Imagine the following. You are a driver of the Paris-Dakar rally. You are full of fire at the start. You are ambitious and you have one clear goal, which is to win! The different stages are your picket posts and determine how you stand in the meantime. These are important indicators for the course of the entire race. If you finish the first stage in position 20, then you know what to do next. If you are at the top, you have reached your goal for the first leg. Before the race, you determined your strategy. In the third stage you can choose two optimal routes. Which route do you choose to outsmart your competitor?
Together you decide the best way for you to reach the ultimate goal of winning Paris-Dakar. In addition to the dashboard, you also need a co-driver in your car. Indispensable in your journey. Together you will have information about whether you have made the right choice. You will also be continuously informed about the place in the match. How many minutes am I ahead? What do I have to do to gain time to get to the finish location at the specified time? Ultimately, everything will serve your purpose. To be the best!
The above example of a rally driver can be wonderfully applied to your own company. You too are ambitious and want to win. You have set several goals for this. You have described how you want to achieve this in a strategic plan. You then develop measuring instruments that make it clear whether you are going to follow the chosen path, when your strategy is working and when you have achieved your goals.
Every company has plans! Whether you are large or small, a young or a more mature organization, you walk around with thoughts about how things can be done differently or how things should be done. Modeling can help you organize those ideas and thoughts. The compact 1A4 OGSM methodology will help you with this. OGSM stands for Objective, Goals, Strategies and Measures. Below is a brief explanation of the components.
Objective
You always start with a main goal in the OGSM methodology. Where do we want to be in roughly 3 years with your company / organization? That horizon can be different. It is a guideline, a dot on the horizon. Because the Objective is the starting point of your company, it is important that everyone can agree with it. There must be agreement on this main goal and it must inspire action.
Goals
With the Goals you define picket posts that give a direction. In the end you know whether you will actually achieve your Objective with the Goals. Think of it as a road you have to walk towards the Objective. Along the way you will find traffic lights or road signs (the Goals) that show you whether you are still heading in the right direction.
Strategies
The concrete routes to achieve the Objective (the what) are described with the Strategies (the how). To get the plan to 1A4 it is recommended to choose a maximum of five Strategies. This ensures that you can focus more closely on results.
Measures
We use the Measures to measure whether we are still on track to achieve the Strategies. A Dashboard with Actions is being developed for each strategy. The dashboard contains the KPIs with which we monitor the progress of that strategy. With the Actions we are making a limited set of concrete steps that currently have the highest priority in order to realize the strategy. Make sure that each Action also has an owner and an end date. This guarantees the responsibility for implementation.
The role of Your own Venture
Your own Venture has an online tool for the OGSM model. Together with the entrepreneur and the team, we will work on filling this model. In a digital environment we can monitor whether the Strategy is being achieved and we have a clear picture of which Actions need to be taken. The organization also knows who is responsible for this and when an action must be completed. We help the organization to establish the Objective, to develop the Goals and the Strategies. Naturally, we also supervise the realization of the Dashboard.
Curious about how OGSM works and what Your own Venture can mean in this? We would be happy to help you on your way. Let’s discuss the options while enjoying a cup of coffee.
Wiebo de Vries