OGSM Planning Framework

Many early stage start-ups choose not to develop and maintain a strategic plan. They typically have a business plan, which was required for their funding process, but they don’t have a plan that links the longer term vision to their annual and quarterly plans. Now many of these start-ups’ founders have had prior negative experiences relative to planning, but they don’t need to undertake a time-consuming, expensive and cumbersome process to get to such a plan.

I moderated a couple of strategic planning sessions recently and the OGSM framework continues to be my favorite framework for start-ups. OGSM is a top-down strategic framework that defines and links the long-term vision to the medium to short-term strategies and metrics. It is a planning process that is initiated by the leadership, but it is shaped by all of the employees. Since it needs to fit on one page, it makes it a much more palatable planning framework for start-ups.

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