I’m sure you have the same experience. This is why football coaches create game plans and why my dad always looked at the route planner before setting off to drive the family to our vacation destination.
And that really is what a strategy is: a clear direction or plan of actions that will help you get to a goal or destination. So why wouldn’t you want to have a strategy for your business?
Truth is many small business owners feel they don’t have the time or the resources to create a complex strategic plan. Any time away from customers and operations feels like you are not making progress. And I feel the same way. Every time I don’t publish, I feel like I am wasting my time.
However, how do you know that you’re spending your precious time on the right activities? How do you know whether the customers you are pursuing are the right ones? And does everyone in your business from shareholders to employees understand why those activities and customers are the right ones? Are they spending their time on activities that are aligned with your objectives as well?
This is where a well-crafted, simple strategic plan comes in. First it helps to clarify why you are in business and what your main objective is. This is something I no longer take for granted. Even to remind myself why I got started in the first place is quite helpful to stay focused and keep motivated. When I hit a roadblock or have had a frustrating day, reminding myself why I am in business gets me back up to try again and keep going.
Next, having a strategic plan that clearly articulates the initiatives and metrics that need to be accomplished to succeed will actually get you there. A plan without execution is only that: a plan. So having a plan with clear initiatives and measures that articulates what actions need to be taken, how resources are allocated, and keeps track of execution will lead to success.
Finally, a simple but effective strategic plan aligns the team with the overall vision and objective. A plan that not only paints an inspiring vision or desirable destination but also shows a path how to get there really gets the team fired up and moves the team into motion. And you want the team to be as clear as you are about the business’ direction to be fully engaged and committed to do whatever it takes to achieve success.
A great way to summarize such a strategic plan is the OGSM methodology. OGSM stands for Objective, Goals, Strategies, and Measures and is a one-page business plan that defines where you are heading and how you are going to get there. It’s simple, it works well to get the team involved and it builds-in the execution plan. In my experience the OGSM is a great way for small businesses to create their strategic plan, drive execution and achieve the desired results.
What are elements of a strategic plan?
So what then are the strategic questions you need to answer for your small business strategic plan? Explore the following:
Why are you in business? Don’t take this for granted or laugh it off. Being clear about why you are in business gives you and your company a purpose, a “raison d’etre”. What is it that made you start your business in the first place? How does running your company achieve that purpose? For me it helps to remind myself that I am in business to provide for my family and to inspire growth. That’s what gets me out of bed in the morning and what keeps me going when I hit a rough patch.
Where are you heading? What is the vision and the objective for your business? The vision is your longer term aspiration while the objective is a concrete statement about what you want to achieve in a given period of time, e.g. 3 years or the next 12 months. Define unambiguous SMART goals that allow you to quantify your objective and measure success.
How are you going to get there? Audit your external environment for opportunities and threats and assess your personal and your business’ strengths and weaknesses. Check how they match up and identify the ‘sweet spot’ where your purpose, vision, objective, strengths and opportunities overlap. Identify a small number of concrete customers or customer segments and product or service offerings in this focus area and figure out how to use your strengths to create a competitive advantage. Create 3-5 strategies that move you towards your objective and achieve your goals. The key point here is focus. You won’t be able to do everything for everyone. Double down on the ‘sweet spot’ and give it all your focus and energy.
What obstacles could prevent you from achieving your objective? Go back to the threats and weaknesses you identified in your external and internal analyses and review your competition. Identify concrete risks that could prevent you from reaching your goals. Create mitigation measures to proactively address and overcome the most likely and most devastating risks.
What key actions are you going to take every day to move towards your objective and achieve your goals? Now pull your key strategies and risk mitigating measures together and create a concrete action plan. Each action must have a timeline and caretaker. Make sure that the actions are sufficient to cover all strategies and achieve all goals. Review for clarity and get buy-in and commitment from your team.
How are you keeping track of your progress to stay on course? Create a governance procedure, such as reviewing your action plan once per month and reviewing your strategies and risks every six months. Make a commitment to yourself and to your team to get at it and do not let off.
Capture the answers to these questions in your OGSM. If your OGSM is well-aligned following the above strategic questions, then you can fully focus on your customers and execute your action plan in daily operations knowing that it will lead you to achieving your strategic objectives.
Why do small businesses ignore strategic planning?
Whether evident or not but every business has a strategy. Some businesses are more explicit about their strategy while others more implicit. Every business does somehow allocate resources and does decide which customers or projects to pursue to achieve results. Not every business however goes through a deliberate planning process and documents their strategy. And this can have several different reasons.
Too busy – small businesses and their owners might be so consumed with keeping the business afloat that taking a step back and planning ahead seems like an impossible task. I always have to think of this cartoon in which two people are busting their guts pulling a cart with square wheels. When another person arrives and suggests round wheels they decline saying they are too busy to entertain his idea. Sometimes it can be very useful to take a step back to look at the bigger picture and confirm that you are still going in the right direction.
Not sure how – some small businesses may simply lack the knowledge and expertise about how to do strategic planning or how to do it effectively. Strategy does not need to be rocket science though but can be a simple plan that sets priorities for the business.
Fast changes – many businesses nowadays operate in rapidly changing environments in which a strategic plan may appear outdated as soon as it is decided. Even in those environments however it pays to be clear about what the objectives of the business are and how results are measured and achieved. Especially when there is a large team at work, when things change quickly, you want to reiterate your plans quickly and have everyone involved so that everyone knows at all times what’s important and how you plan to succeed.
Owner led – a small business may be led by an owner with strong strategic skills who is able to mastermind the strategy and direct the team. Great industry knowledge or foresight may allow the owner to anticipate changes and adjust the course proactively. Nevertheless, making the strategy transparent and creating clarity about how everyone contributes to its successful implementation creates engagement and engagement creates results. In my experience an effective team is always stronger than an effective individual.
Whatever the reason may be, if you have not considered taking a step back for your small business to review the bigger picture and create a strategic plan, I would encourage you to do so. One of the worst things that can happen to a small business and its owner is to be surprised and unprepared in the face of an unforeseen event.
Common mistakes small companies make in strategic planning
While some small businesses ignore strategic planning, others have tried and failed. In fact, a Forbes Insights study of 163 CEOs revealed that more than a third of all strategies fail. Here are some common mistakes I have seen in practice and how you can make sure they don’t happen to you.
Pursuing someone else’s strategy – reading strategy books and autobiographies of successful business owners and entrepreneurs can be inspiring. And copying someone else’s strategy can be a good idea. However it must fit your business. It must be an approach that you can apply and customize to your business and your situation. It’s fine to seek inspiration and motivation from successful reference cases. Reality is not every business will be the next Apple or the next Tesla. Blaze your own trail. Build a strategy that fits for you and your business.
Spreading too thinly – No, I am not speaking about spreading Nutella too thinly on a slice of bread even though that would be a mistake as well (the ratio must be 2:1!). Lack of direction and lack of focus lead to spreading your resources across too many activities. You are much more effective if you can devote your entire attention and energy to delivering one thing instead of trying to deliver four, five or six things simultaneously. When developing your strategy, focus your attention on those initiatives with the biggest impact and highest likelihood of success towards your objective and goals. Do those first activities first that take you 90% there and then optimize later to take you the rest of the way.
Working on the wrong things – If you are like me, it’s easy to get distracted by customers who yell the loudest or innovations or technical gadgets that seem most interesting. Resist the urge. Do not fall prey to “shiny objects”. Check your biases towards recent events, availability of information, or most memorable experiences. Focus on those things that matter most to your purpose, vision, and objectives.
Lack of communication – what good does a strategic plan do when it lands in a drawer after it’s designed and doesn’t see the light of day? Make your strategic plan transparent to your business, your employees and key stakeholders. Over-communicate. Make sure everyone is absolutely clear what the priorities of the business are and how everyone contributes to the achievement of your objective – from management team to part-time aid.
Starting with PowerPoint – when thinking about “strategy”, have you ever caught yourself thinking about presentation slides and strategy tools rather than an actual action plan? If you are planning a strategic review, do not first open your slideshow software. Start instead by talking to your customers and your employees about their challenges and what they would love to be able to do or achieve. Use the insights to design your strategy process.
The most common mistake I have experienced though is not executing! Whether in large corporations or small businesses, the biggest issue with strategic plans is not doing what you said you were going to do. If this sounds familiar to you, don’t worry, you are in good company. And there are a million reasons for this: things change, quality issues get in the way, tragedy strikes, or you run out of cash. A strategy should never be carved in stone to remain flexible to adjust to changes in the internal or external environment. But be deliberate about building in the execution plan and review cadence and follow through ruthlessly. Pivot when you need to. But execute, execute, execute.
Now you know! And because knowledge is power you can now make sure that the same mistakes don’t happen to you.
Conclusion
Yes, strategic planning is not only for large corporations but for small businesses too. Strategy gives a business the direction it needs to be successful by defining where to play and how to win.
Developing a strategy does not need to be costly and time-consuming. It could be as simple as a conversation in your team about where you are heading and how you are going to get there. Whatever you do, document your objective, goals, strategies and measures on a one-page strategic plan, involve your team, over-communicate with your employees, and execute, execute, execute
Now over to you. How does your small business do strategic planning? If you have any questions or comments, why not drop us a reply below. We would love to hear from you.
