Why your 32-page strategic plan is bollocks (but this isn’t a silver bullet either)

Right, let’s have a proper chat about strategic planning, shall we? You know that dusty tome sitting on your shelf – the one with the fancy binding and 32 pages of corporate waffle that nobody’s read since the quarterly review? Yeah, that one. It’s about as useful as a nipple on a fish.

But before you get all excited about the One-Page Strategic Plan (OPSP) as your salvation, let’s be clear: it’s not some magical cure-all that transforms struggling businesses into world-beaters overnight. It’s a tool – a bloody good one when used properly and one that is a key part of my approach to helping founder CEOs gain clarity – but still just a tool in a much larger toolkit.

If your leadership team is rubbish, your culture is toxic, or your business model is fundamentally broken, no amount of strategic planning wizardry will save you. The OPSP won’t fix weak leadership, resolve deep operational chaos, or magically create market demand where none exists.

What it can do – brilliantly – is cut through the fog for growing businesses who’ve got the basics right but need everyone pulling in the same direction. Think of it as a compass that shows the right direction, not a sat nav that takes you to the door.

The Rockefeller connection (because even oil barons needed systems)

This isn’t some trendy Silicon Valley nonsense dreamed up by consultants with too much time. The OPSP comes from studying how John D. Rockefeller – you know, the bloke who basically owned America for a while – actually ran his empire.

Verne Harnish, an entrepreneur with more sense than most consultants (and a regular on my podcast), distilled Rockefeller’s approach into the “Rockefeller Habits” framework back in the late 90s. Three simple habits: Priorities, data, and rhythm. Revolutionary stuff, apparently, though one might argue that knowing what you’re doing, measuring it, and doing it regularly shouldn’t be groundbreaking business wisdom.

But here’s the crucial bit: Rockefeller didn’t just have a plan – he had systems, rhythms, and capable people to execute it. The plan was just one piece of a much larger management operating system.

The OPSP became the communication tool of this approach – a single sheet that gets everyone literally “on the same page.” But only when paired with proper execution disciplines and leadership capability.

What actually goes on this magical page?

Despite what your strategy consultant might tell you, cramming your entire business plan onto one page isn’t about making the font microscopic or oversimplifying complex realities. It’s about forcing yourself to identify what truly matters most. Here’s what the actual OPSP template captures:

Core Values/Beliefs (Should/Shouldn’t): The handful of principles that define how you operate when nobody’s watching. Not some HR word salad about “excellence and integrity,” but the actual beliefs that guide tough decisions. Completely useless without leaders who actually live them when the pressure’s on.

Purpose (Why): Why you bother getting out of bed and why customers should care. One clear sentence that explains your reason for existence beyond making money. Sounds fluffy until you realise it’s what keeps teams motivated when things get tough – assuming it’s genuine, not marketing bollocks.

BHAG (Where): Your Big Hairy Audacious Goal – a concrete, measurable target 10+ years out that’s ambitious enough to inspire but believable enough to pursue. “Become the leading…” isn’t a BHAG, it’s corporate waffle. Pick a specific, measurable mountain to climb.

Sandbox: Who you serve and where you choose to compete. If your answer is “everyone,” you’ve already lost. Define your market boundaries clearly – but only if you actually have the capability to dominate within those boundaries.

Brand Promises: What you guarantee to deliver that makes customers choose you over alternatives. Should come with specific KPIs that prove you’re delivering. Pointless promises if your operations can’t consistently deliver them.

Targets (3-5 Years – Where): Specific revenue, profit, and key metric targets that bridge your BHAG to reality. None of this “substantial growth” nonsense – actual numbers with actual dates. Must be backed by strategic initiatives, not wishful thinking.

Goals (1 Year – What): What must happen in the next 12 months. Specific revenue, profit, and operational targets that ladder up to your longer-term vision. Only meaningful if you have the leadership bandwidth and capability to drive them.

Quarterly Actions (How): Your “Rocks” – the 3-5 most important priorities for the next 90 days. Each with a clear owner, deadline, and measurable target. The rubber-meets-the-road bit that’s completely useless without proper project management and accountability systems.

Theme: Your quarterly rallying cry or focus area that gets everyone pulling in the same direction. Could be “Customer First Quarter” or “Operational Excellence Push” – something that gives meaning to the mayhem.

Accountability (Who/When): Clear ownership assignments for every major goal and initiative. Names next to outcomes, deadlines next to deliverables. The bit that separates real plans from corporate theatre.

Your KPIs: The vital signs that tell you if you’re winning or just busy. A balanced mix of leading indicators (what predicts success) and lagging indicators (what counts success). Remember – you can’t manage what you can’t measure, and you can’t measure what you don’t understand.

All arranged on one page where any reasonably intelligent person can glance at it and understand the complete strategic story. The key phrase being “reasonably intelligent” – this assumes you’ve hired properly and developed your people.

Why this actually works

Forces real choices: Limited space means no hiding behind seventeen “top priorities” or corporate waffle. You must pick what matters and kill the rest. But only effective if you have leaders brave enough to say no to good ideas that aren’t great ideas.

Creates clarity: Unlike strategy documents that read like PhD theses, a one-page plan can be understood by actual humans. But clarity without capability is just clear failure.

Drives alignment: Everyone can see the same priorities and their role in achieving them. Assuming, of course, that “everyone” includes competent people who can actually execute.

Stays current: A one-page plan gets updated because it’s not monumental to revise. Your 47-page strategic plan gets updated when hell freezes over. But updates only matter if they’re based on real learning and honest assessment of what’s working.

How growing companies actually use this thing (the ones that succeed)

Smart scaling businesses use the OPSP as part of their operating system, not a planning exercise. They understand it’s the communication layer of a much broader management discipline.

The planning rhythm goes like this: annual strategic session to set the big picture (with proper strategic thinking, not just goal-setting), quarterly sessions to define the next set of rocks (with real project management behind them), weekly meetings to check progress (with honest conversations about obstacles and course corrections).

Teams create departmental OPSPs that ladder up to the company plan. Individuals set objectives that connect to the quarterly rocks. But this cascade only works if you have managers capable of translating strategy into action and holding people accountable.

The companies that succeed with OPSP pair it with:

• Proper execution rhythms and meeting disciplines
• Capable senior teams who can actually deliver
• Supporting systems for project management and performance tracking
• Cultural alignment where values guide behaviour, not just wall art

Where it all goes tits up (and why most attempts fail)

Template filling: Treating it like a form to complete rather than the outcome of serious strategic thinking. If you’re just filling in boxes, you’re missing the point entirely. Real strategy requires understanding your market, competitors, and capabilities.

Leadership gaps: No framework fixes a weak senior team. If your directors can’t execute, your beautiful one-pager becomes expensive wallpaper. Build the team first, then the plan.

Priority inflation: Cramming seventeen “top priorities” onto the page defeats the entire bloody point. If everything’s strategic, nothing is. This usually indicates you haven’t made the hard choices about trade-offs.

Set and forget: Creating a beautiful plan then shoving it in a drawer. The OPSP only works as part of a living management system with regular reviews and updates based on real performance data.

Wrong stage, wrong tool: Early startups need experimentation (try Lean Canvas), not strategic alignment. Large corporations need detailed frameworks (try Balanced Scorecards). The OPSP shines in the 30-300 employee range where alignment matters more than exploration.

Cultural mismatch: In heavily regulated sectors or engineering-first cultures, the OPSP can look glib. Some environments need detailed risk registers and compliance frameworks, not inspirational soundbites.

Playing nicely with other frameworks (because it’s not a standalone solution)

The OPSP isn’t jealous – it works best as part of a broader toolkit:

OKRs: Use the OPSP to set your high-level objectives, then cascade OKRs underneath for specific quarterly execution. The OPSP tells you what matters, OKRs tell you how to measure progress quarter by quarter.

Balanced scorecard: Many OPSPs include a mini balanced scorecard section, ensuring you’re tracking financial, customer, operational, and capability metrics. Perfect for businesses that need board-level reporting.

Project management systems: Your quarterly rocks need proper project disciplines behind them. The OPSP identifies what to do; your PM systems ensure it actually gets done.

Performance management: Individual objectives should ladder up to the OPSP priorities. But this only works if you have proper performance review processes and managers who can coach to objectives.

When it works (and when it doesn’t)

Perfect for: Growing SMEs with 30-300 people who have decent leadership but need better alignment. Culture-driven companies. Turnarounds where brutal clarity trumps nuance.

Terrible for: Early startups still finding product-market fit. Heavily regulated industries. Companies where the real problem is leadership capability, not strategic clarity.

The real test: If you can’t distil your strategy onto one page that drives actual behaviour change, the problem might not be your planning tool – it might be your strategy, your leadership team, or your execution capability.

The bottom line: A compass, not a GPS

The One-Page Strategic Plan can be brilliant for cutting through growth fog and getting everyone pulling in the same direction. But it’s not magic – it’s just what happens when you stop hiding behind complexity, make real strategic choices, and build the systems and rhythms to make those choices stick.

It forces clarity, drives alignment, and creates accountability. But only if you pair it with capable leadership, proper execution disciplines, and supporting management systems. Without those, you’re just creating prettier wallpaper.

The OPSP is a scalpel in the toolkit of growing businesses, not a sledgehammer that fixes everything. Use it wisely as part of a broader management operating system, and it’ll serve you brilliantly. Expect it to solve fundamental leadership or capability gaps, and you’ll be sorely disappointed.

So here’s your challenge: before you create your one-page plan, honestly assess whether you have the leadership team, execution discipline, and supporting systems to make it work. If yes, crack on – it could be transformational. If no, sort those fundamentals first.

The tool is only as good as the hands that wield it.

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Written by business coach and leadership coaching expert Dominic Monkhouse. You can order your free copy of his book, Mind Your F**king Business here.