Answers
The three questions every planning cycle turns on.
Whether a measure belongs in an OKR or on a dashboard, whether a key result will settle cleanly on the last day of the quarter, and what cascading a goal actually means once more than one team owns part of it. Each answered in the first paragraph, with the worked examples behind it.
15 questions
Every answer, in one place
The short answer is on this page. The page behind it carries the test, the ways teams get it wrong, and examples across operations, sales, finance and people.
What is an MCP?
MCP stands for Model Context Protocol, an open standard that lets an AI assistant work with software you already use. Rather than a fixed integration built in advance for one job, the software publishes a list of actions the assistant is allowed to take, and the assistant chooses which to use when you ask.
Read the full answerMCP or integration: which do I need?
Use an integration when something has to happen on a schedule, the same way every time, with nobody present. Use an MCP when the value is in the question being different each time. Most organisations need both, and the common mistake is switching an MCP on expecting it to replace the connectors.
Read the full answerCan ChatGPT change my plan, or only read it?
Both gates have to be open. The software has to publish actions that write, which Empiraa GPS does, and your ChatGPT plan has to be allowed to call them. OpenAI have write actions through MCP in beta on Business, Enterprise and Edu plans; on Pro you can connect a server with read and fetch permissions, which means reading only. Custom connectors are also web only, not mobile.
Read the full answerWhat can an AI assistant see in my strategy?
In Empiraa GPS, exactly what the person asking can see, because the connection acts as them rather than holding access of its own. If you cannot open something in GPS you cannot get it out through an assistant, and an administrator sets assistants to Off, View only or Full for the whole organisation.
Read the full answerWhat does strategy execution software cost?
Empiraa GPS publishes two lists. GPS for Business runs from A$199 to A$2,990 a month including GST, priced per organisation with unlimited users. GPS for Professional Services runs from A$149 to A$1,690 a month including GST, priced by how many client accounts you hold.
Read the full answerDo I need a strategy tool if I already have a project management tool?
Often no. A project tool tracks work that finishes and a strategy tool tracks outcomes that do not. If your plan is a list of projects with end dates, the project tool is enough. You need the second system when the question stops being whether something is done and becomes whether it is working.
Read the full answerWhat goes in a quarterly client report?
Three things, in this order: what changed against the plan, what that means for the next quarter, and what you need from the client. Most reports instead lead with what the advisor did, which is the easiest thing to assemble and reads to a client like an invoice with charts attached.
Read the full answerShould you white label your advisory platform?
Brand it as your own when the client is buying your firm’s judgement and the software is incidental. Leave the platform visible when the client is institutional, has a board, or needs reassurance that their plan sits somewhere durable rather than in a consultant’s spreadsheet with a logo on it.
Read the full answerHow long does it take to move a strategy out of a document?
The import is not the constraint. Settling one owner, one measure and one date for each objective is, and with the right people in a room that is a few minutes each, so a one-page plan is a single working session. Then allow one check-in cycle before anybody trusts it. Long migrations are decision latency rather than data entry.
Read the full answerHow many clients can one advisor hold?
No industry figure is worth borrowing. The answer is available hours divided by hours per engagement, and the second number moves by a factor of three with your review cadence and with how much of the between-meeting work the client does themselves. Most firms are using a figure based on the review itself rather than the fortnight around it, which is why the real number comes out lower.
Read the full answerCan you switch advisory platforms mid-year?
Yes, if you sequence it around the review cycle rather than the calendar. Move the firm first and the clients afterwards, each one in the gap after their own review, so nobody is asked to learn a second portal in the middle of an engagement. The data is the easy part; a client who opens a new portal and finds no history is the expensive part.
Read the full answerWhat strategy is a not-for-profit board obliged to hold?
None, as a standard. No ACNC Governance Standard requires an Australian charity to have a strategy or strategic plan. Governance Standard 5 requires Responsible People to act with reasonable care and diligence, and honestly and fairly in the best interests of the charity and for its charitable purposes, which is where the expectation comes from.
Read the full answerWhat is the difference between OKRs and KPIs?
A KPI monitors something you want to hold in a good range. An OKR commits you to changing something by a date. Most organisations need both, and most OKR programmes fail because they put their existing KPIs into OKR format.
Read the full answerHow do you write a key result?
So that on the last day of the quarter it settles true or false without anyone arguing. Most key results fail that test because they are tasks wearing a number, and a task can be finished without anything changing.
Read the full answerHow do you cascade goals across teams and sites?
By cascading the question, not the objective. Copying the company goal into every team plan is the common failure. Each level answers two things instead: given that, which part is ours, and how will we know we did it.
Read the full answerWhy these three
Each one is where a planning cycle quietly fails
Not the questions people ask first, but the three that decide whether a quarter produces commitments or a list of activities nobody can settle.
- Confusing the two kinds of measure. A team puts its existing KPIs into OKR format, and now every objective is a dashboard it was already watching. Nothing changes, and the method gets the blame.
- A key result that cannot be settled. If two reasonable people can disagree on the last day of the quarter about whether it was met, it was a task with a number attached, and the review turns into a negotiation.
- Cascading by copying. The company objective is pasted into eight team plans, so eight teams own the same words and none owns a part of it. Each level should be answering what its own contribution is, not restating the level above.
GPS does not require you to run any one of these methods. OKRs, Rocks and a balanced scorecard all sit on the same plan, which is why these pages explain the method rather than sell it.
Once the goals are written
The part that decides whether they get hit
A well-written key result still needs somebody to own it, a weekly hour that ends in decisions, and a report the board can read without anyone building it.
Goals and KPIs
Every measure tracked against the pace it needs, not just percent complete.
See goals and KPIsMeetings and check-ins
The weekly hour that ends in decisions rather than status updates.
See the rhythmBoard reporting
The pack written from live data, in minutes rather than a fortnight.
See board reportingOr take the walkthrough and see the whole cycle on real screens.
See it on your own plan
Fifteen minutes, with your objectives on the screen rather than a demo workspace.