PUC Chronicle

Issue date: 2/5/07 Section: News

Business owners from all over the area came to The Center for a entrepreneur workshop.

Eighteen business owners attended a dinner and workshop held by PUC's Entrepreneurship Center.
To attend, owners had to have second-stage, larger businesses with sales in the millions.
The workshop took place at The Center Jan. 30 and centered on keynote speaker and strategic consultant Peter Hackbert and the 'One Page Strategic Plan' for businesses. Hackbert is a visiting scholar at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
Hackbert's advice to students is to combine curricular activities with co-curricular activities like internships.
"I'm in the business of crafting 'aahs!' for students earlier rather than later," Hackbert said.
Hackbert's OPSP is a method of organizing a company's agenda. The plan lays out the vision, mission, objectives, strategies and future plans for a company. The OPSP outlines helps a business expand and grow, and it can help highlight any flaws in the process.
"It's a concise summary of where a company is headed," said Hackbert, who credits his success in maintaining four companies to adequate planning.
Clients who have used the OPSP include AOL-Time Warner, Oracle, Ford Motor Company and the American Medical Association.
Hackbert believes this model works because it is easy to read, understand and update. He thinks the plan can be fit into any business because of its simplicity.
"It shows owners where the magic is," Hackbert said.
The workshop's interactive approach let the owners apply their knowledge of business to the OPSP.
"A business grows or it dies, there's no in between. Your business has to increase to stay alive," said Pete Korellis of Korellis Roofing, Inc.
In small groups, the owners had a chance to pull apart pieces of the plan and critique them. Each group had the opportunity to express their evaluation.
"For my company, it would turn things around," said Ed Felix of Mobile Systems, Inc., who is trying to expand into a regional company.
Hackbert thinks the OPSP can be seen throughout history in examples like Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech.
"Now that's a vision statement," Hackbart said.

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