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In this book:

How to draw up a business plan that works?

Reach your goals with the practical and proven OGSM methodology

Make a real difference with a guide for structured, strategic and practical thinking

Foreword

I was first introduced to OGSM during an OGSM workshop by Business Openers and it instantly appealed to me. As a result, I went on to implement the method at Vrumona in 2006. The logical structure of the method forces you to enter into dialogue with each other in a particular manner and truly make clear choices. It is much harder to write down a plan on 1 page and make very specific choices than to write an elaborate book filled with great plans. The beauty is that once you have finished, it will appear very simple and logical, and you will almost forget that you have made many choices and have had difficult discussions. The strength of this method is that every word you write down in your OGSM must fit into the overall picture. Unnecessary words or objectives are quickly done away with, which leaves you with what you really wish achieve and the way in which you wish to achieve it. Drawing up an OGSM together with your team is also a great team building exercise and an OGSM can also easily and clearly be explained to all the people in your organization. Moreover, it provides for a good monitoring device to check whether you are on the right track and whether you have designed the appropriate action plans for achieving your goals, enabling you to adjust them in time, if necessary. I still use the OGSM methodology and am convinced that OGSM, if properly applied, can really help individuals, teams and companies move forward.

Isabelle Spindler-Jacobs,
Retail Director at Heineken Netherlands and top woman of the year 2010

Impactful leadership results in achieving your goal. It follows that leadership is about making choices. And, of course, preferably you'd make the right choices immediately. Unfortunately, you only find out what the right choice would have been in retrospect. Therefore, it would be futile to search until you are sure you have found the right choice. Daring to choose and implementing your choice consistently, that is key. Whether it concerns choosing goals for your team, the entire organization, a movement, or for yourself. It involves choosing the what, how, when and for whom. Making decisions is what strategizing and leadership are all about.

The OGSM methodology contributes to your decision-making ability. I do not know of a better method to help you clarify your choices in such a simple and effective manner. The method forces you to be clear to yourself and to each other, so that all you need is to dare to choose.

This book offers you an effective means for making decisions and thus practice impactful leadership. Based on my broad practical experience with OGSM, I am certain that this is the right choice. So, get started now ... if you dare!

Jeroen Pietryga,
Former Senior Vice President Marketing & Management Format at Albert Heijn

‘Don’t be afraid to fail. Be afraid not to try.’

Micheal Jordan

Self test: Are you in need of a business plan on 1 page?

Before you go on to read a book, it would obviously be useful to know whether you will benefit from doing so. After all, you have plenty of other things to do and there are also many other books that might provide you with better support. Hence the following test. It is quite simple. Indicate for each statement whether you ‘agree’ or ‘disagree’. Give your opinion from your personal perspective, as someone who is part of an organization, e.g. the organization or department you work for, your own company, your association or your family. Give each 'agree' 1 point and each 'disagree' 0 points. Following the test, you find the results.

The statements

I work hard, but do not always feel like I'm really making a difference

We do have ambition, but in practice not much is happening

There are many ideas, but results are poor

Our organization's vision hardly inspires me

We hardly celebrate our achievements

Everyone always wants more, more, more

We are mainly governed by the issue of the day

We don't dare to make choices, which is why we do everything

I could and wouldn't mind working smarter

We do have a course, but not everyone is familiar with it

We do have a goal, but it provides no direction

Everyone tries to reach their own goals, but there seems to be little consistency

Results

Did you score 0 points?

Business plan on 1 page will not be of much help to you. Choose another book for yourself and offer this book as a gift to someone who could benefit from it. And please do contact us to contribute to the following edition ...

Did you score 1 to 9 points?

You and your environment will definitely benefit from this book. So get started; you won’t regret it!

Did you score 10 to 12 points?

Forget about this book and call for professional help immediately!

About the Authors

We - Marc van Eck, Ellen Leenhouts and Judith Tielen - each are partner of Business Openers, a strategic marketing consultancy that helps organizations with Positioning (Why), Strategy (What) and Internal Branding (How).

We met at Procter & Gamble, where each of us worked for many years. Because P&G applies the OGSM methodology worldwide, the three of us experienced, from a position as employee, how OGSM helps business and employees move forward. Over the past twelve years, we were able to help many organizations, institutions, teams and individuals with their business plan, among other things. To this end, we have frequently used the OGSM methodology and have therefore drawn up a great many OGSMs.

Here, too, we - and more importantly, of course, our customers - experienced that the method really works in practice. We have witnessed how OGSM can pleasantly change your (working) life. Moreover, we genuinely enjoy the method and so do our customers. It's pleasant to work with because you know that it is useful, but also because it makes you feel you're gaining control over the things you do. In recent years, with this experience under our belts, we have enriched the method at various aspects in order to improve its practicality and substance.

If after reading this book, you are left with any questions, please do contact us. Via marc.vaneck@businessopeners.nl, ellen.leenhouts@businessopeners.nl or judith.tielen@businessopeners.nl.

We will definitely reply!

Marc van Eck, Ellen Leenhouts and Judith Tielen

Just one more thing, for the sake of completeness (and, of course, also because we are proud of it): Marc and Ellen are also co-authors of the book ‘Internal Branding in de Praktijk, het merk als kompas’ (Internal Branding in practice, the brand as a compasss). This book has arrived at its fifth edition and in 2008, it was proclaimed marketing book of the year by ‘het Tijdschrift voor Marketing’ (the Dutch Journal of Marketing). The sequel ‘Het success van Internal Branding, een sterk merk bouwen en onderhouden’ (The success of Internal Branding, building and maintaining strong brands) appeared in the spring of 2013.

But enough about us. Let’s go on to OGSM.

‘The best way to predict your future is to create it’

Abraham Lincoln

Introduction

Every person has plans. Because that makes life fun and meaningful. Every organization has plans. Because that is what shareholders, staff and of course customers expect. So far so good.

However ... more often than not, we fail to realize our plans. This is true both for individuals and businesses. One of the reasons for this is that, even in our work, we are often too preoccupied with the issues of the day and therefore simply don’t get to executing our plans. Another reason might be a coworker drawing up plans without involving anybody, as a result of which the plan lacks support. And sometimes it just seems safer and easier to keep on dreaming (thus deliberately keeping your plans vague or at a distance) than to take the risk and just do it. The most common situation is that we do have plans, but they're just not good enough. For example, we might have goals that are too vague to really give direction (e.g. "being the best") or are uninspiring (e.g. "increase in sales"). And forget about them providing any structure for or connection to our daily activities. And so, perhaps because subconsciously we know this, we then often leave the plans for what they are and stick them in a drawer. And we the start to despair when it's time for the next year or long-term plan.

During meetings with managers and marketers, we regularly ask who out of the people present finds a good business plan important. 100 percent of the attendees, of course. But if we then ask who has a good business plan that leads from vision to action and is actually deployed as a guideline in the company, a maximum of 20 percent is left.

In short, there are many plans and not enough good plans. From now on this will change. Because you are now in the possession of a book that teaches you a method that works. The method is called OGSM. It is a methodology that helps you to solidify your dreams, ideas and plans to such an extent that you will be able to reach them. OGSM is a plan on 1 page (yes, you read that right: 1 page) that leads from vision to action. It connects ambitious goals to concrete activities. It helps to make good plans and execute them smartly, whether it's for work or private. Because it is nice to have dreams or plans, but coming up with good plans and realizing them is much more enjoyable.

Creating a business plan then no longer feels like a chore, but rather like a moment for effectively, thus in a structured and strategic manner, determining where we would like to be in the future and how we are going to get there. After all:

“Vision without action is merely a dream; Action without Vision just passes the time. Vision with Action can change the world.”

JOEL BARKER

Now on to practical matters: this book is designed to help you make the OGSM methodology your own. And you can do this by understanding it step by step and, of course, by practicing often and on a regular basis. The book is filled with examples, practical tips and exercises. We stick to business scenarios, because practice has shown us that this is where the greatest need exists. But nothing should keep you from also using the method privately: the application is exactly the same. The OGSM methodology is applicable to everything for which you need a plan. How great is that? So wherever you read 'organization', we mean 'organization, department, team or individual'. And where you read 'he' we mean 'he/she'.

Oh, and one last thing: you can download the OGSM format in PowerPoint at www.businessplanon1page.com. You can also join the OGSM LinkedIn group and share experiences with other OGSM fans.

Now, let’s get started!

‘People who are constantly looking at the whole picture have the best chance of succeeding in any endeavor’

John Maxwell