Over several years, we have found that new companies - either start ups or fast growing venture stage organizations - benefit from an even simpler format for producing a One Page Strategy®. Companies at this stage of their growth rarely have time or budgets to hire an outside facilitator to take them through the full and facilitated planning process. More often, they need a “do it yourself” approach which the entrepreneur or new company CEO can use to get it “about right” for a one or two year time frame.
 
To address this, we have developed a highly streamlined approach that can be self administered by the team that “owns” the companies future. This is called our Five Questions/One Page (5Q/1P)® and you can download an overview of the tool by clicking this link. It includes some of the elements of the One Page Strategic Plan® approach and it is formatted in a way that helps the organization “ask itself” what the strategic plan should be.

With the answers to these five questions, we find that most new companies have much clearer vision of where they are going and why:

1.“Why”does the organization really exist?

•  This is the reason people really come to work.
•  This is called Mission.

2. “Where”is the organization headed long term?

•  This is a view of what the organization will become.
•  This is called Vision.

 3. “What”will the organization achieve?

•  This is a fact-based description of success over the next 1 -3 years.
•  These are called Objective and Goals.

4. “How”will success be achieved?

•  These are the choices about the work that will be done, who will be responsible for delivering it and when. 
•  These are called Strategies and Plans.

5. “Which”work will the company stop doing?

•  This is so the organization can focus completely on achieving its Objective. 
•  This is called your Won’t Do List®.

This is not to say that the 5Q/1P® approach is as rigorous, as detailed or as “foolproof” as the One Page Strategoc Plan® structure which we have used more than 800 times. Among other things, the 5Q/1P® format has no follow up built in to it and no detailed decisions are made about who will do what and by when. These are very important to the ultimate success of any strategic plan. But in a fast growing company, where bankers, customers and investors want to see a clear picture of the companies general direction - and they want to see it right now - we feel that the 5Q/1P® approach can be of enormous help.

One Page Solutions LLC co-founder John Lilly is available to deliver a similar presentation to groups of managers from fast growing companies anywhere in the US.  This approach allows New Venture teams a chance to see how the 5Q/1P® process is conducted; to see just how tough they need to be on themselves to “wring out the BS” from their strategic thinking. The presentation culminates in doing a real, live 5Q/1P® for one of the companies in the room and the results are always fascinating.

Pricing and dates for this service are available upon request.

You may contact John Lilly at john@ogsp.org.