How to Write a Five-Year Business Plan

Male entrepreneur looking out into the distance considering the future and deciding if he needs a long-term plan.

Noah Parsons

15 min. read

Updated October 27, 2023

Learn why the traditional way of writing a five-year business plan is often a waste of time and how to use a one-page plan instead for smarter, easier strategic planning to establish your long-term vision. 

In business, it can sometimes seem hard enough to predict what’s going to happen next month, let alone three or even five years from now. But, that doesn’t mean that you shouldn’t plan for the long term. After all, your vision for the future is what gets you out of bed in the morning and motivates your team. It’s those aspirations that drive you to keep innovating and figuring out how to grow.

  • What is a long-term plan?

A long-term or long-range business plan looks beyond the traditional 3-year planning window, focusing on what a business might look like 5 or even 10 years from now. A traditional 5-year business plan includes financial projections, business strategy, and roadmaps that stretch far into the future.

I’ll be honest with you, though—for most businesses, long-range business plans that stretch 5 and 10 years into the future are a waste of time. Anyone who’s seriously asking you for one doesn’t know what they’re doing and is wasting your time. Sorry if that offends some people, but it’s true.

However, there is still real value in looking at the long term. Just don’t invest the time in creating a lengthy version of your business plan with overly detailed metrics and milestones for the next five-plus years. No one knows the future and, more than likely, anything you write down now could be obsolete in the next year, next month, or even next week. 

That’s where long-term strategic planning comes in. A long-term business plan like this is different from a traditional business plan in that it’s lighter on the details and more focused on your strategic direction. It has less focus on financial forecasting and a greater focus on the big picture. 

Think of your long-term strategic plan as your aspirational vision for your business. It defines the ideal direction you’re aiming for but it’s not influencing your day-to-day or, potentially, even your monthly decision making. 

  • Are long-term business plans a waste of time?

No one knows the future. We’re all just taking the information that we have available today and making our best guesses about the future. Sometimes trends in a market are pretty clear and your guesses will be well-founded. Other times, you’re trying to look around a corner and hoping that your intuition about what comes next is correct.

Now, I’m not saying that thinking about the future is a waste of time. Entrepreneurs are always thinking about the future. They have to have some degree of faith and certainty about what customers are going to want in the future. Successful entrepreneurs do actually predict the future — they know what customers are going to want and when they’re going to want it.

Entrepreneurship is unpredictable 

Successful entrepreneurs are also often wrong. They make mistakes just like the rest of us. The difference between successful entrepreneurs and everyone else is that they don’t let mistakes slow them down. They learn from mistakes, adjust and try again. And again. And again. It’s not about being right all the time; it’s about having the perseverance to keep trying until you get it right. For example, James Dyson, inventor of the iconic vacuum cleaner, tried out 5,126 prototypes of his invention before he found a design that worked.

So, if thinking about the future isn’t a waste of time, why are 5-year business plans a waste of time? They’re a waste of time because they typically follow the same format as a traditional business plan, where you are asked to project sales, expenses, and cash flow 5 and 10 years into the future. 

Let’s be real. Sales and expense projections that far into the future are just wild guesses, especially for startups and new businesses. They’re guaranteed to be wrong and can’t be used for anything. You can’t (and shouldn’t) make decisions based on these guesses. They’re just fantasy. You hope you achieve massive year-over-year growth in sales, but there’s no guarantee that’s going to happen. And, you shouldn’t make significant spending decisions today based on the hope of massive sales 10 years from now.

What’s your biggest business challenge right now?

  • Why write a long-term business plan?

So, what is the purpose of outlining a long-term plan? Here are a few key reasons why it’s still valuable to consider the future of your business without getting bogged down by the details.

Showcase your vision for investors

First, and especially important if you are raising money from investors, is your vision. Investors will want to know not only where you plan on being in a year, but where the business will be in five years. Do you anticipate launching new products or services? Will you expand internationally? Or will you find new markets to grow into? 

Set long-term goals for your business

Second, you’ll want to establish goals for yourself and your team. What kinds of high-level sales targets do you hope to achieve? How big is your company going to get overtime? These goals can be used to motivate your team and even help in the hiring process as you get up and running.

That said, you don’t want to overinvest in fleshing out all the details of a long-range plan. You don’t need to figure out exactly how your expansion will work years from now or exactly how much you’ll spend on office supplies five years from now. That’s really just a waste of time.

Instead, for long-range planning, think in broad terms. A good planning process means that you’re constantly revising and refining your business plan. You’ll add more specifics as you go, creating a detailed plan for the next 6-12 months and a broader, vague plan for the long term.

You have a long development time

Businesses with extremely long research and development timelines do make spending decisions now based on the hope of results years from now. For example, the pharmaceutical industry and medical device industry have to make these bets all the time. The R&D required to take a concept from idea to proven product with regulatory approval can take years for these industries, so long-range planning in these cases is a must. A handful of other industries also have similar development timelines, but these are the exceptions, not the rule.

Your business is well-established and predictable 

Long-term, detailed planning can make more sense for businesses that are extremely well established and have long histories of consistent sales and expenses with predictable growth. But, even for those businesses, predictability means quite the opposite of stability. The chances that you’ll be disrupted in the marketplace by a new company, or the changing needs and desires of your customers, is extremely high. So, most likely, those long-range predictions of sales and profits are pretty useless.

  • What a 5-year plan should look like

With the exception of R&D-heavy businesses, most 5-year business plans should be more like vision statements than traditional business plans. They should explain your vision for the future, but skip the details of detailed sales projections and expense budgets. 

Your vision for your business should explain the types of products and services that you hope to offer in the future and the types of customers that you hope to serve. Your plan should outline who you plan to serve now and how you plan to expand if you are successful.

This kind of future vision creates a strategic roadmap. It’s not a fully detailed plan with sales forecasts and expense budgets, but a plan for getting started and then growing over time to reach your final destination.

For example, here’s a short-form version of what a long-term plan for Nike might have looked like if one had been written in the 1960s:

Nike will start by developing high-end track shoes for elite athletes. We’ll start with a focus on the North West of the US, but expand nationally as we develop brand recognition among track and field athletes. We will use sponsored athletes to spread the word about the quality and performance of our shoes. Once we have success in the track & field market segment, we believe that we will be able to successfully expand both beyond the US market and also branch out into other sports, with an initial focus on basketball.

Leadership and brand awareness in a sport such as basketball will enable us to cross over from the athlete market into the consumer market. This will lead to significant business growth in the consumer segment and allow for expansion into additional sports, fashion, and casual markets in addition to building a strong apparel brand.

Interestingly enough, Nike (to my knowledge) never wrote out a long-range business plan. They developed their plans as they grew, building the proverbial airplane as it took off.

But, if you have this kind of vision for your business, it’s useful to articulate it. Your employees will want to know what your vision is and your investors will want to know as well. They want to know that you, as an entrepreneur, are looking beyond tomorrow and into the future months and years ahead.

  • How to write a five-year business plan

Writing out your long-term vision for your business is a useful exercise. It can bring a sense of stability and solidify key performance indicators and broad milestones that drive your business. 

Developing a long-range business plan is really just an extension of your regular business planning process. A typical business plan covers the next one to three years, documenting your target market, marketing strategy, and product or service offerings for that time period. 

A five-year plan expands off of that initial strategy and discusses what your business might do in the years to come. However, as I’ve mentioned before, creating a fully detailed five-year business plan will be a waste of time. 

Here’s a quick guide to writing a business plan that looks further into the future without wasting your time:

1. Develop your one-page plan

As with all business planning, we recommend that you start with a one-page business plan. It provides a snapshot of what you’re hoping to achieve in the immediate term by outlining your core business strategy, target market, and business model.

A one-page plan is the foundation of all other planning because it’s the document that you’ll keep the most current. It’s also the easiest to update and share with business partners. You will typically highlight up to three years of revenue and profit goals as well as milestones that you hope to achieve in the near term.

Check out our guide to building your one-page plan and download a free template to get started.

2. Determine if you need a traditional business plan

Unlike a one-page business plan, a traditional business plan is more detailed and is typically written in long-form prose. A traditional business plan is usually 10-20 pages long and contains details about your product or service, summaries of the market research that you’ve conducted, and details about your competition. Read our complete guide to writing a business plan .

Companies that write traditional business plans typically have a “business plan event” where a complete business plan is required. Business plan events are usually part of the fundraising process. During fundraising, lenders and investors may ask to see a detailed plan and it’s important to be ready if that request comes up. 

But there are other good reasons to write a detailed business plan. A detailed plan forces you to think through the details of your business and how, exactly, you’re going to build your business. Detailed plans encourage you to think through your business strategy, your target market, and your competition carefully. A good business plan ensures that your strategy is complete and fleshed out, not just a collection of vague ideas.

A traditional business plan is also a good foundation for a long-term business plan and I recommend that you expand your lean business plan into a complete business plan if you intend to create plans for more than three years into the future.

3. Develop long-term goals and growth targets

As you work on your business plan, you’ll need to think about where you want to be in 5+ years. A good exercise is to envision what your business will look like. How many employees will you have? How many locations will you serve? Will you introduce new products and services? 

When you’ve envisioned where you want your business to be, it’s time to turn that vision into a set of goals that you’ll document in your business plan. Each section of your business plan will be expanded to highlight where you want to be in the future. For example, in your target market section, you will start by describing your initial target market. Then you’ll proceed to describe the markets that you hope to reach in 3-5 years.

To accompany your long-term goals, you’ll also need to establish revenue targets that you think you’ll need to meet to achieve your goals. It’s important to also think about the expenses you’re going to incur in order to grow your business. 

For long-range planning, I recommend thinking about your expenses in broad buckets such as “marketing” and “product development” without getting bogged down in too much detail. Think about what percentage of your sales you’ll spend on each of these broad buckets. For example, marketing spending might be 20% of sales. 

4. Develop a 3-5 year strategic plan

Your goals and growth targets are “what” you want to achieve. Your strategy is “how” you’re going to achieve it.

Use your business plan to document your strategy for growth. You might be expanding your product offering, expanding your market, or some combination of the two. You’ll need to think about exactly how this process will happen over the next 3-5 years. 

A good way to document your strategy is to use milestones. These are interim goals that you’ll set to mark your progress along the way to your larger goal. For example, you may have a goal to expand your business nationally from your initial regional presence. You probably won’t expand across the country all at once, though. Most likely, you’ll expand into certain regions one at a time and grow to have a national presence over time. Your strategy will be the order of the regions that you plan on expanding into and why you pick certain regions over others.

Your 3-5 year strategy may also include what’s called an “exit strategy”. This part of a business plan is often required if you’re raising money from investors. They’ll want to know how they’ll eventually get their money back. An “exit” can be the sale of your business or potentially going public. A typical exit strategy will identify potential acquirers for your business and will show that you’ve thought about how your business might be an attractive purchase.

5. Tie your long-term plan to your one-page plan

As your business grows, you can use your long-term business plan as your north star. Your guide for where you want to end up. Use those goals to steer your business in the right direction, making small course corrections as you need to. 

You’ll reflect those smaller course corrections in your one-page plan. Because it is a simple document and looks at the shorter term, it’s easier to update. The best way to do this is to set aside a small amount of time to review your plan once a month. You’ll review your financial forecast, your milestones, and your overall strategy. If things need to change, you can make those adjustments. Nothing ever goes exactly to plan, so it’s OK to make corrections as you go.

You may find that your long-term plan may also need corrections as you grow your business. You may learn things about your market that change your initial assumptions and impacts your long-range plan. This is perfectly normal. Once a quarter or so, zoom out and review your long-range plan. If you need to make corrections to your strategy and goals, that’s fine. Just keep your plan alive so that it gives you the guidance that you need over time. 

  • Vision setting is the purpose of long-term planning

Part of what makes entrepreneurs special is that they have a vision. They have dreams for where they want their business to go. A 5-year business plan should be about documenting that vision for the future and how your business will capitalize on that vision.

So, if someone asks you for your 5-year business plan. Don’t scramble to put together a sales forecast and budget for 5 years from now. Your best guess today will be obsolete tomorrow. Instead, focus on your vision and communicate that. 

Explain where you think your business is going and what you think the market is going to be like 5 years from now. Explain what you think customers are going to want and where trends are headed and how you’re going to be there to sell the solution to the problems that exist in 5 and 10 years. Just skip the invented forecasts and fantasy budgets.

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Content Author: Noah Parsons

Noah is the COO at Palo Alto Software, makers of the online business plan app LivePlan. He started his career at Yahoo! and then helped start the user review site Epinions.com. From there he started a software distribution business in the UK before coming to Palo Alto Software to run the marketing and product teams.

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The Complete Guide to Writing a Strategic Plan

By Joe Weller | April 12, 2019 (updated February 22, 2024)

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Writing a strategic plan can be daunting, as the process includes many steps. In this article, you’ll learn the basics of writing a strategic plan, what to include, common challenges, and more.

Included on this page, you'll find details on what to include in a strategic plan , the importance of an executive summary , how to write a mission statement , how to write a vision statement , and more.

The Basics of Writing a Strategic Plan

The strategic planning process takes time, but the payoff is huge. If done correctly, your strategic plan will engage and align stakeholders around your company’s priorities.

Strategic planning, also called strategy development or analysis and assessment , requires attention to detail and should be performed by someone who can follow through on next steps and regular updates. Strategic plans are not static documents — they change as new circumstances arise, both internally and externally.

Before beginning the strategic planning process, it’s important to make sure you have buy-in from management, a board of directors, or other leaders. Without it, the process cannot succeed.

Next, gather your planning team. The group should include people from various departments at different levels, and the planning process should be an open, free discussion within the group. It’s important for leaders to get input from the group as a whole, but they don’t necessarily need approval from everyone — that will slow down the process.

The plan author is responsible for writing and putting the final plan together and should work with a smaller group of writers to establish and standardize the tone and style of the final document or presentation.

Sometimes, it’s a good idea to hire an external party to help facilitate the strategic planning process.

John Bryson

“It often can be helpful to have a really good facilitator to organize and pursue strategic conversations,” says Professor John M. Bryson, McKnight Presidential Professor of Planning and Public Affairs at the Hubert H. Humphrey School of Public Affairs, University of Minnesota and author of Strategic Planning for Public and Nonprofit Organizations: A Guide to Strengthening and Sustaining Organizational Achievement .

Byson says the facilitator can be in-house or external, but they need experience. “You need to make sure someone is good, so there needs to be a vetting process,” he says.

One way to gauge a facilitator’s experience is by asking how they conduct conversations. “It’s important for facilitators to lead by asking questions,” Bryson says.

Bryson says that strong facilitators often ask the following questions:

What is the situation we find ourselves in?

What do we do?

How do we do it?

How do we link our purposes to our capabilities?

The facilitators also need to be able to handle conflict and diffuse situations by separating idea generation from judgement. “Conflict is part of strategic planning,” Bryson admits. “[Facilitators] need to hold the conversations open long enough to get enough ideas out there to be able to make wise choices.”

These outside helpers are sometimes more effective than internal facilitators since they are not emotionally invested in the outcome of the process. Thus, they can concentrate on the process and ask difficult questions.

A strategic plan is a dynamic document or presentation that details your company’s present situation, outlines your future plans, and shows you how the company can get there. You can take many approaches to the process and consider differing ideas about what needs to go into it, but some general concepts stand.

“Strategic planning is a prompt or a facilitator for fostering strategic thinking, acting, and learning,” says Bryson. He explains that he often begins planning projects with three questions:

What do you want to do?

How are we going to do it?

What would happen if you did what you want to do?

The answers to these questions make up the meat of the planning document.

A strategic plan is only effective when the writing and thinking is clear, since the intent is to help an organization keep to its mission through programs and capacity, while also building stakeholder engagement.

Question 1: Where Are We Now?

The answer (or answers) to the first question — where are we now? — addresses the foundation of your organization, and it can serve as an outline for the following sections of your strategic plan:

Mission statement

Core values and guiding principles

Identification of competing organizations

Industry analysis (this can include a SWOT or PEST analysis)

Question 2: Where Are We Going?

The answers to this question help you identify your goals for the future of the business and assess whether your current trajectory is the future you want. These aspects of the plan outline a strategy for achieving success and can include the following:

Vision statement about what the company will look like in the future

What is happening (both internally and externally) and what needs to change

The factors necessary for success

Question 3: How Do We Get There?

The answers to this question help you outline the many routes you can take to achieve your vision and match your strengths with opportunities in the market. A Gantt chart can help you map out and keep track of these initiatives.

You should include the following sections:

Specific and measurable goals

An execution plan that identifies who manages and monitors the plan

An evaluation plan that shows how you plan to measure the successes and setbacks that come with implementation

What to Include in a Strategic Plan

Strategic planning terminology is not standardized throughout the industry, and this can lead to confusion. Instead, strategic planning experts use many names for the different sections of a strategic plan.

Denise McNerney

“The terms are all over the map. It’s really the concept of what the intention of the terms are [that is important],” says Denise McNerney, President and CEO of iBossWell, Inc. , and incoming president of the Association for Strategic Planning (ASP). She recommends coming up with a kind of glossary that defines the terms for your team. “One of the most important elements when you’re starting the strategic planning process is to get some clarity on the nomenclature. It’s just what works for your organization. Every organization is slightly different.”

No matter what terms you use, the general idea of a strategic plan is the same. “It’s like drawing a map for your company. One of the first steps is committing to a process, then determining how you’re going to do it,” McNerney explains.

She uses a basic diagram that she calls the strategic plan architecture . The areas above the red dotted line are the strategic parts of the plan. Below the red dotted line are the implementation pieces.

Strategic Plan Architecture

While the specific terminology varies, basic sections of a strategic plan include the following in roughly this order:

Executive summary

Elevator pitch or company description

Vision statement

Industry analysis

Marketing plan

Operations plan

Financial projections

Evaluation methods

Signature page

Some plans will contain all the above sections, but others will not — what you include depends on your organization’s structure and culture.

“I want to keep it simple, so organizations can be successful in achieving [the strategic plan],” McNerney explains. “Your plan has to be aligned with your culture and your culture needs to be aligned with your plan if you’re going to be successful in implementing it.”

The following checklist will help you keep track of what you have done and what you still need to do.

Writing A Strategic Plan Section

‌ Download Strategic Plan Sections Checklist

How to Write a Strategic Plan

Once you’ve assembled your team and defined your terms, it’s time to formalize your ideas by writing the strategic plan. The plan may be in the form of a document, a presentation, or another format.

You can use many models and formats to create your strategic plan (read more about them in this article ). However, you will likely need to include some basic sections, regardless of the particular method you choose (even if the order and way you present them vary). In many cases, the sections of a strategic plan build on each other, so you may have to write them in order.

One tip: Try to avoid jargon and generic terms; for example, words like maximize and succeed lose their punch. Additionally, remember that there are many terms for the same object in strategic planning.

The following sections walk you through how to write common sections of a strategic plan.

How to Write an Executive Summary

The key to writing a strong executive summary is being clear and concise. Don’t feel pressured to put anything and everything into this section — executive summaries should only be about one to two pages long and include the main points of the strategic plan.

The idea is to pique the reader’s interest and get them to read the rest of the plan. Because it functions as a review of the entire document, write the executive summary after you complete the rest of your strategic plan.

Jim Stockmal

“If you have a plan that’s really lengthy, you should have a summary,” says Jim Stockmal, President of the Association for Strategic Planning (ASP). He always writes summaries last, after he has all the data and information he needs for the plan. He says it is easier to cut than to create something.

For more information about writing an effective executive summary, a checklist, and free templates, read this article .

If you want a one-page executive summary, this template can help you decide what information to include.

One-page Executive Summary Template

Download One-Page Executive Summary Template

Excel | Word | PDF

How to Write a Company Description

Also called an elevator pitch , the company description is a brief outline of your organization and what it does. It should be short enough that it can be read or heard during the average elevator ride.

The company description should include the history of your company, the major products and services you provide, and any highlights and accomplishments, and it should accomplish the following:

Define what you are as a company.

Describe what the company does.

Identify your ideal client and customer.

Highlight what makes your company unique.

While this may seem basic, the company description changes as your company grows and changes. For example, your ideal customer five years ago might not be the same as the current standard or the one you want in five years.

Share the company description with everyone in your organization. If employees cannot accurately articulate what you do to others, you might miss out on opportunities.

How to Write a Mission Statement

The mission statement explains what your business is trying to achieve. In addition to guiding your entire company, it also helps your employees make decisions that move them toward the company’s overall mission and goals.

“Ideally, [the mission statement is] something that describes what you’re about at the highest level,” McNerney says. “It’s the reason you exist or what you do.”

Strong mission statements can help differentiate your company from your competitors and keep you on track toward your goals. It can also function as a type of tagline for your organization.

Mission statements should do the following:

Define your company’s purpose. Say what you do, who you do it for, and why it is valuable.

Use specific and easy-to-understand language.

Be inspirational while remaining realistic.

Be short and succinct.

This is your chance to define the way your company will make decisions based on goals, culture, and ethics. Mission statements should not be vague or generic, and they should set your business apart from others. If your mission statement could define many companies in your line of work, it is not a good mission statement.

Mission statements don’t have to be only outward-facing for customers or partners. In fact, it is also possible to include what your company does for its employees in your mission statement.

Unlike other parts of your strategic plan that are designed to be reviewed and edited periodically, your company’s mission statement should live as is for a while.

That said, make the effort to edit and refine your mission statement. Take out jargon like world class, best possible, state of the art, maximize, succeed , and so on, and cut vague or unspecific phrasing. Then let your strategic planning committee review it.

How to Write a Vision Statement

Every action your company does contributes to its vision. The vision statement explains what your company wants to achieve in the long term and can help inspire and align your team.

“The vision is the highest-ordered statement of the desired future or state of what you want your business to achieve,” McNerney explains.

A clear vision statement can help all stakeholders understand the meaning and purpose of your company. It should encourage and inspire employees while setting your company’s direction. It also helps you rule out elements that might not align with your vision.

Vision statements should be short (a few sentences). They should also be memorable, specific, and ambitious. But there is a fine line between being ambitious and creating a fantasy. The vision should be clearly attainable if you follow the goals and objectives you outline later in your strategic planning plan.

Because you need to know your company’s goals and objectives to create an accurate vision statement, you might need to wait until you have more information about the company’s direction to write your vision statement.

Below are questions to ask your team as you craft your vision statement:

What impact do we want to have on our community and industry?

How will we interact with others as a company?

What is the culture of the business?

Avoid broad statements that could apply to any company or industry. For example, phrases like “delivering a wonderful experience” could apply to many industries. Write in the present tense, avoid jargon, and be clear and concise.

Vision statements should accomplish the following:

Be inspiring.

Focus on success.

Look at and project about five to 10 years ahead.

Stay in line with the goals and values of your organization.

Once you write your vision statement, communicate it to everyone in your company. Your team should be able to easily understand and repeat the company’s vision statement. Remember, the statements can change as the environment in and around your company changes.

The Difference Between Mission and Vision Statements

Mission and vision statements are both important, but they serve very different purposes.

Mission statements show why a business exists, while vision statements are meant to inspire and provide direction. Mission statements are about the present, and vision statements are about the future. The mission provides items to act upon, and the vision offers goals to aspire to.

For example, if a vision statement is “No child goes to bed hungry,” the accompanying mission would be to provide food banks within the city limits.

While many organizations have both mission and vision statements, it’s not imperative. “Not everyone has a vision statement,” McNerney says. “Some organizations just have one.”

If you choose to have only one statement, McNerney offers some advice: “Any statement you have, if you have just one, needs to include what [you do], how [you do it], why [you do it], and who you do it for.”

During the planning process, these key statements might change. “Early on in the process, you need to talk about what you are doing and why and how you are doing it. Sometimes you think you know where you want to go, but you’re not really sure,” McNerney says. “You need to have flexibility both on the plan content and in the process.”

How to Write Your Company’s Core Values

Company core values , sometimes called organizational values , help you understand what drives the company to do what it does. In this section, you’ll learn a lot about your company and the people who work with you. It should be relatively easy to write.

“The values are the core of how you operate [and] how you treat your people, both internally and externally. Values describe the behaviors you really want to advance,” McNerney says.

There are both internal and external values looking at your employees and coworkers, as well as customers and outside stakeholders. Pinpointing values will help you figure out the traits of the people you want to hire and promote, as well as the qualities you’re looking for in your customers.

Your values should align with your vision statement and highlight your strengths while mitigating weaknesses. McNerney says many organizations do not really consider or are not honest about their company’s values when working on strategic plans, which can lead to failure.

“Your strategies have to align with your values and vice versa,” she explains.

Many companies’ values sound like meaningless jargon, so take the time to figure out what matters to your company and push beyond generic language.

How to Write about Your Industry

When planning ahead for your business, it’s important to look around. How are matters inside your company? What are your competitors doing? Who are your target customers?

“[If you don’t do a thorough industry analysis], you’re doing your planning with your head in the sand. If you’re not looking at the world around you, you’re missing a whole dimension about what should inform your decision making,” McNerney advises.

Writing about your industry helps you identify new opportunities for growth and shows you how you need to change in order to take advantage of those opportunities. Identify your key competitors, and define what you see as their strengths and weaknesses. Performing this analysis will help you figure out what you do best and how you compare to your competition. Once you know what you do well, you can exploit your strengths to your advantage.

In this section, also include your SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis. You can choose from many templates to help you write this section.

Next, identify your target customers. Think about what they want and need, as well as how you can provide it. Do your competitors attract your target customers, or do you have a niche that sets you apart?

The industry analysis carries a price, but also provides many benefits. “It takes some time and money to do [a thorough industry analysis], but the lack of that understanding says a lot about the future of your organization. If you don’t know what is going on around you, how can you stay competitive?” explains McNerney.

How to Write Strategic Plan Goals and Objectives

This section is the bulk of your strategic plan. Many people confuse goals and objectives, thinking the terms are interchangeable, but many argue that the two are distinct. You can think of them this way:

Goals : Goals are broad statements about what you want to achieve as a company, and they’re usually qualitative. They function as a description of where you want to go, and they can address both the short and long term.

Objectives : Objectives support goals, and they’re usually quantitative and measurable. They describe how you will measure the progress needed to arrive at the destination you outlined in the goal. More than one objective can support one goal.

For example, if your goal is to achieve success as a strategic planner, your objective would be to write all sections of the strategic plan in one month.

iBossWell, Inc.’s McNerney reiterates that there are not hard and fast definitions for the terms goals and objectives , as well as many other strategic planning concepts. “I wouldn’t attempt to put a definition to the terms. You hear the terms goals and objectives a lot, but they mean different things to different people. What some people call a goal , others call an objective . What some people call an objective , others would call a KPI. ” They key, she explains, is to decide what the terms mean in your organization, explain the definitions to key stakeholders, and stick to those definitions.

How to Write Goals

Goals form the basis of your strategic plan. They set out your priorities and initiatives, and therefore are critical elements and define what your plan will accomplish. Some planning specialists use the term strategic objectives or strategic priorities when referring to goals, but for clarity, this article will use the term goals.

“[Goals] are the higher level that contain several statements about what your priorities are,” McNerney explains. They are often near the top of your plan’s hierarchy.

Each goal should reflect something you uncovered during the analysis phase of your strategic planning process. Goals should be precise and concise statements, not long narratives. For example, your goals might be the following:

Eliminate case backlog.

Lower production costs.

Increase total revenue.

Each goal should have a stated outcome and a deadline. Think of goal writing as a formula: Action + detail of the action + a measurable metric + a deadline = goal. For example, your goal might be: Increase total revenue by 5 percent in three product areas by the third quarter of 2020.

Another way to look at it: Verb (action) + adjective (description) = noun (result). An example goal: Increase website fundraising.

Your goals should strike a balance between being aspirational and tangible. You want to stretch your limits, but not make them too difficult to reach. Your entire organization and stakeholders should be able to remember and understand your goals.

Think about goals with varying lengths. Some should go out five to 10 years, others will be shorter — some significantly so. Some goals might even be quarterly, monthly, or weekly. But be careful to not create too many goals. Focus on the ones that allow you to zero in on what is critical for your company’s success. Remember, several objectives and action steps will likely come from each goal.

How to Write Objectives

Objectives are the turn-by-turn directions of how to achieve your goals. They are set in statement and purpose with no ambiguity about whether you achieve them or not.

Your goals are where you want to go. Next, you have to determine how to get there, via a few different objectives that support each goal. Note that objectives can cover several areas.

“You need implementation elements of the plan to be successful,” McNerney says, adding that some people refer to objectives as tactics , actions , and many other terms.

Objectives often begin with the words increase or decrease because they are quantifiable and measurable. You will know when you achieve an objective. They are action items, often with start and end dates.

Use the goal example from earlier: Increase total revenue by 5 percent in three product areas by the third quarter of 2020. In this example, your objectives could be:

Approach three new possible clients each month.

Promote the three key product areas on the website and in email newsletters.

Think of the acronym SMART when writing objectives: Make them specific, measurable, achievable, realistic/relevant, and time-bound.

Breaking down the process further, some strategic planners use the terms strategies and tactics to label ways to achieve objectives. Using these terms, strategies describe an approach or method you will use to achieve an objective. A tactic is a specific activity or project that achieves the strategy, which, in turn, helps achieve the objective.

How to Write about Capacity, Operations Plans, Marketing Plans, and Financial Plans

After you come up with your goals and objectives, you need to figure out who will do what, how you will market what they do, and how you will pay for what you need to do.

“If you choose to shortchange the process [and not talk about capacity and finances], you need to know what the consequences will be,” explains McNerney. “If you do not consider the additional costs or revenues your plan is going to drive, you may be creating a plan you cannot implement.”

To achieve all the goals outlined in your strategic plan, you need the right people in place. Include a section in your strategic plan where you talk about the capacity of your organization. Do you have the team members to accomplish the objectives you have outlined in order to reach your goals? If not, you may need to hire personnel.

The operations plan maps out your initiatives and shows you who is going to do what, when, and how. This helps transform your goals and objectives into a reality. A summary of it should go into your strategic plan. If you need assistance writing a comprehensive implementation plan for your organization, this article can guide you through the process.

A marketing plan describes how you attract prospects and convert them into customers. You don’t need to include the entire marketing plan in your strategic plan, but you might want to include a summary. For more information about writing marketing plans, this article can help.

Then there are finances. We would all like to accomplish every goal, but sometimes we do not have enough money to do so. A financial plan can help you set your priorities. Check out these templates to help you get started with a financial plan.

How to Write Performance Indicators

In order to know if you are reaching the goals you outline in your strategic plan, you need performance indicators. These indicators will show you what success looks like and ensure accountability. Sadly, strategic plans have a tendency to fail when nobody periodically assesses progress.

Key performance indicators (KPIs) can show you how your business is progressing. KPIs can be both financial and nonfinancial measures that help you chart your progress and take corrective measures if actions are not unfolding as they should. Other terms similar to KPIs include performance measures and performance indicators .

Performance indicators are not always financial, but they must be quantifiable. For example, tracking visitors to a website, customers completing a contact form, or the number of proposals that close with deals are all performance indicators that keep you on track toward achieving your goals.

When writing your performance indicators, pay attention to the following:

Define how often you need to report results.

Every KPI must have some sort of measure.

List a measure and a time period.

Note the data source where you will get your information to measure and track.

ASP’s Stockmal has some questions for you to ask yourself about picking performance indicators.

Are you in control of the performance measure?

Does the performance measure support the strategic outcomes?

Is it feasible?

Is data available?

Who is collecting that data, and how will they do it?

Is the data timely?

Is it cost-effective to collect that data?

ls the goal quantifiable, and can you measure it over time?

Are your targets realistic and time-bound?

Stockmal also says performance indicators cannot focus on only one thing at the detriment of another. “Don’t lose what makes you good,” he says. He adds that focusing on one KPI can hurt other areas of a company’s performance, so reaching a goal can be short-sided.

Some performance indicators can go into your strategic plan, but you might want to set other goals for your organization. A KPI dashboard can help you set up and track your performance and for more information about setting up a KPI dashboard, this article can help.

Communicating Your Strategic Plan

While writing your strategic plan, you should think about how to share it. A plan is no good if it sits on a shelf and nobody reads it.

Stefan Hofmeyer

“After the meetings are over, you have to turn your strategy into action,” says Stefan Hofmeyer, an experienced strategist and co-founder of Global PMI Partners . “Get in front of employees and present the plan [to get everyone involved].” Hofmeyer explains his research has shown that people stay with companies not always because of money, but often because they buy into the organization’s vision and want to play a part in helping it get where it wants to go. “These are the people you want to keep because they are invested,” he says.

Decide who should get a physical copy of the entire plan. This could include management, the board of directors, owners, and more. Do your best to keep it from your competitors. If you distribute it outside of your company, you might want to attach a confidentiality waiver.

You can communicate your plan to stakeholders in the following ways:

Hold a meeting to present the plan in person.

Highlight the plan in a company newsletter.

Include the plan in new employee onboarding.

Post the plan on the employee intranet, along with key highlights and a way to track progress.

If you hold a meeting, make sure you and other key planners are prepared to handle the feedback and discussion that will arise. You should be able to defend your plan and reinforce its key areas. The goal of the plan’s distribution is to make sure everyone understands their role in making the plan successful.

Remind people of your company’s mission, vision, and values to reinforce their importance. You can use posters or other visual methods to post around the office. The more that people feel they play an important part in the organization’s success, they more successful you will be in reaching your goals of your strategic plan.

Challenges in Writing a Strategic Plan

As mentioned, strategic planning is a process and involves a team. As with any team activity, there will be challenges.

Sometimes the consensus can take priority over what is clear. Peer pressure can be a strong force, especially if a boss or other manager is the one making suggestions and people feel pressured to conform. Some people might feel reluctant to give any input because they do not think it matters to the person who ultimately decides what goes into the plan.

Team troubles can also occur when one or more members does not think the plan is important or does not buy into the process. Team leaders need to take care of these troubles before they get out of hand.

Pay attention to your company culture and the readiness you have as a group, and adapt the planning process to fit accordingly. You need to find the balance between the process and the final product.

The planning process takes time. Many organizations do not give themselves enough time to plan properly, and once you finish planning, writing the document or presentation also takes time, as does implementation. Don’t plan so much that you ignore how you are going to put the plan into action. One symptom of this is not aligning the plan to fit the capacity or finances of the company.

Stockmal explains that many organizations often focus too much on the future and reaching their goals that they forget what made them a strong company in the first place. Business architecture is important, which Stockmal says is “building the capabilities the organization needs to fulfill its strategy.” He adds that nothing happens if there is no budget workers to do the work necessary to drive change.

Be careful with the information you gather. Do not take shortcuts in the research phase — that will lead to bad information coming out further in the process. Also, do not ignore negative information you may learn. Overcoming adversity is one way for companies to grow.

Be wary of cutting and pasting either from plans from past years or from other similar organizations. Every company is unique.

And while this may sound obvious, do not ignore what your planning process tells you. Your research might show you should not go in a direction you might want to.

Writing Different Types of Strategic Plans

The strategic planning process will differ based on your organization, but the basic concepts will stay the same. Whether you are a nonprofit, a school, or a for-profit entity, strategic plans will look at where you are and how you will get to where you want to go.

How to Write a Strategic Plan for a Nonprofit

For a nonprofit, the strategic plan’s purpose is mainly how to best advance the mission. It’s imperative to make sure the mission statement accurately fits the organization.

In addition to a SWOT analysis and other sections that go into any strategic plan, a nonprofit needs to keep an eye on changing factors, such as funding. Some funding sources have finite beginnings and endings. Strategic planning is often continuous for nonprofits.

A nonprofit has to make the community care about its cause. In a for-profit organization, the marketing department works to promote the company’s product or services to bring in new revenue. For a nonprofit, however, conveying that message needs to be part of the strategic plan.

Coming up with an evaluation method and KPIs can sometimes be difficult for a nonprofit, since they are often focused on goals other than financial gain. For example, a substance abuse prevention coalition is trying to keep teens from starting to drink or use drugs, and proving the coalition’s methods work is often difficult to quantify.

This template can help you visually outline your strategic plan for your nonprofit.

Nonprofit Strategic Plan Template

Download Nonprofit Strategic Plan Template

Excel | Smartsheet

How to Write a Strategic Plan for a School

Writing a strategic plan for a school can be difficult because of the variety of stakeholders involved, including students, teachers, other staff, and parents.

Strategic planning in a school is different from others because there are no markets to explore, products to produce, clients to woo, or adjustable timelines. Schools often have set boundaries, missions, and budgets.

Even with the differences, the same planning process and structure should be in place for schools as it is for other types of organizations.

This template can help your university or school outline your strategic plan.

University Strategic Plan Outline Word Template

‌ ‌Download University Strategic Plan Outline – Word

How to Write a 5-Year Strategic Plan

There is no set time period for a strategic plan, but five years can be a sweet spot. In some cases, yearly planning might keep you continually stuck in the planning process, while 10 years might be too far out.

In addition to the basic sections that go into any strategic plan, when forecasting five years into the future, put one- and three-year checkpoints into the plan so you can track progress intermittently.

How to Write a 3-Year Strategic Plan

While five years is often the strategic planning sweet spot, some organizations choose to create three-year plans. Looking too far ahead can be daunting, especially for a new or changing company.

In a three-year plan, the goals and objectives have a shorter timeframe and you need to monitor them more frequently. Build those checkpoints into the plan.

“Most organizations do a three- to five-year plan now because they recognize the technology and the changes in business that are pretty dynamic now,” Stockmal says.

How to Write a Departmental Strategic Plan

The first step in writing a strategic plan for your department is to pay attention to your company’s overall strategic plan. You want to make sure the plans align.

The steps in creating a plan for a department are the same as for an overall strategic plan, but the mission statement, vision, SWOT analysis, goals, objectives, and so on are specific to only the people in your department. Look at each person separately and consider their core competencies, strengths, capabilities, and weaknesses. Assign people who will be responsible for certain tasks and tactics necessary to achieve your goals.

If you have access to a plan from a previous year, see how your department did in meeting its goals. Adjust the new plan accordingly.

When you finish your departmental plan, make sure to submit it to whomever is responsible for your company’s overall plan. Expect to make changes.

How to Write a Strategic Plan for a Project

A strategic plan is for the big picture, not for a particular project for an organization. Instead of a strategic plan, this area would fall under project management.

If you have a failing project and need to turn it around, this article might help.

How to Write a Personal Strategic Plan

Creating a strategic plan isn’t only for businesses. You can also create a strategic plan to help guide both your professional and personal life. The key is to include what is important to you. This process takes time and reflection.

Be prepared for what you discover about yourself. Because you will be looking at your strengths and weaknesses, you might see things you do not like. It is important to be honest with yourself. A SWOT analysis on yourself will give you some honest feedback if you let it.

Begin with looking at your life as it is now. Are you satisfied? What do you want to do more or less? What do you value most in your life? Go deeper than saying family, happiness, and health. This exercise will help you clarify your values.

Once you know what is important to you, come up with a personal mission statement that reflects the values you cherish. As it does within a business, this statement will help guide you in making future decisions. If something does not fit within your personal mission, you shouldn’t do it.

Using the information you discovered during your SWOT and mission statement process, come up with goals that align with your values. The goals can be broad, but don’t forget to include action items and timeframes to help you reach your goals.

As for the evaluation portion, identify how you will keep yourself accountable and on track. You might involve a person to remind you about your plan, calendar reminders, small rewards when you achieve a goal, or another method that works for you.

Below is additional advice for personal strategic plans:

There are things you can control and things you cannot. Keep your focus on what you can act on.

Look at the positive instead of what you will give up. For example, instead of focusing on losing weight, concentrate on being healthier.

Do not overcommit, and do not ignore the little details that help you reach your goals.

No matter what, do not dwell on setbacks and remember to celebrate successes.

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When teams have clarity into the work getting done, there’s no telling how much more they can accomplish in the same amount of time.  Try Smartsheet for free, today.

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How To Write A Strategic Plan That Gets Results + Examples

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

Are you feeling overwhelmed with the thought of writing a strategic plan for your business? Do you want to create a plan that will help you move your team forward with inspired alignment and disciplined execution? You're not alone.

Gone are the days of rigid, 5- or 10-year planning cycles that do not leave room for flexibility and innovation. To stay ahead of the curve, you need a dynamic and execution-ready strategic plan that can guide your business through the ever-evolving landscape.

At Cascade, we understand that writing a strategic plan can be dreadful, especially in today's unpredictable environment. That's why we've developed a simple model that can help you create a clear, actionable plan to achieve your organization's goals. With our tested and proven strategic planning template , you can write a strategic plan that is both adaptable and effective .

Whether you're a seasoned strategy professional or a fresh strategy planner, this guide will walk you through the process step-by-step on how to write a strategic plan. By the end, you'll have a comprehensive, easy-to-follow strategic plan that will help you align your organization on the path to success.

#1 Strategy Execution Platform Don't plan to fail.  Break down the complexity of your plans from high-level initiative to  executable outcome.   Learn how. Book a demo!

Follow this guide step-by-step or skip to the part you’re most interested in: 

  • Pre-Planning Phase: Build The Foundation

Cascade Model For Strategic Planning: What You Need To Know

  • Key Elements of a Strategic Plan

How To Write A Strategic Plan In 6 Simple Steps

3 strategic plan examples to get you started, how to achieve organizational alignment with your strategic plan.

  • Quick Overview of Key Steps In Writing A Strategic Plan

Create An Execution-Ready Strategic Plan With Cascade 🚀

*Editor’s note: This article is part of our ‘How to create a Strategy’ collection. At the end of this article, you’ll find a link to each piece within this collection so you can dig deeper into each element of an effective strategic plan and more related resources to master strategy execution.

Pre-Planning Phase: Build The Foundation 

Before we dive into writing a strategic plan, it's essential to know the basics you should cover before the planning phase. The pre-planning phase is where you'll begin to gather the data and strategic insights necessary to create an effective strategic plan.

1. Run a strategic planning workshop

The first step is to run a strategic planning workshop with your team. Get your team in the room, get their data, and gather their insights. By running this workshop, you'll foster collaboration and bring fresh perspectives to the table. And that’s not all. 

The process of co-creating and collaborating to put that plan together with stakeholders is one of the most critical factors in strategy execution . According to McKinsey’s research , initiatives in which employees contribute to development are 3.4 times more likely to be successful. They feel like the plan is a result of their efforts, and they feel ownership of it, so they're more likely to execute it. 

💡 Tip: Use strategy frameworks to structure your strategy development sessions, such as GAP analysis , SWOT analysis , Porter’s Five Forces , Ansoff matrix , McKinsey 7S model , or GE matrix . You can even apply the risk matrix that will help you align and decide on key strategic priorities.

2. Choose your strategic planning model

Before creating your strategic plan, you need to decide which structure you will use. There are hundreds of ways to structure a strategic plan. You’ve likely heard of famous strategic models such as OKRs and the Balanced Scorecard .

But beyond the well-known ones, there's also a myriad of other strategic planning models ranging from the extremely simple to the absurdly complex.

Many strategic models work reasonably well on paper, but in reality, they don't show you how to write a strategic plan that fits your organization's needs.

Here are some common weaknesses most popular strategic models have:

  • They're too complicated. People get lost in terminology rather than focus on execution.
  • They don’t scale. They work well for small organizations but fail when you try to extend them across multiple teams.
  • They're too rigid. They force people to add layers for the sake of adding layers.
  • They're neither tangible nor measurable. They’re great at stating outcomes but lousy at helping you measure success.
  • They're not adaptable. As we saw in the last years, the business environment can change quickly. Your model needs to be able to work in your current situation and adapt to changing economic landscapes.

Our goal in this article is to give you a simpler, more effective way to write a strategic plan. This is a tested and proven strategic planning model that has been refined over years of working with +20,000 teams around the world. We call it the Cascade Strategy Model.

This approach has proven to be more effective than any other model we have tried when it comes to executing and implementing the strategy .

It’s easy to use and it works for small businesses, fast-growing startups, as well as multinationals trying to figure out how to write a fail-proof strategic plan.

We’ve created a simple diagram below to illustrate what a strategic plan following the Cascade Model will look like when it's completed:

The Cascade Model for strategic planning and execution

Rather than a traditional roadmap , imagine your strategy as a flowchart. Each row is a mandatory step before moving on to the next.

We call our platform  Cascade for a reason: strategy must cascade throughout an organization along with values, focus areas, and objectives.

Above all, the Cascade Model is intended to be execution-ready —in other words, it has been proven to deliver success far beyond strategic planning. It adds to a successful strategic management process.Key elements of a Strategic Plan

Key Elements Of A Strategic Plan

The key elements of a strategic plan include: 

  • Vision : Where do you want to get to? 
  • Values : How will you behave on the journey? 
  • Focus Areas : What are going to be your strategic priorities? 
  • Strategic objectives : What do you want to achieve? 
  • Actions and projects : How are you going to achieve the objectives? 
  • KPIs : How will you measure success?

In this part of the article, we will give you an overview of each element within the Cascade Model. You can follow this step-by-step process in a spreadsheet , or sign up to get instant access to a free Cascade strategic planning template and follow along as we cover the key elements of an effective strategic plan.

Your vision statement is your organization's anchor - it defines where you want to get to and is the executive summary of your organization's purpose. Without it, your strategic plan is like a boat without a rudder, at the mercy of strong winds and currents like Covid and global supply chain disruptions.

A good vision statement can help funnel your strategy towards long-term goals that matter the most to your organization, and everything you write in your plan from this point on will help you get closer to achieving your vision.

Trying to do too much at once is a surefire way to sink your strategic plan. By creating a clear and inspiring vision statement , you can avoid this trap and provide guidance and inspiration for your team. A great vision statement might even help attract talent and investment into your organization.

For example, a bike manufacturing company might have a vision statement like, “To be the premier bike manufacturer in the Pacific Northwest.” This statement clearly articulates the organization's goals and is a powerful motivator for the team.

In short, don't start your strategic plan without a clear vision statement. It will keep your organization focused and help you navigate toward success.

📚 Recommended read: How to Write a Vision Statement (With Examples, Tips, and Formulas)

Values are the enablers of your vision statement —they represent how your organization will behave as you work towards your strategic goals. Unfortunately, many companies throw around meaningless words just for the purpose of PR, leading to a loss of credibility.

To avoid this, make sure to integrate your organization’s core values into everyday operations and interactions. In today's highly-competitive world, it's crucial to remain steadfast in your values and cultivate an organizational culture that's transparent and trustworthy.

Companies with the best company cultures consistently outperform competitors and their average market by up to 115.6%, as reported by Glassdoor . 

For example, a bike manufacturing company might have core values like:

  • Accountability

These values reflect the organization's desire to become the leading bike manufacturer, while still being accountable to employees, customers, and shareholders.

👉 Here’s how to add vision and values to your strategic plan in Cascade: 

After you sign up and invite your team members to collaborate on the plan, navigate to Plans and Teams > Teams page, and add the vision, mission and values. This will help you to ensure that the company’s vision, mission statement, and values are always at top of mind for everyone.

📚When you're ready to start creating some company values, check out our guide, How To Create Company Values .

3. Focus Areas

Your focus areas are the strategic priorities that will keep your team on track and working toward the company’s mission and vision. They represent the high-level areas that you need to focus on to achieve desired business outcomes.

In fact, companies with clearly defined priorities are more likely to achieve their objectives. According to a case study by the Harvard Business Review , teams that focus on a small number of key initiatives are more likely to succeed than those that try to do too much. 

That’s also something that we usually recommend to our customers when they set up their strategic plan in Cascade. Rather than spreading your resources too thin over multiple focus areas, prioritize three to five. 

Following our manufacturing example above, some good focus areas include:

  • Aggressive growth
  • Producing the nation's best bikes
  • Becoming a modern manufacturer
  • Becoming a top place to work

Your focus areas should be tighter in scope than your vision statement, but broader than specific goals, time frames, or metrics. 

By defining your focus areas, you'll give your teams a guardrail to work within, which can help inspire innovation and creative problem-solving. 

With a clear set of focus areas, your team will be better able to prioritize their work and stay focused on the most important things, which will ultimately lead to better business results.

👉Here’s how you can set focus areas in Cascade: 

In Cascade, you can add focus areas while creating or importing an existing strategic plan from a spreadsheet. With Cascade’s Focus Area deep-dive functionality , you will be able to: 

  • Review the health of your focus areas in one place.
  • Get a breakdown by plans, budgets, resources, and people behind each strategic priority. 
  • See something at-risk? Drill down into each piece of work regardless of how many plans it's a part of.

add focus areas in cascade strategy execution platform

📚 Recommended read: Strategic Focus Areas: How to create them + Examples

4. Strategic Objectives

The importance of setting clear and specific objectives for your strategic plan cannot be overstated. 

Strategic objectives are the specific and measurable outcomes you want to achieve . While they should align with your focus areas, they should be more detailed and have a clear deadline. 

According to the 2022 State of High Performing Teams report , there is a strong correlation between goals and success not only at the individual and team level but also at the organizational level. Here’s what they found: 

  • Employees who are unaware of their company's goals are over three times more likely to work at a company that is experiencing a decline in revenue than employees who are aware of the goals. 
  • Companies with shrinking revenues are almost twice as likely to have employees with unclear work expectations. 

Jumping straight into actions without defining clear objectives is a common mistake that can lead to missed opportunities or misalignment between strategy and execution.

To avoid this pitfall, we recommend you add between three and six objectives to each focus area .

It's here that we need to start being a bit more specific for the first time in your strategic planning process . Let's take a look at an example of a well-written strategic objective:

  • Continue top-line growth that outpaces the industry by 31st Dec 2023.

This is too specific to be a focus area. While it's still very high level, it indicates what the company wants to accomplish and includes a clear deadline. Both these aspects are critical to a good strategic objective.

Your strategic objectives are the heart and soul of your plan, and you need to ensure they are well-crafted. So, take the time to create well-planned objectives that will help you achieve your vision and lead your organization to success. 

👉Here’s how you can set objectives in Cascade: 

Adding objectives in Cascade is intuitive, straightforward, and accessible from almost anywhere in the workspace. With one click, you’ll open the objective sidebar and fill out the details. These can include a timeline, the objective’s owner, collaborators, and how your objective will be measured (success criteria).

📚 Recommended read: What are Strategic Objectives? How to write them + Examples

5. Actions and projects

Once you’ve defined your strategic objectives, the next step is to identify the specific strategic initiatives or projects that will help you achieve those objectives . They are short-term goals or actionable steps you or your team members will take to accomplish objectives. They should leverage the company’s resources and core competencies. 

Effective projects and actions in your strategic plan should: 

  • Be extremely specific. 
  • Contain a deadline.
  • Have an owner.
  • Align with at least one of your strategic objectives.
  • Provide clarity on how you or your team will achieve the strategic objective.

Let's take a look at an example of a well-written project continuing with our bike manufacturing company using the strategic objective from above:

Strategic objective: Continue top-line growth that outpaces the industry by 31st Dec 2023.

Project: Expand into the fixed gear market by 31st December 2023.

This is more specific than the objective it links to, and it details what you will do to achieve the objective.

Another common problem area for strategic plans is that they never quite get down to the detail of what you're going to do.

It's easier to state "we need to grow our business," but without concrete projects and initiatives, those plans will sit forever within their PowerPoint templates, never to see the light of day after their initial creation.

Actions and projects are where the rubber meets the road. They connect the organizational strategic goals with the actual capabilities of your people and the resources at their disposal. Defining projects is a vital reality check every strategic plan needs.

👉Here’s how you create actions and projects in Cascade: 

From the Objective sidebar, you can choose to add a project or action under your chosen objective. In the following steps, you can assign an owner and timeline to each action or project.

Plus, in Cascade, you can track the progress of each project or action in four different ways. You can do it manually, via milestones, checklists, or automatically by integrating with Jira and 1000+ other available integrations .  

📚 Recommended read: How to create effective projects

Measuring progress towards strategic objectives is essential to effective strategic control and business success. That's where Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) come in. KPIs are measurable values that track progress toward achieving key business objectives . They keep you on track and help you stay focused on the goals you set for your organization.

To get the most out of your KPIs, make sure you link them to a specific goal or objective. In this way, you'll avoid creating KPIs that don't contribute to your objectives and distract you from focusing on what matters. 

Ideally, you will add both leading and lagging KPIs to each objective so you can get a more balanced view of how well you're progressing. Leading KPIs can indicate future performance while lagging KPIs show how well you’ve done in the past. Both types of KPIs are critical for operational planning and keeping your business on track.

Think of KPIs as a form of signpost in your organization. They provide critical insights that inform business leaders of their organization’s progress toward key business objectives. Plus, they can help you identify opportunities faster and capitalize on flexibility. 

👉Here’s how you can set and track KPIs in Cascade: 

In Cascade , you can add measures while creating your objectives or add them afterward. Open the Objective sidebar and add your chosen measure. 

When you create your Measure, you can choose how to track it. Using Cascade, you can track it manually or automatically. You can automate tracking via 1000+ integrations , including Excel spreadsheets and Google Sheets. In this way, you can save time and ensure that your team has up-to-date information for faster and more confident decision-making.

📚 Recommended reads:

  • 10 Popular KPI Software Tools To Connect & Visualize Your Data (2023 Guide)
  • ‍ How To Track KPIs To Hit Your Business Goals

Corporate Strategic Plan 

Following the steps outlined above, you should end up with a strategic plan that looks something like this:

corporate strategy plan template in cascade

This is a preview of a corporate strategic plan template that is pre-filled with examples. Here you can use the template for free and begin filling it out to align with your organization's needs. Plus, it’s suitable for organizations of all sizes and any industry. 

Once you fill in the template, you can also switch to the timeline view. You’ll get a complete overview of how the different parts of your plan are distributed across the roadmap in a Gantt chart view.

timeline view strategic planning corporate strategy

This template will help you create a structured approach to the strategic planning process, focus on key strategic priorities, and drive accountability to achieve necessary business outcomes. 

👉 Get your free corporate strategic plan template here.

Coca-Cola Strategic Plan 

Need a bit of extra inspiration to start writing your organization’s strategic plan? Check out this strategic plan example, inspired by Coca-Cola’s business plan: 

coca-cola strategy plan template in cascade

This template is pre-filled with Coca-Cola’s examples so you can inspire your strategic success on one of the most iconic brands on the planet. 

👉 Grab your free example of a Coca-Cola strategic plan here.

The Ramsay Health Care expansion strategy

Ramsay Health Care is a multinational healthcare provider with a strong presence in Australia, Europe, and Asia.

Almost all of its growth was organic and strategic. The company founded its headquarters in Sydney, Australia, but in the 21st century, it decided to expand globally through a primary strategy of making brownfield investments and acquisitions in key locations.

Ramsay's strategy was simple yet clever. By becoming a majority shareholder of the biggest local players, the company expanded organically in each region by leveraging and expanding their expertise.

Over the last two decades, Ramsay's global network has grown to 460 locations across 10 countries with over $13 billion in annual revenue.

📚 Recommended read: Strategy study: The Ramsay Health Care Growth Study

✨ Bonus resource: We've created a list of the most popular and free strategic plan templates in our library that will help you build a strategic plan based on the Cascade model explained in this article. You can use these templates to create a plan on a corporate, business unit, or team level.

We highlighted before that other strategic models often fail to scale strategic plans and goals scales across multiple teams and organizational levels. 

In an ideal world, you want to have a maximum of two layers of detail underneath each of your focus areas. This means you'll have a focus area, followed by a layer of objectives. Underneath the objectives, you'll have a layer of actions, projects, and KPIs.

Diagram of the Cascade Model framework showing the structure for focus areas, objectives, KPIs, actions and projects

If you have a single team that’s responsible for the strategy execution, this works well. However, how do you implement a strategy across multiple and cross-functional teams? And why is it important? 

According to LSA research of 410 companies across 8 industries, highly aligned companies grow revenue 58% faster and are 72% more profitable. And this is what Cascade can help you achieve. 

To achieve achieve organization-wide alignment with your strategic plan and impact the bottom line, there are two ways to approach it in Casade: through contributing objectives or shared objectives .

1. Contributing objectives

This approach involves adding contributing objectives that link to your main strategic objectives, like this:

diagram showing contributing objectives in the cascade model

For each contributing objective, you simply repeat the Objective → Action/Project → KPI structure as follows:

contributing objectives with kpis and actions cascade model

Here's how you can create contributing objectives in Cascade: 

Option A: Create contributing objectives within the same plan 

This means creating multiple contributing objectives within the same strategic plan that contribute to the main objective. 

However, be aware that if you have a lot of layers, your strategic plan can become cluttered, and people might have difficulty understanding how their daily efforts contribute to the strategic plan at the top level. 

For example, the people responsible for managing contributing objectives at the bottom of the plan ( functional / operational level ) will lose visibility on how are their objectives linked to the main focus areas and objectives (at a corporate / business level ). 

This approach is best suited to smaller organizations that only need to add a few layers of objectives to their plan.

Option B: Create contributing objectives from multiple plans linking to the main objective

This approach creates a network of aligned strategic plans within your organization. Each plan contains a set of focus areas and one single layer of objectives, each with its own set of projects, actions, and KPIs. This concept looks like this:

Diagram showing contributing objectives from multiple plans linking to the main objective in Cascade

This example illustrates an objective that is a main objective in the IT strategic plan , but also contributes to the main strategic plan's objective.

For example, let’s say that your main business objective is to improve customer satisfaction by reducing product delivery time by 25% in the next quarter. This objective requires multiple operational teams within your organization to work together to achieve a shared objective. 

Each team will create its own objective in its plan to contribute to the main objective: 

  • Logistics team: Reduce the shipment preparation time by 30%
  • IT team: Implement new technology to reduce manual handling in the warehouse
  • Production team: Increase production output by hour for 5%   

Here’s how this example would look like within Cascade platform:

example of contributing objectives in cascade

Although each contributing objective was originally created in its own plan, you can see how each contributing objective relates to the main strategic objective and its status in real-time.

2. Shared objectives

In Cascade, shared objectives are the same objectives shared across different strategic plans.

For example, you can have an objective that is “Achieve sustainable operations”. This objective can be part of the Corporate Strategy Plan, but also part of the Operations Plan , Supply Chain Plan , Production Plan, etc. In short, this objective becomes a shared objective between multiple teams and strategic plan. 

This approach helps you to:

  • Cascade your business strategy as deep as you want across a near-infinite number of people while maintaining strategic alignment throughout your organization .
  • Create transparency and a much higher level of engagement in the strategy throughout your organization since objective owners are able to identify how their shared efforts contribute to the success of the main business objectives.

The more shared objectives you have across your organization, the more your teams will be aligned with the overarching business strategy. This is what we call " alignment health ”. 

Here’s how you can see the shared objectives in the alignment map and analyze alignment health within Cascade:

Alignment Map and Objective Sidebar in cascade for shared objectives

You get a snapshot of how is your corporate strategic plan aligned with sub-plans from different business units or departments and the status of shared objectives. This helps you quickly identify misaligned initiatives and act before it’s too late.  Plus, cross-functional teams have better visibility of how their efforts contribute to shared objectives. 

So whether you choose contributing objectives or shared objectives, Cascade has the tools and features to help you achieve organization-wide alignment and boost your bottom line.

Quick Overview Of Key Steps In Writing A Strategic Plan

Here’s a quick infographic to help you remember how everything connects and why each element is critical to creating an effective strategic plan:

The Cascade Model Overview cheatsheet

This simple answer to how to write a strategic plan avoids confusing jargon and has elements that the whole organization can both get behind and understand. 

💡Tip: Save this image or bookmark this article for your next strategic planning session.

If you're struggling to write an execution-ready strategic plan, the Cascade model is the solution you've been looking for. With its clear, easy-to-understand terminology, and simple linkages between objectives, projects, and KPIs, you can create a plan that's both scalable and flexible.

But why is a flexible and execution-ready strategic plan so important? It's simple: without a clear and actionable plan, you'll never be able to achieve your business objectives. By using the Cascade Strategic Planning Model, you'll be able to create a plan that's both tangible and measurable, with KPIs that help you track progress towards your goals.

However, the real value of the Cascade framework lies in its flexibility . By creating links between main business objectives and your teams’ objectives, you can easily scale your plan without losing focus. Plus, the model's structure of linked layers means that you can always adjust your strategy in response to new challenges or opportunities and keep everyone on the same page. 

So if you want to achieve results with your strategic plan, start using Cascade today. With its unique combination of flexibility and focus, it's the perfect tool for any organization looking to master strategy execution and succeed in today's fast-paced business world. 

Want to see Cascade in action? Get started for free or book a 1:1 demo with Cascade’s in-house strategy expert.

This article is part one of our mini-series "How to Write a Strategic Plan". This first article will give you a solid strategy model for your plan and get the strategic thinking going.

Think of it as the foundation for your new strategy. Subsequent parts of the series will show you how to create the content for your strategic plan.

Articles in our How to Write a Strategic Plan series

  • How To Write A Strategic Plan: The Cascade Model (This article)
  • How to Write a Good Vision Statement
  • How To Create Company Values
  • Creating Strategic Focus Areas
  • How To Write Strategic Objective
  • How To Create Effective Projects
  • How To Write KPIs + Ultimate Guide To Strategic Planning

More resources on strategic planning and strategy execution: 

  • 6 Steps to Successful Strategy Execution
  • 4-Step Strategy Reporting Process (With Template)
  • Annual Planning: Plan Like a Pro In 5 Steps (+ Template) 
  • 18 Free Strategic Plan Templates (Excel & Cascade) 2023
  • The Right Way To Set Team Goals
  • 23 Best Strategy Tools For Your Organization in 2023

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How to Create a 5-Year Plan You'll Actually Stick To [In 4 Steps]

Martina Bretous

Published: September 19, 2023

One common question you’ll get asked in an interview is, " Where do you see yourself in five years? "

woman creates 5-year plan on laptop

When it’s coming from a hiring manager, we usually have an answer ready. When it comes to your personal life, do you have a five-year plan?

5yearplan_1

In the most stressful times in my life, planning brings me great joy and peace. But who says you have to wait for the stress to come? In this article, we’ll outline why you should create a five-year plan and how to build one you’ll follow through with.

What is a 5-year plan?

A five-year plan is an outline of professional and/or personal goals you want to reach within the next five years. It usually includes broad goals relating to career, relationships, health, and finances that are broken down into action items and milestones.

Benefits of a 5-Year Plan

Whether professional or personal, a five-year plan can serve as a reset for your life. Who doesn’t like a fresh start?

After all, that’s why New Year’s resolutions are so popular. They give us something to look forward to. There’s also something to be said about writing out a detailed plan. It can be a great motivator to put something in motion.

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

Free 5-Year Plan Template

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Personally, I’ve said countless times that I want to be fluent in Spanish. However, it's not until I write a detailed plan for how that it will become real.

This brings us to our next point: clarity. Sometimes, a path seems scarier than it actually is because we don’t actually know what it looks like.

Creating a plan is like pointing a flashlight in a dark road. A more accurate description is that it turns that dark, twisty road into a clear path forward. Doesn’t mean there won’t be any bumps in the road but at least you’ll know exactly where you’ll land and how to get there.

Lastly, a five-year plan can serve as a reminder of what’s at stake. In your daily life, it can be easy to forget that every day, we’re shaping our future.

The decisions we make today affect what our life will look like years from now. Having a visual reminder of this can keep you focused on your goals.

What to Cover in a 5-Year Plan

Before you get started with your plan, there are a few things you’ll need to figure out ahead of time.

1. Determine areas of focus.

Your five-year plan can cover various areas from education, career development, finance, hobbies, or even health. It’s up to you. Don’t feel stuck having to stick to one category and choose the ones that best interest you and fit your needs.

2. Write down your values.

Putting down your values in writing will help you discover your “why” (more on that later). This step will also help you narrow down what’s most important to you and shape the goals you set for yourself.

3. Research the path to your goals.

Your five-year plan is only as successful as the effort put into creating it. In order to create a viable plan it has to be actionable. Once you’ve got an idea of the goals you’d like to include, start researching the path to attaining them.

For example, if you’d like to set a career goal to become a marketing director, start looking at the steps and credentials required. Do you need to skill up? Is there a pathway at your current job? Doing some initial research will set you up for success.

4. Decide if you’d like to include HARD goals.

Tackling heartfelt, animated, required, and difficult (HARD) goals can be a rewarding but challenging part of a five-year plan. These types of goals will push you out of your comfort zone and help you achieve things you didn’t think were possible before. Think of these goals as highly ambitious but achievable with a five-year timeline.

Think of HARD goals this way:

Heartfelt : What reasons are behind achieving this goal?

Animated : What gets you excited about achieving this goal? Get specific.

Required : What is it going to take to achieve this goal? What will you need to accomplish in six months to a year to stay on track?

Difficult : What skills will you need to accomplish this goal and how will you obtain them?

Now that we’ve covered the groundwork, we’ve got more tips to help you create a five-year plan that keeps you motivated and inspired.

5-year Plan Tips

If creating a plan from scratch makes your eyes glaze over, check out these tips to help you start getting some ideas on paper.

1. Give yourself space to brainstorm.

To help you focus better when creating your plan, do a bit of pre-work. Give yourself time to really think about what you’d like to accomplish and the things that are most important to you. For example, you could write out a list of potential goals or ideas, and then rank them in order of importance — including notes about why they are important.

2. Consider separating long-term and short-term goals.

Once you’ve jotted down some goals, decide which are better suited for short or long-term ones. For example, completely paying off debt might be a long-term goal, but deciding which debt to tackle first could be a short-term goal. It may also help to divide them up into a 30-60-90 day plan to help best set a timeline.

3. Break down annual goals into monthly ones.

Tackling lofty goals can be overwhelming. This is why it’s important to break them down into smaller tasks that are manageable so you don’t get discouraged along the way. Let’s say you want to save $10,000 in a year. You can break that amount down into a recurring monthly payment of $833 or even split it into smaller weekly payments.

4. Find an accountability partner.

Sometimes life gets in the way and throws us curve balls — greatly impacting our ability to stay motivated and consistent. Having an accountability partner can help you stay on track. This could be someone you check in with monthly, a close friend, a family member, or a mentor. Whoever you choose, just make sure it’s someone who will keep you honest. Perhaps they’ll even have their own 5 year plan and you can take this journey together.

5. Don’t be afraid to make adjustments.

Remember that your five-year plan is yours. You can make adjustments as you see fit once you start tracking your progress. If your priorities change, update your plan.

5-Year Plan Template

If you're ready to create your own five-year plan, we've got you covered.

HubSpot created the following five-year plan template for you to download.

5yearplan_2

Download this five-year plan template

Next, let's dive into how to fill out your plan.

How to Make a 5-Year Plan

1. Know your "why."

This is singlehandedly the most important step in creating a plan.

A clear "why" is your North star. It’s what will guide you throughout your journey and motivate you to keep moving forward.

It can take a while to narrow this down. You’ll know you have the answer when it’s linked to a core value or belief. Otherwise, you have to keep digging.

One way to get to this is by just asking the question over and over again. For instance:

  • I want to learn American Sign Language. Why?
  • To become more connected to another culture. Why?
  • To broaden my perspective. Why?
  • To be a more understanding, tolerant, and inclusive person.

Now, we’ve taken something at surface level and brought it down to a personal, human level.

2. Choose your objective.

When creating a five-year plan, you want to review your life as a whole and decide what your objective will be.

Are you focusing on your professional career, your financial goals, or your spiritual growth? Or perhaps you're taking a more holistic approach and combining all of these elements.

If you don’t know where to start, use this: "In five years, I want to be [fill in the blank]." This will help you figure out goals that you may not have vocalized before.

Here are four core pillars you should always consider:

  • Health (physical and mental)
  • Relationships (with self and others)

Depending on your goals, you can also add categories for religious or spiritual development, recreation, and service.

Don’t forget bucket-list items – have you been wanting to learn a new language? Or perhaps you want to visit every country in the world. Bucket list items are perfect for five-year plans because you can spread them out over a long period of time and have fun tracking your progress.

3. Start with the big ideas then narrow your focus.

When you’re first writing your five-year plan, start with an end goal for each year.

From there, break it down by:

  • Process: What steps will you take to meet this end goal?
  • Success metric: How will you gauge success?
  • Benefit: How does this end goal bring you closer to your five-year plan?
  • Resources: Which resources will you leverage to achieve your goal?

This process will help you turn your broad ideas into clear action items that can be executed.

Research will play a big role in this, as you will need to identify resources and set a structure to meet your goal.

For instance, say your five-year financial plan is to be debt-free.

That’s the big idea but you need to dive deeper. How exactly will you achieve that? Your research will likely suggest setting a budget, paying off your most expensive loan first, consolidating your debts, and more.

Once you know the key action items, you can break them down by year.

This is a S.M.A.R.T. goal in action. The more specific you are, the better you will be at fulfilling your five-year plan.

More on that in the next section.

4. Make it S.M.A.R.T.

To give you the best chances of success, every goal should pass the SMART test . That means being:

  • Specific – The vaguer your goal, the harder it will be to reach.
  • Measurable – You must be able to quantify your goals because otherwise, how will you know you’ve reached it? This doesn’t always mean assigning a figure to it, it can also be a feeling.
  • Achievable – While it’s good to push yourself beyond your limits, your goal should be attainable and realistic based on where you stand currently.
  • Relevant – How does this goal fit within the bigger picture? Does it align with your personal values? What’s the impact on your life?
  • Time-bound – It’s not enough to say it’s a five-year plan, you have to create a timeline and set milestones at specific points within your journey.

5-Year Plan Common Mistakes

We’ve covered what to do and best practices. Next let’s talk about what not to do. Here are some five-year plan pitfalls to avoid.

1. Not setting clear goals.

If your goals are vague, it’s going to be nearly impossible to hit them. You can’t accomplish a goal that’s not clearly defined. When it comes to setting your five-year plan, specifics are key.

2. Not doing enough research.

If you’ve set any formal education or career goals, thoroughly researching requirements is a must. Skipping this step could cause you to miss important prerequisites and derail your goals completely.

3. Failing to set a timeline.

To achieve your goals you must track them. In order to track your progress, you need deadlines in place. Without deadlines you run the risk of aimlessly moving along (or not at all) without hitting important milestones — hindering you from accomplishing long-term goals.

4. Keeping a rigid plan that no longer suits you.

Yes, staying on task with your plan is important, but it is meant to serve you. If the plan you originally set no longer suits your needs, it is perfectly fine to make adjustments. The plan is not set in stone and it should be revised as needed.

Now that we’ve covered our bases, let’s look at some plan examples and templates to help you quickly get started on your own

5-Year Plan Example

Don't let the task of creating a plan from scratch in Excel put you off. There’s plenty of ready-to-use templates that will make light work of formatting so you can focus on hitting your goals.

Best for : Personal or Professional Use

Using our downloadable five-year plan template , we were able to create a detailed five-year plan, broken down by year, process, success metric, benefit, and resources.

five year plan example: HubSpot

2. 24 Slides

Best for : Professional Use

If you’re looking to create a more visual plan to help you stay on track, 24 Slides has an easy-to-customize 5-year business plan template. This template has space to include both short and long-term business goals, plus it includes a variety of charts to help you build an engaging presentation. It’s a good option if you’d like to create a 5-year plan that can be presented to stakeholders within the company.

24 Slides 5 year plan example

3. Template.Net

Best for : Personal use

This personal 5-year personal development plan from Template.Net offers a quick way to jot down your goals and strategize how to achieve them. The categories are simple: objective, goals, timeline and activities, and has additional space for you to write out any reminders you’d like to set. Be sure to include your “why” in the objective section to keep your reasons for creating the plan top of mind.

5 year plan example: template.net

Accomplish More With a Plan

If you want to add more structure to your life and play a more active role in shaping your future, consider creating a five-year plan. While things may not pan out exactly as you've expected, you'll be surprised at how close you'll get to what you wished for.

Editor's note: This article was originally published in May 2022 and has been updated for comprehensiveness.

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What is a 5 year plan?

The benefits of creating a 5 year plan, how to create a 5 year plan in 6 easy steps, 5 year plan examples.

You may have heard of SMART goal setting (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, and Time-bound goals), but have you ever heard of HARD goal setting?

Society has been pushing SMART goals since the early ’80s, but a 2020 study found that people who set SMART goals are much less likely to love their jobs , while people who set HARD goals are 53% more likely to love their jobs. 

But, what are HARD goals? HARD goals are defined as: 

  • Heartfelt 
  • Animated 
  • Required 
  • Difficult 

They are goals for which you have an emotional connection, strong visualization, great urgency, and difficulty. 

While there are laudable aspects of SMART goals, the study shows serious problems regarding the ‘achievable’ and realistic’ aspects of SMART goal-setting. 

Methodologies that emphasize creating difficult goals are far more likely to be successful and generate higher employee engagement.

In this article, we’ll show you how to use HARD goals to make a 5 year plan, as well as show you two 5 year plan examples.

SMART goals vs. HARD goals - 5 year plan

A 5 year plan is a personal and/or professional list of goals that you want to achieve in the next 5 years. 

Oftentimes, 5 year plans include smaller, concrete goals, to help you achieve the larger goals on your list. 

For example, if a long-term goal is to buy a bigger house, then a smaller goal might include setting aside a certain amount of money each month to go toward a deposit on a home loan. 

Or, if one of your long-term goals is to be a certified nurse, then a smaller goal might include finding the best nursing program in your area or applying for a student loan.

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One of the best things about a 5 year plan is that it can significantly motivate you to create the life you want to live. Notice we said “create the life “ not just “achieve the goal.” A 5 year plan that works for you will be more effective if you think of your life holistically — how do you want to feel? What values will you be living? — as you create it. 

Whatever the specific goals you have in mind — whether it’s starting a business, becoming certified or developing expertise, competing in an event, having a child, or taking a big trip — a 5 year plan can help you move from dreaming into doing, wish into a reality. 

Here are some other benefits of creating a 5 year plan:

  • It creates a starting point for a career, start-up idea, or personal goal . If you have a goal without a plan, it may not ever happen. But, if you know you want to be a real estate broker by 2026, you’re in a better position to start the process and take actionable steps to achieve that.
  • It helps you stay focused and aligned with your ambitions, rather than your dreams constantly hanging out in the back seat. 
  • It’s a consistent reminder of what you’re aiming toward, and what you need to do to get there. 

The trick is: keep your plan as visible as possible, make sure it’s what you deeply desire, and make sure your goals are specific, measurable, time-bound, and HARD. 

What should be included in a 5 year plan? 

Grab a pen and a piece of paper. Visualize your life 5 years from now, and write down everything you see without thinking or judging . If any fears, doubts, or negative emotions come up, that’s normal. The key is to ignore them and not attribute any meaning to them.

Brainstorming your 5-year plan

Use the following categories to help you write your complete brainstorm. 

How do you want your nutritional health , mental fitness , physical health , and mental health to look in 5 years?

Are you interested in being vegan? Do you want to lose weight? Do you want to start a yoga practice ? Would you like to regularly meet with a therapist? 

Relationships

Imagine your future professional relationships, friendships, and familial relationships. What do you want them to look like?

Do you want to join a networking group? Are you interested in starting a book club? Do you want to adopt a child? Do you want to take more trips with your partner?

Visualize your financial goals in these buckets: 

  • Bills 
  • Everyday expenses (i.e. groceries) 
  • Flexible spending (i.e. entertainment) 
  • Emergency savings 
  • Goal savings 
  • Investments 

What do you see?

Will you be contributing higher amounts to your 401(k)? Are you planning on saving for higher education? What do you want your emergency savings to look like? Do you want to save for a big trip?

Career/business

What are your career and business aspirations?

Do you picture yourself leading a huge team or an entire corporation? Do you want to be a digital nomad? Are you planning on starting a blog? 

The truth is, the world of business and how people buy and use goods and services is constantly changing — and fast. Don’t get hung up on roles and titles. Especially if you’re early in your career, you will discover career aspirations and opportunities that don’t even exist today. That being said, spend time thinking about what types of activities interest you, what type of environment you enjoy, what type of impact you want to make day-to-day.

If you’re feeling stuck about your career goals, consider:

  • Taking career assessments
  • Making a list of various career paths
  • Finding the overlap between things you like and what companies are hiring for
  • Working with mentors
  • Building your network
  • Creating your own job or business that lines up with your interests
  • Listing your passions, values, skills, and interests, then finding or creating jobs that match some parts of the list

If you’re still unsure about your dream job, don’t worry. Go after jobs you’re interested in, learn from them, and eventually, you’ll come across pursuits you’re excited about. Many people also worry if they don’t have a passion. The reality is that pursuing interests and immersing yourself in the work is a good way to discover and develop passion . It’s also okay if you’re multi-passionate and interested in several jobs. 

Personal/spiritual/religious development

How do you want to grow personally and/or spiritually?

Are you interested in starting a home church? Do you want to work with a life coach or career coach? Do you want to meditate more? Would you like to start a gratitude or prayer practice? Do you want to build resilience ? 

Environment/organization/space/home

How do you picture your future environment?

Are you living in a tropical bungalow in Bali? Are you in a newly decorated and renovated home? Do you have a custom pool in your backyard? Are you living with your family to save money? Are you embracing minimalism?

Recreation/fun

What kinds of hobbies will you have in the future?

Will you be snowboarding every winter and surfing every summer? Are you interested in joining a soccer league? Do you want to take up cooking or art classes? 

Service/contribution

What kind of meaningful contribution would you like to be a part of?

Are you interested in volunteering for a vegetable co-op? Will you be tutoring kids on the weekends? Being a mentor ? Do you want to buy monthly groceries for one of your friends in need until they get back on their feet?

  • Focus your plan
  • Consider potential goals
  • Determine your 'why?'
  • Identify annual goals and create monthly goals
  • Research how to reach your goals
  • Adjust and revisit as needed

Here’s how to use your notes to create your plan:

1. Focus your plan

Take a look at your notes and decide which specific areas to focus on. 

You might decide that you’d rather focus on a few areas, like your health and career, or you might decide that you want to focus on all areas. 

Once you decide, grab a piece of paper for every area you plan to focus on and write the area of growth at the top of each. 

For example, if you decide just to focus on health and money, you’ll write ‘health’ at the top of your first paper and ‘money’ at the top of your second paper. 

2. Consider potential goals

Next, divide each paper into two columns. The left column will be for ‘goals,’ and the right column will be for ‘action steps’ or ‘skills.’ 

Then, decide which goals you want to achieve for each category. Remember that ‘specific’, ‘measurable’, and ‘time-bound’ are positive aspects of SMART goals. That said, the ‘achievable’ and ‘realistic’ aspects of SMART goals can deter you from going after more audacious goals. 

Challenge yourself to leave your comfort zone with HARD goals. 

This doesn’t mean setting goals with no chance of success. But, setting goals with, let’s say, a 50/50 chance of success is difficult and ambitious enough to give you a real sense of accomplishment when you succeed.

For example, on your ‘health’ paper, let’s say you decide to write the following in the ‘goals’ column: 

  • Be more active
  • Increase nutrients 

Then, you might write the following in the ‘action steps’ or ‘skills’ column: 

  • Eat raw and organic fruits and vegetables three times a day 
  • Walk for two hours a day
  • Take a daily multivitamin and add superfoods to morning smoothies 

Next, decide between long-term and short term goals:

How to breakdown your goals - 5 year plan

Review your list of goals. Decide which are better suited for short-term goals and which are better suited for long-term goals. 

For example, you might decide that being a teacher in Peru is a long-term goal while researching places to live in Peru is a short-term goal. You might start outlining your short- and long-term goals with a 30-60-90 day plan . 

3. Determine your ‘why?’

What’s your big ‘why?’ Why do you want to be a Teaching English Foreign Language (TEFL) teacher in Peru? 

Write your reason down and hang it in a place where you’ll see it daily. 

For example, “I want to be a TEFL teacher in Peru, so I can learn Spanish, help students develop their English skills, and fulfill my dream of exploring South America.”

4. Identify annual goals and create monthly goals

First, establish annual goals that will help you reach your 5 year goals. 

For example, if one of your 5 year goals is to adopt a child, then your first annual goal will probably consist of setting interviews with adoption agencies.

Next, break down your annual goals into monthly goals. 

For example, if your annual goal is becoming a TEFL teacher in Peru, your monthly breakdown could look like this:

  • Month 1: Research reputable TEFL programs and set online appointments with TEFL advisors to decide which program you like best
  • Months 2-3: Take your TEFL course, study for exams, and write essays
  • Month 4: Take your final TEFL exam and wait for your certificate 
  • Months 5: Edit your resume and look for a short TEFL internship
  • Month 6: Intern with a TEFL academy and ask for feedback from your mentors
  • Month 7: Create a lesson plan portfolio and start looking for jobs
  • Month 8: Set up job interviews 
  • Month 9-10: Land a job from one of your interviews and buy your plane tickets
  • Month 11: Move to Peru, find a furnished apartment, and get to know your neighborhood
  • Month 12: Start work at your new job as a TEFL teacher 

5. Research how to reach your goals

Next, research the best ways to reach your goals. 

If you plan on moving to Peru, are there some YouTube channels you can check out with tips on how to move? If you plan on creating a start-up, can you meet with some start-up experts that can mentor you? If you plan on learning how to bake macarons, is there a French macaron cookbook you can buy?

6. Adjust and revisit as needed

Life is full of unexpected twists and turns. While the 5 year plan is designed to help you stay focused and persist despite bumps and detours, sometimes the unexpected is you.

As you start working on your goals, you may realize that your interests and passions don't quite align. This is where self-directed learning can help.

Plan for periodic review, reflection, and adjustment as part of life. If your long-range plan still feels right, zoom in to your monthly goals. Decide if your monthly goals are working or if you need to adjust them.

For example, you might find that trying to conduct online interviews with a Peruvian academy is impossible. So you could decide to fly out early to meet directors in person instead. 

You may also decide that creating weekly or even daily goals is essential to hitting your monthly goals.

Revisit and revise your plan as often as needed (at least once a year). You might be surprised at how fast you reach some goals while other goals might take a bit longer than expected.

Here's an example of a 5 year plan for a student interested in being a Certified Public Accountant (CPA):

5 year plan example #1

Here’s a personal 5 year plan example for someone interested in becoming fluent in Spanish:

5 year plan example #2

Creating a 5 year plan is one of the best ways to see your dreams come to life. 

At BetterUp, we love seeing individuals reach their fullest potential and achieve their dreams. Request a demo today to find out more.

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Maggie Wooll

Thought Leader

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How Do I Write a 5-Year Strategic Plan?

  • Small Business
  • Business Planning & Strategy
  • Strategic Planning
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The Importance of CRM

Good metrics to measure marketing productivity, how to write a marketing plan for an insurance sales agent.

  • Events vs. Pageviews in Analytics
  • How to Design a Balanced Scorecard in HR Architecture

As a business owner, you need a well-thought out business plan to help you run your business. Without such a plan, you run the risk of running around in ways that have little to do with generating results. You can end up "spinning your wheels," which suggests that you're busy but not productive. A five-year strategic plan describes where you are now and how you plan to achieve your goals over a five-year period.

When writing your plan, include subheads that are specific to your goals, a mission and vision statement, SWOT analysis and key performance indicators.

Lead with an Executive Summary

First, start with an executive summary. This is key because the executive summary should encapsulate – or summarize – the key concepts explained in the plan's other sections. The executive summary is usually written after you have completed the other sections, but it appears at the top of your strategic plan. This enables you to extract key points from the other sections, which you will include in your summary.

The executive summary gives bust readers an overview of what the strategic plan contains, so they can select the topics that matter to them the most. The topics discussed in the executive summary are elaborated on more fully in the sections of your strategic plan.

Mission Statements and Vision Statements

The mission statement is a concise summary of the overall objective of a business, and it states what the business hopes to achieve. Although the mission statement isn't very long, take the time to ensure that it states clearly what your company is about, and why your company exists.

For example, according to a January, 2018 article from Investopedia, Apple's mission statement is the following: "Apple designs Macs, the best personal computers in the world, along with OS X, iLife, iWork and professional software. Apple leads the digital music revolution with its iPods and iTunes online store. Apple has reinvented the mobile phone, with its revolutionary iPhone and App Store, and is defining the future of mobile media and computing devices with iPad."

A vision statement defines where the company wants to be in the future. Using a five-year strategic plan as an example, the vision defines the company success over five years. An example of a vision statement for an accountant's office could be: " To become the number one accounting resource for medical professionals in the metro area."

Conduct a SWOT Analysis

SWOT is an acronym that stands for Strengths , Weaknesses , Opportunities and Threats. Take an honest assessment of what your company and key team leaders are great at doing, and of what they need to improve upon. Look for opportunities in the market, and examine any threats that might prevent you from achieving your goal.

A SWOT analysis helps identify areas that a business owner might take strategic actions on. For example, a business owner who determines that his weakness is in organizational skills, should hire someone who is strong in this area, so that he negates the weakness.

List the Company's Strategic Goals

Strategic goals look at specific ways to accomplish something. For example, a company that wants to improve viable prospects might set goals for online ad funnels, networking activities or referral programs. It is important to review the goals and exactly how each potential solution might be able to achieve the goals. If networking provides fewer leads that have higher closing ratios compared to ad funnels, business owners need to evaluate the data and determine the next step toward success.

A strategy might involve more than one strategic action, varying budgets and personnel resource dedication. Strategic goals over five years involve a series of smaller goals and action plans. Start with the five-year goal and work backward to establish achievable goals over shorter time periods, such as one-year goals.

How Will You Measure Success?

Business owners need to measure success, and they need to examine the goals and establish key performance indicators (KPI). Just as the goals are broken down into smaller achievements and action plans, KPIs need to start with the end result and work backward.

For example, a KPI for social media ads might evaluate how much is spent during a specific time period. A KPI also considers what the online ad open rate is compared to the ultimate sales conversion rate. An ad that's opened but doesn't convert suggests that something's wrong with the ad. An ad that converts on one platform, but not on another, suggests that the demographic is better targeted toward one platform and not in the other.

Business owners should use KPI data to scale up their successful strategies and to put more resources over a five-year period toward the most profitable strategies.

  • University of Kansas: Section 4. Developing Successful Strategies: Planning to Win
  • Forbes: Strategic Plan Template: What To Include In Yours
  • Investopedia: What is Apple's current mission statement and how does it differ from Steve Jobs' original ideals? Read more: What is Apple's current mission statement and how does it differ from Steve Job's original ideals?
  • The strategic plan is not set in stone. As the business grows, goals can change, which could ultimately change the mission and objective of the business. If this occurs, the strategic plan should be adjusted.
  • Be as thorough as possible when creating the strategic plan.
  • If the strategic plan is for an established business, use the business's previous activity as a starting point. Ignoring prior business activities could mask issues the business has that could possibly be corrected with the plan.

With more than 15 years of small business ownership including owning a State Farm agency in Southern California, Kimberlee understands the needs of business owners first hand. When not writing, Kimberlee enjoys chasing waterfalls with her son in Hawaii.

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How to write a strategic plan and what it should include

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.”

Whether you’re a lumberjack or not, there’s a powerful truth to Lincoln’s wise words. And that’s the importance of planning.

Coming up with a solid strategic plan is a crucial aspect of any business. How can you expect to achieve your objectives if you don’t know what you’re aiming for? And how can you efficiently reach your goals without deciding on the appropriate method first?

You need a plan. More specifically, you need a strategic plan.

Sharpen your axes and get comfortable because we’re going to give you a step-by-step guide on how to write a strategic plan like a total boss.

  • What is a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is a document that lays out how an organization plans to realize its long-term ambitions. Think of it as your roadmap. It establishes the direction a company is going to take by considering its goals and objectives. But it also includes the specific actions you are going to take to achieve your goal.

A strategic plan should essentially answer three questions:

  • Where are we now?
  • Where do we want to go?
  • How will we get there?

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

There are a lot of terms around strategic plans that sound similar. But it’s important for your team to understand what each of them means and how they are different. Let’s clarify some common terms:

  • Strategic plan is your roadmap document.
  • Strategic planning is the process of developing your strategic plan.
  • Strategic planning meeting is the session or event during which strategic planning takes place.
  • Strategic planning frameworks are the tools and methodologies to help your team develop different elements of your strategic plan.
  • Strategic planning model is the overarching approach for how you are going to structure your strategic ideas. You should decide on which model you are going to use before you begin the strategic planning process.
  • Why is a strategic plan important?

Now you know what a strategic plan is. But why do you need one? Here are just some of the reasons developing a strategic plan is so important to your organization

Helps you come up with goals that direct your actions

How can you expect to get anywhere if you don’t know where you’re going? A key aspect of the strategic planning process is establishing goals and objectives. These goals will help build momentum within your team and keep them focused on the overarching goal of the business.

Keeps you on track toward achieving your goals

A well-written strategic business plan gives your organization direction. As well as what you want to achieve, strategic plans require you to get specific about how you are going to achieve your goals. Having this plan of action in one consolidated document helps your team stay on track and achieve their goals faster and with more efficiency.

Why creating a strategic plan is important

Focus your resources better

Taking the time to write a well-thought-out strategic plan means carefully considering what actions are going to best serve your company. This prevents wasting time, money, and effort on projects that are not going to take your business to where it wants to go.

The clarity that comes from a strategic plan sets you up for successful resource allocation, which is essential for growing your business.

Aligns team members

A robust strategic plan becomes a source of truth for your team. It keeps all team members on the same page regarding the company’s mission and strategy. When confused about why they are doing something or how they fit into the bigger picture, they can refer to the team’s strategic plan.

As well as team members, a strategic plan keeps stakeholders in the know. They should be involved in the development of the strategic plan so that the goals and strategies are aligned with their expectations.

  • What is included in a strategic plan?

These are the key elements that make up a strategic plan.

Vision statement

The vision statement gives a clear picture of what your organization wants to achieve in the long run. It is an aspirational statement that describes the ideal future state of your business.

Many great vision statements use emotional language to paint a picture of what impact the group hopes to make on the world. For example, IKEA’s vision statement is “To create a better everyday life for the many people.”

Mission statement

While a vision statement looks toward the future, a mission statement considers the present. It should describe the core purpose of the company and why it exists. Your mission statement should provide context for all other goals and actions.

IKEA’s mission statement is “to offer a wide range of well-designed, functional home furnishing products at prices so low that as many people as possible will be able to afford them.”

Your objectives are what you plan to achieve. They are the specific results that your organization wants to accomplish within a certain time frame. Strategic objectives aim to bridge the gap between your overall vision and the goals needed to achieve it.

Strategic objectives can be financial, growth-related, or customer-related. An example of a strategic objective is “Enter three new foreign markets in the next five years.”

This section of your strategic plan is where you turn the focus from your vision to execution. Your strategy is the blueprint for how to achieve your goals and objectives.

If your objective is to “Enter three new foreign markets in the next five years,” you need to develop a strategy for how you are going to do this. Which markets are you going to target? What products or services are you going to introduce? What are the current market trends? Asking and answering these questions will help you design a specific market entry strategy.

This is where strategic planning frameworks become so useful. For example, the Ansoff Matrix helps you evaluate opportunities for growth. Also known as the product-market expansion grid, the Ansoff Matrix helps you review the potential risks and opportunities of each growth plan option.

Ansoff Matrix on Miro

By using frameworks like the Ansoff Matrix, you can analyze each strategic option. All the data gathered and your team’s insights on this data will help determine your strategic approach.

After writing a strategic plan and implementing it, you need to track its progress. Metrics are a way for you to measure the success of your actions. If you find that your strategic plan isn’t giving you the results you expected, you can make changes to your strategic approach.

Metrics can be milestones, such as launching a product or completing a certain project. Or your metrics can be quantifiable performance measures, like KPIs.

  • How to write a strategic plan

Now that you know what a strategic plan should include, here’s a step-by-step guide on how to write a strategic plan for your business.

1. Hold a strategic planning meeting

No man is an island, especially in the realm of strategic planning. You want to get your entire team involved in the strategic planning process. To ensure everyone is part of the process, you need to hold a strategic planning meeting . This meeting is about collaboration and openly sharing ideas around your strategic plan.

Start by making an invite list and sending out calendar invites to the people you want to attend the session. This should include people from different departments, executives, and stakeholders.

2. Use a template

To save you time and hassle, use a customizable Strategic Planning Template . Businesses have been writing strategic plans for years and years, so there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Using a template will also help ensure that you don’t miss out on any important aspects of the strategic planning process.

Strategic Planning Template on Miro

3. Determine your position

Before you look towards the future about where you want to be, you need to understand where you currently stand. This means looking internally at who you are as a company and conducting market and competitor analysis to fully understand your external environment.

A popular method for taking stock of your company’s current position is a SWOT analysis . This framework helps you map out the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of your business.

SWOT Analysis on Miro

4. Decide where you want to go

Now it’s time to look toward the future and decide on what you are aiming for. This is where you articulate what you want to achieve. Some examples of thought-provoking questions to ask your team include:

  • What do we want to accomplish?
  • Where do we want to be?
  • How many products would we sell?
  • How many countries will we be based in?
  • Who would our customers be?

This part of writing a strategic plan is where you develop the strategic objectives, goals, and action items. We’re big fans of setting OKRs: Objectives and their related Key Results. This OKR Template will ensure your business goals are structured and clearly defined.

OKR Template on Miro

5. Decide how you are going to get there

Now that you know where you’re going, you need to decide how to get there. This phase involves deciding how you’re going to make your goals a reality. And that means coming up with an action plan.

An action plan is a detailed set of lists outlining the steps you are going to take to complete your objectives. Our Action Plan Template promotes clarity and transparency around assigned tasks. As a team, you need to decide who needs to do what and by when. Everyone should be aware of their role in executing the overall strategic plan.

Action Plan Template on Miro

  • Tips for writing a strategic plan

Keep these tips in mind when writing your strategic plan to make the process more efficient.

Use the right tools

Developing a strategic plan has a lot of moving parts. From running a strategic planning session to capturing your team’s ideas, there’s a lot to stay on top of. But an online collaborative tool like Miro can make the process a whole lot easier.

With Miro, you collaborate with your team from anywhere, at any time. Not to mention safely store all your mindmaps , boards, and diagrams in one consolidated place. To get a real sense of what’s possible, have a look at our list of features .

Be SMART with your goals

Whenever you create goals or objectives, ensure that they are SMART . This means they should be specific, measurable, attainable, relevant, and time-bound. It’s no use coming up with a long list of impressive goals that aren’t realistic or focused.

SMART Goals Framework on Miro

Don’t be afraid to change your plan

Strategic plans aren’t set in stone. They should be used more as a guideline that is adjusted as needed. Your company will no doubt face new challenges or identify new opportunities as time goes on. So it’s important to revisit your strategic plan and make necessary adjustments based on changes in your organization’s environment and situation.

Strategic plans are usually developed for the next two to five-year period. Some companies reconsider their strategic plan every year, while others hold strategic planning sessions every quarter.

It’s up to you and your team how often you revisit your strategic plan, but the key takeaway is that you should be open to changing your plan.

  • Get starting writing your strategic plan

We’re not going to lie to you — creating a strategic plan isn’t the easiest process to execute. From capturing your company’s vision to measuring your strategy’s success, there’s a lot to do. But that shouldn’t deter you.

Knowing how to write a strategic plan is a valuable skill to have, no matter what industry you’re in. And tools like Miro are there to make the process a whole lot easier and more efficient.

Miro is your team's visual platform to connect, collaborate, and create — together.

Join millions of users that collaborate from all over the planet using Miro.

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How to write a strategic plan.

How do you know if you have a complete strategic plan? A complete strategic plan has several components, but the various parts fall into three categories. Following our step-by-step guide, you’ll learn how to write a strategic plan quickly.

Not to oversimplify how to write a strategic plan, but by placing all the parts of a strategic plan into three areas or categories of focus, you can see how the pieces fit together.

The three pieces of the puzzle are:

Where are we now?

Where are we going, how will we get there, get the free guide to build your strategic objectives (with examples).

Each part has certain elements to show you how and where things fit. Our 4-Phase Guide to Strategic Planning lays out each step of the planning process. You can also watch our video, The Complete Strategic Planning Checklist” for a brief overview.

Get the Free Guide for Setting OKRs that Work (with 100 examples!)

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

Video Transcript – The Complete Strategic Plan

Hi everyone, its Erica Olsen from OnStrategy. Welcome to today’s whiteboard video on “How do you know if you have a complete strategic plan?”

As you would expect from us, we’re going to make that as easy as possible and give you a checklist — and a checklist not only for a complete plan — but for an awesome plan. So, let’s jump in.

First things first, you need a couple of things that set your strategic direction: your mission statement, which tells us why you exist, your reason for being, and your vision statement of where you’re going. You’ve heard me say it a million times, strategic plans are all about going to a place that you are not today. And your vision statement answers that. We often lump values in this area: mission, vision, and values, because it sounds good.

But I would say that a strategic plan does not have to have values if you don’t have them already articulated. And the only reason for that is because I would highly recommend that you take a values process and run that separately from a strategic planning process, because there’s a lot of work there. And it deserves its own time and attention. And if you have your values, they should go in here if you don’t put a placeholder.

So then we move to strategy. In order to articulate your strategy, you’ve got to understand where you are today. And we use a trusty tool that is a SWOT–Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats. So once you have a clear understanding of where you are today, and where the opportunities are for growth, you can build out the strategy areas of your plan, which look like this: your strategic goals.

Those are the four, or five, or six big areas of focus that make up the framework of your plan that are super important. Everything rises and falls here–your vision connects to your goals and your goals connect your objectives.

Also, in your strategy is your org-wide strategies or your organizational-wide strategies. Those are the differentiation statements, or how you’re different. Strategy is about being unique. And that’s what that statement does for you.

And then of course, clarifying where are we going to play? How are we going to win? That’s your growth strategy. Strategic plans have got to have a growth section. That’s your competitive advantages and your customer segments. So, once you have all that articulated, we can move to your annual plan, which looks like organization-wide objectives.

Those are your SMART objectives. They should be measurable, time bound, accountable, all that good stuff. And each initiative should have at least one or two quarterly action items to make sure that you can really move them in to execution. And of course, no good plan is done unless you’re clear about how you’re going to measure your success–key performance indicators or KPIs. So with that, there’s your checklist for a complete and awesome strategic plan.

Hit the like button if you like our content, and please subscribe to our channel. We’re dropping videos every Friday. Happy strategizing.

Establishing Your Strategic Direction

Establishing your strategic direction is imperative to the strategic planning process. It serves as the foundation of your strategic plan as it tells yourself and the rest of your organization what your starting point is and why you generally exist (your core purpose or mission). This portion of the plan is all about setting the foundation of your organization. After setting up the foundation of your strategic plan, you can begin to determine where you’re going, or hope to go in the future, and exactly how you’re going to get there.

As you think about where your organization is now, you want to look at the foundational elements of your organization’s purpose and culture (mission + values) and assess your organization’s current state (SWOT and competitive advantages).

This portion of strategic planning is designed to outline the core foundation of your organization, like why you exist and how you behave, while looking at the internal and external factors that will influence your planning elements. Below is a quick overview of those elements, which include a breakdown of your mission statement, core values, and SWOT analysis.

Who are we, and how do we behave?

Mission statement.

The mission describes your organization’s purpose — the purpose for which you were founded and why you exist.

Some mission statements include the business of the organization. Others explain what products or services they produce or the customers they serve. Does your mission statement say what you do? Why does your organization exist?

Core Values:

This clarifies what you believe and how you expect your team to behave. Three questions to ask to clarify your core values include:

  • What are the core values and beliefs of your organization?
  • What values and beliefs guide your daily interactions?
  • What are you and your people committed to?

While a values statement is foundational to your overall strategy, the values process can be run separately from the strategic planning process as it needs its own time and attention. Your value statements are the barometer to determine whether you are conducting your business in a way that stays true to your organization’s purpose.

Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

Video Transcript – Overview of the Strategic Planning Process

Hi, my name is Erica Olsen. Today’s whiteboard video is an overview of the strategic planning process. Instead of going through a bullet pointed list, we’ll do it in the form of an illustration.

To orient ourselves, I want to outline the four phases of the process over here: assess, design, build, and manage. The phases of planning include assessing, designing, and building, and we spend a couple of months per year doing that.

We spend the rest of the year managing the performance and the execution of our plan. Oftentimes, we get into execution, and we’re not exactly realizing the results that we want. In which case, we go back into some parts of the planning process, and sort of rinse and repeat. Today’s video is going through the whole process, but sometimes you just make big pieces of it. So, let’s jump in.

Great strategic plans start with understanding where we are today–assessing the current state– point A. We do that by gathering an external perspective, opportunities and threats, and an internal perspective, strengths, and weaknesses. And we summarize all that information and do a SWOT analysis. And as a little Asterix, we have detailed whiteboard videos on each point today. So, if you need to dig deeper, check those out.

So, once we’re clear about where we are today, we can move into the second part of our process, which is designing the strategy, starting with our mission statement. Our mission statement is a square here because great mission statements tell us what’s in and what’s out. Why do we exist as an organization, what’s our core purpose, and then by default, what’s not. With clarity on our mission, we can move to casting our vision or our future state.

Strategic plans are all about moving organizations from where we are today to where we want to be in the future. And that’s what our vision statement does for us. It tells us where we want to go.

The rest of our plan builds a roadmap from today to tomorrow. Starting with a couple of things that help us answer, “How will we succeed?” our competitive advantages, and our long-term, organization-wide strategies. These come in different names, but let’s just use the analogy and the visual to keep us grounded.

These help as guides. They act as an umbrella over our entire plan to make sure that we’re building a plan that we can succeed and be successful and be competitive with. So, with that guideline in place, we can move to building our framework–our long-term strategic objectives. Again, there are different names for this, but let’s just use that for today. I like to see them in four categories because we want a holistic framework. We want to make sure that our plan covers our financial perspective, our customer perspective, our operational and internal perspective, and our people perspective.

Less than six strategic objectives is a pretty good idea when you’re looking at your framework because we’re going to cascade the rest of the plan from these. From there, we’re ready to move into the next phase, which is building our plan.

That looks like starting with our goals, or our corporate goals. And we’re using the word ‘goals’ to articulate quantifiable, outcome-based statements. Where do you want to be in year one, and year two, and year three? And most of the time, we use key performance indicators to help guide us along the way.

So, we like our corporate goals. And again, we’re going to cascade from our strategic objectives. We like our corporate goals to be SMART. SMART is a great acronym to make sure that you have good, quantifiable, outcome-based goals: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Realistic, and Time-bound.

Once we have our corporate goals in place, a couple per each long-term, strategic objective, we’re ready to move into annual operating plans. And that looks like building goals and cascading into each level of the organization. So that looks like corporate goals being cascaded into department goals, and department goals being cascaded into individual, contributor goals.

Once we’ve cascaded it down that far, we have a plan, and we’re done with the third phase. So now we have a plan. Now what? We want to move into managing execution because nobody wants to build a plan that sits on a shelf. So, there are three things you need to have in place to effectively execute.

Number one: people. You need to make sure that every person in your organization has an individual action plan that expresses ownership and accountability for what they need to get done by when. And with that, that matters because all the rest of this is just on paper if we’re not clear about that very specific piece.

The second thing is we need to make sure that we have a system in place to track and manage performance. A software system, spreadsheets, whatever it looks like, you’re going to gather a lot of data on a monthly, or quarterly and annual basis, you need a place to put that, and everybody needs to be working on the same system.

The third thing is process. You need to schedule at least monthly, or quarterly reviews of your performance because without that review, all the rest of this is just again, good ideas on paper.

So, with that, that’s an overview of the strategic planning process. Subscribe to our channel. Happy strategizing.

Assessing Your Current Position

When assessing your current position, you must conduct a thorough internal and external analysis of your organization. This includes assessing two major things:

  • How well you are meeting your customer and market needs.
  • How well do your internal processes and employees rate in terms of efficiency and satisfaction?

It may be tempting to skip this step or feel like you know where your organization stands and can make do with a less formal process, but this is not the case. Conducting a formal internal/external analysis via a SWOT, PESTLE , market analysis, or even employee surveys will help you lay the groundwork for your strategic plan.

Successful attributes of an internal and external analysis:

  • Your organization’s strengths
  • Weaknesses for your organization to improve upon
  • A clearly defined competitive advantage
  • Market opportunities to pursue
  • An understanding of your competitor’s competitive advantages
  • Strategic themes that serve as the framework of your plan

SWOT is an acronym that stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. These elements are crucial in assessing your strategic position within your organization. You want to build on your organization’s strengths, shore up the weaknesses, capitalize on the opportunities, and recognize the threats.

The SWOT can also be used as a forward-looking tool to determine where you want to go, as it allows you to see where your opportunities or threats may be in the future. These can help you pinpoint what some of your growth opportunities are.

Formulating your Strategic Planning Process

The elements of the question “Where are we going?” help you answer other questions such as “What will my organization look like in the future?”, “Where are we headed?”, and “What is my vision of the future I want to create for my company?” Because the future is hard to predict, you can have fun imagining what it may look like. The following elements help you define the future for your business:

Vision Statement

Your vision is formulating a picture of what your organization’s future makeup will be and where the organization is headed. What will your organization look like in 5 to 10 years from now?

It’s important that your vision always remains relevant and adaptable. You can either make your vision big, bold, and audacious — like “All children achieve their full potential” from Big Brothers Big Sisters of America.

A vision statement like this would probably be true and relevant to the organization for its entirety. A vision statement may only need to change if the organization is making big moves or pivoting to address major shifts in the market or industry.

Sustainable Competitive Advantage

A sustainable competitive advantage explains what you are best at compared to your competitors. Each company strives to create an advantage that continues to be competitive over time. What can you be best at? What is your uniqueness? What can your organization potentially do better than any other organization?

Growth Strategy

Strategy is ultimately about being unique. It is about playing to the strengths that make your organization different from the others in your market. It establishes a way to match your organization’s strengths with market opportunities so that your organization comes to mind when your customer has a need.

This section explains how you travel to your final destination. Does your strategy match your strengths in a way that provides value to your customers? Does it build an organizational reputation and recognizable industry position?

Your growth strategy should clarify:

  • Where are we going to play?
  • How are we going to win?

Growth strategies are where your competitive advantages and your customer segments come into play. Once you have all that articulated, you can move to your annual plan, which looks like organization-wide objectives.

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

Strategic objectives are the steps that bridge the gap between where you are and where you want to be. They also connect your big, bold vision to the annual goals you need to achieve it and establish the boundaries for your organization’s focus.

Setting your Strategic Objectives

Knowing how you’ll reach your vision is the meat of your strategic plan, and it’s also the most time consuming. The reason it takes so much time to develop your strategic objectives is because there are a number of routes from your current position to your vision. Picking the right one determines how quickly or slowly you’ll get to your final destination.

The parts of your plan that lay out your roadmap are listed below:

Strategic Objectives

Strategic objectives are long-term, continuous strategic areas that help you connect your growth strategy and annual actions to your long-term vision of success. Strategic planning with holistic objectives encompasses four areas:

  • Operational

Ask yourself what the key activities within these four areas are that you need to perform in order to achieve your vision.

It’s also important to separate your strategic objectives from your day-to-day operational objectives. They almost act like ‘mini vision statements’ as they support the overall vision of success by focusing on manageable focus areas.

Ultimately, your strategic objectives are not a mishmash of department goals. Instead, they embody the company-wide direction. They are what drive the direction and growth.

It is recommended to have at least four to six strategic objectives. They are your areas of focus that create the framework for your plan, and this should stem from your vision. Your vision connects your goals, and your goals connect your objectives. Your objectives should be SMART–specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and time-bound.

Short-term Goals/Priorities/Initiatives

Short-term goals convert your strategic objectives into specific performance targets. You can use goals, priorities, or initiatives interchangeably. Here, the term ‘goals’ defines short-term action. Effective goals clearly state:

  • What you want to accomplish.
  • When you want to accomplish it.
  • How you’re going to accomplish it.
  • Who is going to be responsible.

Each goal should be specific and measurable:

  • What are the 1- to 3-year goals you’re trying to achieve to reach your vision?
  • What are your specific, measurable, and realistic targets of accomplishment?

Within your strategic plan, you should set milestones to measure achievement and motivate your team. Setting milestones also sets clear expectations of who is in charge of specific tasks and results.

Additionally, milestones help teams determine whether resource allocations serve to assess risks or upcoming obstacles. Strategic plans are iterative rather than sequential, so setting milestones can allow your plan to be more adaptive to address changes in the market rather than changing the overall strategic goals.

Action Items

Action items are plans that set specific actions that lead to implementing your goals. They include start and end dates and appoint a person responsible Are your action items comprehensive enough to achieve your goals?

KPIs and Scorecards

A scorecard measures and manages your strategic plan. Each goal should have some form of measurement, whether that is through key performance indicators or some other method of measurement. What are the key performance indicators you need to track to monitor whether you’re achieving your mission? Pick 5 to 10 goal-related measures you can use to track the progress of your plan and plug them into your scorecard.

In executing the plan, identify issues that surround the management and monitoring of the plan and how the plan is communicated and supported. How committed are you to implementing the plan to move your organization forward? Will you commit money, resources, and time to support the plan? As you’ve been going through the planning and assessment phase of your strategic plan, you’ve hopefully thought of the resources needed to achieve this.

Before you begin executing your plan, it is essential to ensure that you have your resource allocation fully ironed out. This will prevent the possibility of ‘scope creep’ and keep you and your team aligned on your needs.

Another consideration for successful strategic plan implementation is ensuring stakeholder and employee buy-in. Stakeholder buy-in is crucial for any strategic plan. Some key steps to getting buy-in:

  • Identify your key stakeholders.
  • Make sure you and your team understand everyone’s role in the process.
  • Establish communication channels.
  • Offer active listening and transparency.
  • Celebrate the milestones.

However, buy-in really begins before the execution of your plan. If you’re waiting until it’s time for them to act on the plan before you consider whether they are bought in, then it’s a little late in the game. If you aren’t giving your team a voice in the planning and analysis stage and getting their input on the issues your organization faces, it will be harder to get them to buy-in to the implementation stage.

Revisiting and Refining your Strategic Plan

As stated before, the strategic planning process is iterative. It won’t always be a linear process with linear progress and achievements. This is why regularly revisiting your plan and making adjustments as needed is essential. Monitoring the pulse of your strategic plan is something that can be done by implementing a regular review cycle quarterly and revisiting your annual goals at the beginning of each fiscal year to determine what is working and what isn’t.

PS – Strategic planning is best supported by an agile review process.

We’ve covered this extensively, but the most successful strategic planning processes are supported by a consistent, rigorous review process where teams review performance monthly, review and refresh the plan quarterly, and then do a bigger plan refresh annually.

Check out our agile strategy guide here.

Challenges in Strategic Planning

The strategic planning process can be very involved and complex. It is definitely not a quick fix and it is not a one person job. Some common issues that many organizations come across in the planning and execution stages of their plans can be your team’s resistance to change, misalignment of resources, setting unrealistic goals, or a failure to adapt to external market shifts.

These challenges can be overcome by a consistent and open method of communication, a regular review process where you’re discussing your success and the things that may hinder it, and fostering a culture of adaptability and ownership of your organization’s goals and accomplishments.

10 Principles to maintain your momentum during challenging times

  • Re-iterate your vision often.
  • Foster a culture of continuous learning.
  • Empower your decision makers.
  • Celebrate the small successes.
  • Encourage feedback.
  • Seek internal and external feedback.
  • Don’t be afraid to adapt.
  • Practice open communication.
  • Don’t get tangled up in the business-as-usual tasks.
  • Keep your eye on the big picture.

28 Comments

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Very useful to me and for my organization as formulation of strategic plans is my job

' src=

A good introduction

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Very good , your direction make an easy for me to di this things.thanks

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I am going to write a strategic plan, but not before I read this!

' src=

Very resourceful not only for my exams but for my work as well. Thanks.

' src=

Good information, but you might want to check the typos.

' src=

Thanx,i can now rearrange and plan my life and carrier.

' src=

Excellent and simple answer to plan, and deliver a strategy to my business

' src=

The information is so ressourcefull. Am now a real strategic planner. Thanks.

' src=

Critical tool for advancing the management of my enterprises towards attaining sustainable ,growth projections.

' src=

IS BEEN REALLY HELPFUL THANK YOU VERY MUCH.

' src=

Eeh! Its Gud information. I will use it for my LIFE strategic PLAN.

' src=

Though it was my first time to visit this site, it was very good and opened up mind more especially on what I didn’t know and thus will give it a closure look to build my confident and more knowledge

' src=

Thank you Kristin,

This has helped me to design my strategic plan well for my on coming NGO after a struggle with the old version which was not giving me a lead of how to fit in information in their right places.

' src=

I agree other than I’m missing the question “What might prevent us from coming there?”

' src=

hi fine can yaou help me about nutrition roadmap models

' src=

Hi, thank you for the helps. I am not familiar of strategic planning and this article is a good help.

' src=

now i know, i will write my strategic plan now. am grateful to the organizers this article.

' src=

Very informative. This is a good reference. Thank you.

' src=

thank you for sharing.. very clear explanation

' src=

Thanks Erica because of strong and brief text about strategy.i am strategic planner in petroleum industries health organization in Iran.

' src=

Thanks for three points for stategy .

' src=

very Nice..This article Helped me alott. Please keep doing this.Inspiration and guidence is very importatnt for someone to reach to his destination.And i think you are doing a good job. 🙂

' src=

Fantastic information, just in line with my outline. Thank you

' src=

Good information. However, I think this strategic plan process was designed for private sector more than any other sector!

' src=

I need to write a strat for the Africa expansion for a cinema group . Any ideas .

' src=

it’s really good and good introduction, thanks

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how to write a 5 year strategic plan

  • Business strategy |
  • What is strategic planning? A 5-step gu ...

What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

Julia Martins contributor headshot

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. In this article, we'll guide you through the strategic planning process, including why it's important, the benefits and best practices, and five steps to get you from beginning to end.

Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization’s growth and how they’re going to get there. The strategic planning process informs your organization’s decisions, growth, and goals.

Strategic planning helps you clearly define your company’s long-term objectives—and maps how your short-term goals and work will help you achieve them. This, in turn, gives you a clear sense of where your organization is going and allows you to ensure your teams are working on projects that make the most impact. Think of it this way—if your goals and objectives are your destination on a map, your strategic plan is your navigation system.

In this article, we walk you through the 5-step strategic planning process and show you how to get started developing your own strategic plan.

How to build an organizational strategy

Get our free ebook and learn how to bridge the gap between mission, strategic goals, and work at your organization.

What is strategic planning?

Strategic planning is a business process that helps you define and share the direction your company will take in the next three to five years. During the strategic planning process, stakeholders review and define the organization’s mission and goals, conduct competitive assessments, and identify company goals and objectives. The product of the planning cycle is a strategic plan, which is shared throughout the company.

What is a strategic plan?

[inline illustration] Strategic plan elements (infographic)

A strategic plan is the end result of the strategic planning process. At its most basic, it’s a tool used to define your organization’s goals and what actions you’ll take to achieve them.

Typically, your strategic plan should include: 

Your company’s mission statement

Your organizational goals, including your long-term goals and short-term, yearly objectives

Any plan of action, tactics, or approaches you plan to take to meet those goals

What are the benefits of strategic planning?

Strategic planning can help with goal setting and decision-making by allowing you to map out how your company will move toward your organization’s vision and mission statements in the next three to five years. Let’s circle back to our map metaphor. If you think of your company trajectory as a line on a map, a strategic plan can help you better quantify how you’ll get from point A (where you are now) to point B (where you want to be in a few years).

When you create and share a clear strategic plan with your team, you can:

Build a strong organizational culture by clearly defining and aligning on your organization’s mission, vision, and goals.

Align everyone around a shared purpose and ensure all departments and teams are working toward a common objective.

Proactively set objectives to help you get where you want to go and achieve desired outcomes.

Promote a long-term vision for your company rather than focusing primarily on short-term gains.

Ensure resources are allocated around the most high-impact priorities.

Define long-term goals and set shorter-term goals to support them.

Assess your current situation and identify any opportunities—or threats—allowing your organization to mitigate potential risks.

Create a proactive business culture that enables your organization to respond more swiftly to emerging market changes and opportunities.

What are the 5 steps in strategic planning?

The strategic planning process involves a structured methodology that guides the organization from vision to implementation. The strategic planning process starts with assembling a small, dedicated team of key strategic planners—typically five to 10 members—who will form the strategic planning, or management, committee. This team is responsible for gathering crucial information, guiding the development of the plan, and overseeing strategy execution.

Once you’ve established your management committee, you can get to work on the planning process. 

Step 1: Assess your current business strategy and business environment

Before you can define where you’re going, you first need to define where you are. Understanding the external environment, including market trends and competitive landscape, is crucial in the initial assessment phase of strategic planning.

To do this, your management committee should collect a variety of information from additional stakeholders, like employees and customers. In particular, plan to gather:

Relevant industry and market data to inform any market opportunities, as well as any potential upcoming threats in the near future.

Customer insights to understand what your customers want from your company—like product improvements or additional services.

Employee feedback that needs to be addressed—whether about the product, business practices, or the day-to-day company culture.

Consider different types of strategic planning tools and analytical techniques to gather this information, such as:

A balanced scorecard to help you evaluate four major elements of a business: learning and growth, business processes, customer satisfaction, and financial performance.

A SWOT analysis to help you assess both current and future potential for the business (you’ll return to this analysis periodically during the strategic planning process). 

To fill out each letter in the SWOT acronym, your management committee will answer a series of questions:

What does your organization currently do well?

What separates you from your competitors?

What are your most valuable internal resources?

What tangible assets do you have?

What is your biggest strength? 

Weaknesses:

What does your organization do poorly?

What do you currently lack (whether that’s a product, resource, or process)?

What do your competitors do better than you?

What, if any, limitations are holding your organization back?

What processes or products need improvement? 

Opportunities:

What opportunities does your organization have?

How can you leverage your unique company strengths?

Are there any trends that you can take advantage of?

How can you capitalize on marketing or press opportunities?

Is there an emerging need for your product or service? 

What emerging competitors should you keep an eye on?

Are there any weaknesses that expose your organization to risk?

Have you or could you experience negative press that could reduce market share?

Is there a chance of changing customer attitudes towards your company? 

Step 2: Identify your company’s goals and objectives

To begin strategy development, take into account your current position, which is where you are now. Then, draw inspiration from your vision, mission, and current position to identify and define your goals—these are your final destination. 

To develop your strategy, you’re essentially pulling out your compass and asking, “Where are we going next?” “What’s the ideal future state of this company?” This can help you figure out which path you need to take to get there.

During this phase of the planning process, take inspiration from important company documents, such as:

Your mission statement, to understand how you can continue moving towards your organization’s core purpose.

Your vision statement, to clarify how your strategic plan fits into your long-term vision.

Your company values, to guide you towards what matters most towards your company.

Your competitive advantages, to understand what unique benefit you offer to the market.

Your long-term goals, to track where you want to be in five or 10 years.

Your financial forecast and projection, to understand where you expect your financials to be in the next three years, what your expected cash flow is, and what new opportunities you will likely be able to invest in.

Step 3: Develop your strategic plan and determine performance metrics

Now that you understand where you are and where you want to go, it’s time to put pen to paper. Take your current business position and strategy into account, as well as your organization’s goals and objectives, and build out a strategic plan for the next three to five years. Keep in mind that even though you’re creating a long-term plan, parts of your plan should be created or revisited as the quarters and years go on.

As you build your strategic plan, you should define:

Company priorities for the next three to five years, based on your SWOT analysis and strategy.

Yearly objectives for the first year. You don’t need to define your objectives for every year of the strategic plan. As the years go on, create new yearly objectives that connect back to your overall strategic goals . 

Related key results and KPIs. Some of these should be set by the management committee, and some should be set by specific teams that are closer to the work. Make sure your key results and KPIs are measurable and actionable. These KPIs will help you track progress and ensure you’re moving in the right direction.

Budget for the next year or few years. This should be based on your financial forecast as well as your direction. Do you need to spend aggressively to develop your product? Build your team? Make a dent with marketing? Clarify your most important initiatives and how you’ll budget for those.

A high-level project roadmap . A project roadmap is a tool in project management that helps you visualize the timeline of a complex initiative, but you can also create a very high-level project roadmap for your strategic plan. Outline what you expect to be working on in certain quarters or years to make the plan more actionable and understandable.

Step 4: Implement and share your plan

Now it’s time to put your plan into action. Strategy implementation involves clear communication across your entire organization to make sure everyone knows their responsibilities and how to measure the plan’s success. 

Make sure your team (especially senior leadership) has access to the strategic plan, so they can understand how their work contributes to company priorities and the overall strategy map. We recommend sharing your plan in the same tool you use to manage and track work, so you can more easily connect high-level objectives to daily work. If you don’t already, consider using a work management platform .  

A few tips to make sure your plan will be executed without a hitch: 

Communicate clearly to your entire organization throughout the implementation process, to ensure all team members understand the strategic plan and how to implement it effectively. 

Define what “success” looks like by mapping your strategic plan to key performance indicators.

Ensure that the actions outlined in the strategic plan are integrated into the daily operations of the organization, so that every team member's daily activities are aligned with the broader strategic objectives.

Utilize tools and software—like a work management platform—that can aid in implementing and tracking the progress of your plan.

Regularly monitor and share the progress of the strategic plan with the entire organization, to keep everyone informed and reinforce the importance of the plan.

Establish regular check-ins to monitor the progress of your strategic plan and make adjustments as needed. 

Step 5: Revise and restructure as needed

Once you’ve created and implemented your new strategic framework, the final step of the planning process is to monitor and manage your plan.

Remember, your strategic plan isn’t set in stone. You’ll need to revisit and update the plan if your company changes directions or makes new investments. As new market opportunities and threats come up, you’ll likely want to tweak your strategic plan. Make sure to review your plan regularly—meaning quarterly and annually—to ensure it’s still aligned with your organization’s vision and goals.

Keep in mind that your plan won’t last forever, even if you do update it frequently. A successful strategic plan evolves with your company’s long-term goals. When you’ve achieved most of your strategic goals, or if your strategy has evolved significantly since you first made your plan, it might be time to create a new one.

Build a smarter strategic plan with a work management platform

To turn your company strategy into a plan—and ultimately, impact—make sure you’re proactively connecting company objectives to daily work. When you can clarify this connection, you’re giving your team members the context they need to get their best work done. 

A work management platform plays a pivotal role in this process. It acts as a central hub for your strategic plan, ensuring that every task and project is directly tied to your broader company goals. This alignment is crucial for visibility and coordination, allowing team members to see how their individual efforts contribute to the company’s success. 

By leveraging such a platform, you not only streamline workflow and enhance team productivity but also align every action with your strategic objectives—allowing teams to drive greater impact and helping your company move toward goals more effectively. 

Strategic planning FAQs

Still have questions about strategic planning? We have answers.

Why do I need a strategic plan?

A strategic plan is one of many tools you can use to plan and hit your goals. It helps map out strategic objectives and growth metrics that will help your company be successful.

When should I create a strategic plan?

You should aim to create a strategic plan every three to five years, depending on your organization’s growth speed.

Since the point of a strategic plan is to map out your long-term goals and how you’ll get there, you should create a strategic plan when you’ve met most or all of them. You should also create a strategic plan any time you’re going to make a large pivot in your organization’s mission or enter new markets. 

What is a strategic planning template?

A strategic planning template is a tool organizations can use to map out their strategic plan and track progress. Typically, a strategic planning template houses all the components needed to build out a strategic plan, including your company’s vision and mission statements, information from any competitive analyses or SWOT assessments, and relevant KPIs.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. business plan?

A business plan can help you document your strategy as you’re getting started so every team member is on the same page about your core business priorities and goals. This tool can help you document and share your strategy with key investors or stakeholders as you get your business up and running.

You should create a business plan when you’re: 

Just starting your business

Significantly restructuring your business

If your business is already established, you should create a strategic plan instead of a business plan. Even if you’re working at a relatively young company, your strategic plan can build on your business plan to help you move in the right direction. During the strategic planning process, you’ll draw from a lot of the fundamental business elements you built early on to establish your strategy for the next three to five years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. mission and vision statements?

Your strategic plan, mission statement, and vision statements are all closely connected. In fact, during the strategic planning process, you will take inspiration from your mission and vision statements in order to build out your strategic plan.

Simply put: 

A mission statement summarizes your company’s purpose.

A vision statement broadly explains how you’ll reach your company’s purpose.

A strategic plan pulls in inspiration from your mission and vision statements and outlines what actions you’re going to take to move in the right direction. 

For example, if your company produces pet safety equipment, here’s how your mission statement, vision statement, and strategic plan might shake out:

Mission statement: “To ensure the safety of the world’s animals.” 

Vision statement: “To create pet safety and tracking products that are effortless to use.” 

Your strategic plan would outline the steps you’re going to take in the next few years to bring your company closer to your mission and vision. For example, you develop a new pet tracking smart collar or improve the microchipping experience for pet owners. 

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. company objectives?

Company objectives are broad goals. You should set these on a yearly or quarterly basis (if your organization moves quickly). These objectives give your team a clear sense of what you intend to accomplish for a set period of time. 

Your strategic plan is more forward-thinking than your company goals, and it should cover more than one year of work. Think of it this way: your company objectives will move the needle towards your overall strategy—but your strategic plan should be bigger than company objectives because it spans multiple years.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a business case?

A business case is a document to help you pitch a significant investment or initiative for your company. When you create a business case, you’re outlining why this investment is a good idea, and how this large-scale project will positively impact the business. 

You might end up building business cases for things on your strategic plan’s roadmap—but your strategic plan should be bigger than that. This tool should encompass multiple years of your roadmap, across your entire company—not just one initiative.

What’s the difference between a strategic plan vs. a project plan?

A strategic plan is a company-wide, multi-year plan of what you want to accomplish in the next three to five years and how you plan to accomplish that. A project plan, on the other hand, outlines how you’re going to accomplish a specific project. This project could be one of many initiatives that contribute to a specific company objective which, in turn, is one of many objectives that contribute to your strategic plan. 

What’s the difference between strategic management vs. strategic planning?

A strategic plan is a tool to define where your organization wants to go and what actions you need to take to achieve those goals. Strategic planning is the process of creating a plan in order to hit your strategic objectives.

Strategic management includes the strategic planning process, but also goes beyond it. In addition to planning how you will achieve your big-picture goals, strategic management also helps you organize your resources and figure out the best action plans for success. 

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Ten 5-Year Plan Examples (For Inspiration)

5 year plan examples and definition, explained below

A 5-year plan is a strategic outline that sets forth objectives, strategies, and actionable steps intended to be implemented over a five-year period. Its purpose is to achieve long-term goals, and is used by a wide range of people and organizations – from governments to businesses to individuals and couples.

Your plan should provide a clear roadmap and framework for achieving long-term objectives by breaking them down into actionable steps and milestones.

Begin crafting your 5-year plan by setting clear, specific, and measurable goals, then break them down into yearly, monthly, or even weekly actionable steps, ensuring each action aligns with the ultimate objectives and adjust as needed for flexibility and responsiveness to change.

How to Create a 5 Year Plan: Rules to Follow

Creating a 5-year plan involves a structured approach to identifying long-term goals and breaking them down into manageable, strategic steps. Here’s a generalized guide:

1. Define Clear Objectives Start by crystalizing your long-term aspirations and aims into defined objectives, ensuring that each goal adheres to the SMART criteria – being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. This foundational step provides a clear vision and purpose for your 5-year plan, acting as a guiding light throughout its duration.

2. Develop Actionable Steps Translate your long-term objectives into actionable steps, subdividing them across a logical timeline with distinct targets set for each year. This dissection of your overarching goals into smaller, tangible steps makes the goals seem more achievable and manageable and will help you to assess your progress along the way. You should have short-term goals that you can get started on immediately, which may be stepping stones along the way.

3. Implement and Monitor Embark on the journey by starting with the immediate or short-term actions that you set out in the previous steps. An ongoing monitoring process is important to ensure you are on track. Monitor on a regular basis (weekly, monthly, or quarterly) and make adjustments whenever needed to keep yourself on track.

4. Seek Feedback and Improve Continuously Actively seek feedback from mentors, peers, and professionals in your field, utilizing their insights to refine your strategies. Cultivate a mindset of continuous learning and be ready to adjust your path based on the knowledge and skills you acquire along the way. Maintain a growth mindset and stay adaptable to changes and new opportunities that may arise. Ensuring consistency in your actions and staying persistently focused on your objectives will build momentum towards your goals.

5. Celebrate Milestones Regularly acknowledge and celebrate achieved milestones, as this not only provides a motivational boost but also ensures that you’re recognizing and valuing your progress. One of the big upsides of having milestones in your 5-year plan is that you can measure progress by watching milestones tumble as you progress. Celebrate it!

Remember, periodic evaluations of your plan’s effectiveness are crucial. It’s vital to stay willing to modify your goals and strategies based on the insights gained during the implementation phase and any evolving external circumstances.

5 Year Plan Examples

1. recent highschool graduate.

Goal: “Within 5 years, I will achieve an entry-level job in my career of choice. To get there, I will need to excel at university and graduate with a strong resume.”

  • Year 1: Enroll in higher education, secure part-time work or an internship, and join related clubs for networking.
  • Year 2: Focus on specialized courses, gain practical experience through internships, and attend industry events.
  • Year 3: Assume leadership in campus organizations, initiate career-related projects, and enhance your professional portfolio.
  • Year 4: Complete degree, gain advanced experience via internships, and start a comprehensive job search in the desired field.
  • Year 5: Secure entry-level position, seek continuous learning opportunities, and explore potential career advancement pathways.

2. Teaching College Student

Goal: “My 5 year goal is to be an employed educator in my preferred subject of teaching. This requires me to graduate with a quality education degree, gain valuable teaching experiences, and network with educators and professionals.”

  • Year 1: Enroll in related training and coursework, join education-focused clubs on campus, and look for volunteer opportunities in educational settings.
  • Year 2: Narrow down a focus in your preferred subject, get practical training through tutoring or assistant teaching, and attend educational conferences or seminars.
  • Year 3: Engage in student teaching placements, initiate a project or research in your area of interest, and start networking by attending education career fairs.
  • Year 4: Complete degree with a focus on courses relevant to your preferred subject, gain further experience via internships or student teaching, and prepare for teacher certification exams.
  • Year 5: Pass the teacher certification exam, secure a teaching position, and seek professional development opportunities for continual learning and growth.

3. Business College Student

Goal: “In 5 years, I aim to secure an entry-level management position in my desired industry. I’ll need to graduate from a strong business program, gain practical work and leadership experience, and build my professional network.”

  • Year 1: Enroll in pertinent business courses, seek out internships, and join business-oriented clubs and organizations on campus.
  • Year 2: Focus on core business classes like finance, marketing, and operations, and secure summer internships. Attend networking events and workshops.
  • Year 3: Pursue specialized business courses based on your area of interest, take on leadership roles in campus organizations, and work on a project related to your chosen business sector.
  • Year 4: Finish degree with high grades, pursue an industry-aligned internship, and begin building a comprehensive job search strategy.
  • Year 5: Secure an entry-level business position, start networking within your chosen industry, and pursue opportunities for continuous learning and career advancement.

4. Young Couple in their 20s

Goal: “In 5 years, we aim to be financially stable, advance in our respective careers, and perhaps start a family. This will require careful financial planning, professional growth, and personal development.”

  • Year 1: Outline joint financial goals, start saving a certain percentage of income, and take roles that offer career growth.
  • Year 2: Focus on upgrading necessary skills for job advancement, look for investment opportunities, and start discussing and planning for family expansion.
  • Year 3: Check progress against career goals , increase savings and investments, and incorporate family planning into lifestyle decisions.
  • Year 4: Evaluate career advancement, reassess financial standing, and prepare personally and financially for the potential addition of a family member.
  • Year 5: Consolidate career positions, ensure financial stability, and consider starting a family, based on personal circumstances and readiness.

5. Married Couple in their 30s

Goal: “In 5 years, we aim to have substantial savings for downpayment on a house, secure strong positions in our respective jobs, and raise a well-adjusted family. This will require continuous financial planning, career progression, and balanced family life.”

  • Year 1: Re-evaluate financial goals and plans, remain committed to career advancement, and take proactive measures for work-life balance .
  • Year 2: Implement changes to career paths if needed, continue regular savings for house and emergency fund, and ensure a healthy balance between work hours and family time.
  • Year 3: Evaluate career growth and make adjustments as necessary, increase savings for the house purchase, and start considering suitable neighbourhoods/schools for family life.
  • Year 4: Secure strong positions in chosen careers, maintain a growing saving fund, and begin house hunting while ensuring the emotional and educational needs of the family are met.
  • Year 5: Finalize the savings for the house down payment, ensure job stability, purchase a house, and aim for a balanced family life with time for personal and professional growth .

6. Couple in their late 50s

Goal: “In 5 years, we aim to transition smoothly into retirement, secure our financial futures, and spend quality time with our loved ones. This will require financial planning, health management, and nurturing personal interests.”

  • Year 1: Evaluate financial standing and retirement savings, work to finalize career commitments, and pursue healthy lifestyle habits.
  • Year 2: Work on increasing retirement savings, plan succession in the job, and start exploring interests that could be pursued post-retirement.
  • Year 3: Review financial plans with a financial advisor to ensure a comfortable retirement, begin passing on important career responsibilities, and develop further hobbies and interests.
  • Year 4: Smooth transition out of working life, finalize retirement funds, and invest in health by joining wellness courses or activities.
  • Year 5: Fully retire, manage retirement funds wisely, retain active social life through hobbies, interests, and family, and ensure regular health check-ups.

7. Early Career Professional

Goal: “In 5 years, I aim to be in a leadership position within my industry. This will require professional development, networking, and a strategic approach to my career progression.”

  • Year 1: Set clear career goals, seek mentorship, and start building a strong professional network.
  • Year 2: Pursue opportunities to advance skills, whether through on-the-job training or further education, and deepen industry connections.
  • Year 3: Take on more significant responsibilities within your role, start attending industry conferences, and pivot your career path if necessary based on market trends.
  • Year 4: Seek roles with increasing responsibilities, continue professional education to stay updated, and expand your influence within your professional network.
  • Year 5: Secure a leadership role in your industry, continually update your skill-set to stay competitive, and solidify your position within your professional network.

8. New Business Goals

Goal: “In 5 years, our cafe will be a profitable, beloved local establishment, having expanded to a second location. This will require dedicated work in customer service, marketing, and business strategy.”

  • Year 1: Have a strong start with rigorous staff training, dedicated customer service, and an aggressive marketing plan to establish the brand.
  • Year 2: Consolidate operations through the refinement of offerings based on customer feedback, intensify local marketing efforts, and aim to break even financially.
  • Year 3: Enhance customer loyalty through reward programs and community events, initiate a profit-making plan, and start considering expansion ideas.
  • Year 4: Achieve a consistent profit margin, continue focusing on customer satisfaction while building a strong presence in the community, and start finalizing plans for a second location.
  • Year 5: Expand to a second location, ensure both cafes are profitable, and continuously work on the upkeep of quality, and customer engagement.

9. Mentorship Goals

Goal: “In 5 years, I aspire to have positively influenced numerous individuals in their personal and professional development. This will require continuous learning, networking, and enhancing my mentoring skills.”

  • Year 1: Understand your mentees’ needs, develop personalized mentoring strategies, and also focus on continuous learning.
  • Year 2: Improve mentoring skills through workshops and certifications, increase your network of professionals and keep up-to-date with industry trends.
  • Year 3: Offer mentees opportunities for exposure and growth within your network, seek feedback on your mentoring, and adjust strategies as necessary.
  • Year 4: Nurture long-term relationships with mentees, measure the impact of your mentoring, and seek new mentees, if capacity allows.
  • Year 5: Expand your mentoring practice by possibly writing a book, starting a blog, or hosting workshops based on your experiences and successes. Be proud of the positive impact you’ve made and continue refining your mentoring strategies.

See More Goals for Mentorship Here

10. Retirement Goals

Goal: “In 5 years, I aim to be comfortably retired, leveraging my savings for a stable financial future, and enjoying my interests and hobbies. This will require smart financial handling, health management, and personal development.”

  • Year 1: Finalize retirement savings and plans, tie up loose ends at work, and identify hobbies and pursuits of interest for your retirement years.
  • Year 2: Begin to transition out of work life and into retirement, adjusting your lifestyle to match your post-retirement budget. Start to engage more actively in hobbies and pursuits.
  • Year 3: Officially enter retirement, reorganize your finances as needed, and continue to invest time in personal interests and social activities.
  • Year 4: Ensure your funds are being managed wisely based on your lifestyle, maintain a balanced schedule with activities that bring you joy and keep you healthy.
  • Year 5: Continue to monitor financial status and adjust spending as needed, stay active by finding new hobbies and interests, and seek opportunities for lifelong learning and growth.

See Also: 10 Year Goals Examples

Before you Go

To get started with your goalsetting, I recommend using the SMART Goals format. Here’s a printable template I’ve provided for you:

smart goals template

Get the Google Docs Template Here

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Dr. Chris Drew is the founder of the Helpful Professor. He holds a PhD in education and has published over 20 articles in scholarly journals. He is the former editor of the Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education. [Image Descriptor: Photo of Chris]

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How to Write a Five Year Plan

Last Updated: October 7, 2022 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM . Shannon O'Brien is the Founder and Principal Advisor of Whole U. (a career and life strategy consultancy based in Boston, MA). Through advising, workshops and e-learning Whole U. empowers people to pursue their life's work and live a balanced, purposeful life. Shannon has been ranked as the #1 Career Coach and #1 Life Coach in Boston, MA by Yelp reviewers. She has been featured on Boston.com, Boldfacers, and the UR Business Network. She received a Master's of Technology, Innovation, & Education from Harvard University. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 786,033 times.

Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM

Sample Five-Year Plans

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

Choosing Categories

Step 1 Think about how you want to change.

  • Visualize yourself, as you see yourself, in five years. Where do you see yourself living? What do you see yourself doing?
  • It's possible that you're already quite happy and satisfied in your life and you want your five year plan to continue on the path you're already on. If that's the case, think more about what you'll need to continue living the way you enjoy.

Tip: Be as honest as possible. Don't think about what you feel is expected of you — instead, think about what truly makes you happy.

Step 2 Think about personal goals.

  • Starting a novel
  • Watching less television
  • Quitting smoking
  • Starting a band
  • Getting more exercise

Step 3 Think about financial goals.

  • Saving more money
  • Getting a graduate degree
  • Asking for a promotion
  • Starting a 401k
  • Finding another job

Step 4 Think about fun goals.

  • Sky-diving, at least once
  • Going on a blind date
  • Hiking the Cumberland Gap
  • Traveling abroad
  • Going to a music festival

Step 5 Think about family goals.

  • Having a child
  • Saving money for your child's education
  • Starting your child in school
  • Adding on to your home
  • Moving to a larger home
  • Going on a family vacation

Drawing Up the List

Step 1 Be as specific as possible.

  • In the margin of each list, label every item on the list either A, B, or C. Label an A goal as a goal that is extremely important to you and that you want or need the most. Label a C goal as something that would be nice to have, but isn't something that you really want or need. If a goal is in between the two categories, label it a B goal. In order to find out what your priorities are, be as honest as possible.

Tip: Alternatively, you could also organize your list in order of how long it will take you to accomplish them. If you've got "learn to speak Italian" on your list as well as "get organized," you can take drastic steps toward one in the next week, while the other may take a lot longer.

Step 3 Make a separate list for each item.

  • If you identified, "Get a graduate degree" on your list as an important item, make a separate list for each goal that you identify as being very important, such as this. Even if it seems simple, something like, "Get organized," it's still important to treat that with as much attention as possible.

Step 4 Identify subsidiary goals for each item.

  • You might need to do a little research to find out for sure what needs to happen to turn your goals into a reality.

Step 5 Write an item for each year.

Tip: For some goals, it might help to start working backward. Imagine yourself as you'd like to imagine yourself in five years, and then imagine what needed to happen for you to get there. If you imagine yourself with a graduate degree and a good job, living on a mountain somewhere, what needed to happen in the weeks leading up to that image of your yourself? What needed to have happened the previous year?

Step 6 Narrow your focus.

Tackling the List

Step 1 Use realistic timelines.

  • Try not to get discouraged. Remember, you're thinking long term. Keep breaking down those big goals until they become a small series of things you can do. Set smart goals and make plans to accomplish them.

Step 2 Cross things out as you accomplish them.

Tip: Take a minute to celebrate each time you finish something. You're getting that much closer to accomplishing a life goal, so treat yourself to something special. Dinner, drinks, a spa day. Take some time for yourself.

Step 3 Pay attention to what new objectives present themselves.

  • Periodically amend your list of goals to take into account these new observations and goals that come up. Revise your five year plan to account for the new information. This isn't a failure, it's a sign you're learning more and getting closer to those goals.

Step 4 Memorize the highlights for job interviews.

Expert Q&A

Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM

  • A technique to see through to your goals is rewriting them every day in the present tense, to hammer them into your subconscious brain. Thanks Helpful 2 Not Helpful 0
  • If new methods pop up to you, review your main goal and your 'A methods' to see if it will work into your plan. If necessary, rewrite your main goal and methods to see if anything has changed. Thanks Helpful 1 Not Helpful 1

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

You Might Also Like

Set Goals

  • ↑ Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM. Life & Career Coach. Expert Interview. 10 December 2019.
  • ↑ https://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/strategic-planning/create-objectives/main
  • ↑ https://www.ucop.edu/local-human-resources/_files/performance-appraisal/How%20to%20write%20SMART%20Goals%20v2.pdf
  • ↑ https://www.health.state.mn.us/communities/practice/resources/phqitoolbox/objectives.html
  • ↑ https://www.ndis.gov.au/participants/creating-your-plan/setting-goals/how-will-you-pursue-your-goals

About This Article

Shannon O'Brien, MA, EdM

To write a five year plan, come up with some goals that are as specific as possible, which will make them easier to track. For example, instead of saying "I want to be making more money," you could say "I want my salary to increase by 15 percent." Once you've made a list of goals, write out a plan for achieving each one. Also, break your goals up into a series of short-term goals so that you feel like you're accomplishing things along the way. For help choosing goals and working toward achieving them, keep reading! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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Strategic Planning Timelines: 3 Year vs 5 year strategic plans

By Anthony Taylor - October 28, 2022

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

In today's rapidly changing business landscape, strategic planning has become more crucial than ever before. One of the most important decisions you'll make during the strategic planning process is determining the timeline for your plan. In this article, we'll explore the differences between a three year strategic planning timeline and a 5 year strategic planning timeline, and help you decide which one is right for your organization.

What is a Strategic Planning Timeline?

Can strategic Plan Timelines be less than 3 Years?

What is the most common Strategic Planning timeline? Why Should You Create a Three Year Strategic Plan ?

But before we get into if your organization should go with a 5 year strategic plan over a three year strategic plan, If you've never created a strategic plan or are creating a new one, it's critical to assess your vision, mission, and values before going into your strategy, goals, and tactics. Related Content:

What is the Strategic Planning Process?

Sample strategic planning agenda 2023

A strategic planning timeline is the time span over which your organization plans its actions to increase alignment by building a shared understanding of what has been done in the past and what is planned for the future to support your organization's mission.

Timelines for strategic planning should be focused on the medium to long-term future. Consider your strategic plan to be a living, breathing entity with a finite lifespan. Most strategic plans are designed to last three to five years, though there are exceptions; some can endure much longer, as we'll see later in the article.

Some  organizations  create  plans  that  are  one  year,  five  years,  or  even  up  to  twenty  years  in  the  future.

However, strategic plan timelines are different from operational timelines , strategic plans usually start at the organizational level, While operational plans focus on specific departments and teams and might concentrate on the day-to-day requirements of running your organization. Operational plans are the set of tactics made to work alongside your strategic plan. They focus on short-term actions that drive your strategic plan forward and typically contain more items than strategic plans, ranging from a single to-do to ongoing short, mid, and long-term projects, while strategic priorities are concentrated on a small number of objectives that need to be reviewed on a regular basis. However, for you to successfully move your organization and strategic plan forward, you need to ensure that there is a balance between your strategic and operational plans. 

    Download our free Strategic Planning Template and start your strategic planning process today

What is the most common Strategic Planning timeline? 

At SME Strategy prioritize creating 3-year strategic plans over 5 year strategic plans for most of the organizations we work with. We believe three year strategic plans balance long-range thinking as well as short-term execution better than a 5 year plan. 

If your organization is in the process of selecting what strategic planning timeline to prepare for, there are a few things to think about. In a previous post, we talked about what is the strategic planning process , why it's important and the steps your organization needs to follow before you start your strategic planning process. 

Why Should You Create a Three Year Strategic Plan ?

  • Technological Change

Because of the rapid pace at which technology, society, and trends evolve, these numerous external factors make it counterintuitive to create a five-year plan over a three-year plan. Going for a three year strategic plan is a great way to keep your organization’s vision close enough to where it is more attainable, but still giving enough allowance for greater flexibility when it comes to technological change. 

  • Lack of Strategic Foresight

When choosing a strategic planning timeline for your organization, keep both the future and the present in mind. That is why we advocate three-year strategic plans for your organization because they balance the long and near term better than a 5-year strategic plan. It's long enough to cover the majority of the tasks required to move your mission forward, but it's also close enough that you can simply implement it over one, two, or three years.

Three to five year strategic plans work well for organizations in most industries. Why? Most organizations go through significant internal change because of the nature of work in 2022. This study reveals that resignation rates among managers have now almost doubled since last year, with the great resignation showing no signs of slowing. If you work in an industry that does not see a lot of change and has a lot of capital investment or traditionally low personnel turnover, such as education , city planning, or Large manufacturing companies, a 5 year strategic plan or longer is ideal.

In conclusion, it is unlikely that your organization requires a 5-year strategic plan. Focusing on three-year plans, making them more feasible, and ensuring that they are adaptable to the market will help you achieve greater success. However, with three-year strategic plans, we still recommend conducting annual comprehensive strategy reviews. This means that while you may have a three year vision and mission that your organization is working towards, you re-asses your priorities, goals and actions on an annual basis, which effectively results in a strategic plan update every year, and a full strategy overhaul every 3 years.

Learn our approach to strategic planning

SME Strategy is a strategy consulting company that specializes in aligning teams around their vision, mission, values, goals and action plans. Learn more about how we can help you and your team create a strategic plan with our strategic planning facilitation services.

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5-Year Strategic Plan

5 year strategic plan

Creating a five-year strategic plan must be considered by your business as it allows the management to have a guide when it comes to setting the direction of the business operations.

More so, a five-year strategic plan presents the vision of the company which is a great way to build action plans that the workforce and other stakeholders can refer to. Simply put, a  five-year strategic plan  can make the objectives and goals of the business be realized by aligning strategies and tactics with particular call-to-actions.

To come up with an effective five-year strategic plan, it is essential for you to understand the gap between the conditions of the business now and that of the future. You have to be realistic when writing all your professional goals and action plans. Also, focus on how you will present the document to different entities.

You can start developing the presentation of your five-year strategic plan with the help of our examples. Download the specific example that you think is a great reference for you and your business.

5 Year Strategic Plan Template

5 year strategic plan template

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5 Year IT Strategic Plan Template

5 year it strategic plan template

Size: 27 KB

5 Year Strategic Business Plan Template

5 year strategic business plan template1

Size: 26 KB

5 Year Plan Template Example

5 year plan template

Size: 30 KB

Simple 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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Size: 127 KB

Standard 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

standard 5 year strategic plan example 1

Size: 198 KB

Basic 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

basic 5 year strategic plan example 01

Size: 333 KB

Initial and Important Things to Know about 5-Year Strategic Plan Development

Businesses from different corporate and creative industries develop strategic plans that ensure that they are well-guided when it comes to their operations and activities. As an example, a five-year term  restaurant strategic plan  is important for restaurant businesses to know how they can brand themselves in a way that they can be different from competition that also offer the same food items or products.

This document can also help a restaurant know the next things that they need to do in terms of financial state improvement, marketing program implementation, and other activities for the business. If you want to create a 5-year strategic plan, here are some of the initial and important things that you have to be aware of:

1. Be knowledgeable of the basics of developing a five-year strategic plan. This can help you to create realistic goals that can be backed up by measurable action plans, programs, and activities. It may be hard at first to look into the things that you would like to achieve in the span of five years. However, being able to set a direction for the business can help you reach corporate milestones accordingly. You may also see strategic planning checklist examples .

2. It is essential for you to have a framework that can be the basis of your call-to-actions. You have to be specific with the things that you want the business to be successful at. However, always be reminded that there will be a lot of changes that can happen within five years. Hence, you have to make sure that the five-year strategic plan that you will make is also flexible. You may also like sales strategy plan examples .

3. You have to make sure that you will present the current state of the business. The condition where the operations is at must be evaluated properly so you can identify the strengths that you can further develop and the weaknesses that you can look into and practice to improve. Being able to know what the business condition is and what it needs to grow can help the entire team finalize a list of development processes and activities. You may also check out  personal strategic plan examples .

4. Allow your action plans to be measurable and specific. With this, a time frame can be showcased where all the activities that you have planned will be plotted based on their effect to the different areas of the business and its operations. Knowing that you are particular with your goals can help the workforce have more focus when it comes to delivering the responsibilities and obligations that are given to them.

Campus Farm 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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Parks 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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Importance of Knowing the Current Condition of the Business When Making a 5-Year Strategic Plan

Even if you are making plans for the future operations of the business, it is still essential for you to look into the current processes and activities that are followed by the operations team. You also have to observe how the business is being managed as well as how marketing and advertising efforts affect the business and its image. These suggestions are also applicable when creating  HR strategic plans  and  hospital strategic plan examples .

Here are some of the reasons why it is important for you to know the current condition of the business when making a five-year strategic plan:

1. The current condition of the business can allow you to measure the gap that you need to bridge. Since you want to be in a particular state or business condition, you need to have an idea on how far your better goals are from reality. Having the knowledge about this matter can help you prepare the necessary steps that the business needs to take for milestones to be achieved within expected time periods.

2. The current condition of the business can present the guiding principles that you need to follow when making a five-year strategic plan. More so, you can be more efficient in terms of following existing protocols, regulations, and business rules. You may also see security strategic plan examples .

3. The current condition of the business can make it easier for you to identify your starting point. Just like any other activities, creating a five-year strategic plan must start from somewhere workable and has the potential to be developed. This can also help you to know the development platforms and communication channels that you will use at certain time frames within the implementation of the five-year strategic plan. You may also like one-page strategic plan examples .

4. The current condition of the business can help you identify the key items or elements that you will be working with. Considering the existing factors that affect the growth of the business, you can point out the things that are needed to be changed to ensure that the business can get its desired results. You may also check out procurement strategy plan examples .

5. The current condition of the business can lead you to the execution of a SWOT analysis . Before drafting a five-year strategic plan, you first need to have all the details and data that can give the direction to where your strategic plan will be developed. Knowing the current strengths and weaknesses of the business as well as the threats and opportunities within the market environment can give you reality-based findings and information sources that can further improve the document that you will be making.

6. The current condition of the business can give you an idea about the actual results of business activities, programs, processes, and efforts. Knowing the relevant successes and previous failures of the business can give you the ability to change items that weaken the business and propose strategies and tactics that can better the overall operations and management of the business .

Community Churches 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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School of Technology Management 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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Do You Want to Have an Effective 5-Year Strategic Plan?

Ensure that your five-year strategic plan is active and action-based. It is important for you to get the attention and approval of all the stakeholders of the business so you can minimize challenges rooting from misunderstandings in the future. The participation of entities who are expected to provide their deliverable can give you the results that you would like to achieve. You may also see community strategic plan examples .

Here are a few other things that you can do to ensure that you will create an effective 5-year strategic plan that can provide a lot of benefits to your business, its operations, and its stakeholders:

1. Be resilient when it comes to achieving your corporate or business goals . Your 5-year strategic plan must be flexible. Be reminded that there are many ways in which your desired outcomes can be achieved. With this, you just have to lay all your options and select backup plans. Being prepared by changes, shifts of directions, and other unforeseen circumstances can make the usage of your five-year strategic plan more successful.

2. Make sure that you will identify the areas of the business that you would like to develop. It is recommended for you to have a general master plan and then have supporting strategic plans per area so you can fully discuss your suggested activities in minute details. You can incorporate  sales strategic plan examples  and other kinds of strategic plans that the business uses when making your 5-year strategic plan draft. This can further define the objective of every action that you would like the workforce to execute.

3. It is important for you to have a projection of the business five years from now. Being able to present this information can identify whether the results that you want to get is worth the efforts, time, and resources that you are willing to use. You may also like business development strategy plan examples .

Department of Economic Security 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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5-Year Strategic Plan for the Environment and Natural Resources Sector Example

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Hospital 5-Year Strategic Plan Example

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Tips and Suggestions in Developing a 5-Year Strategic Plan

Have you made a 5-year strategic plan before? Or is this your first time to create this kind of document? No matter what your knowledge scope is when it comes to drafting 5-year strategic plans, being able to understand the concept of the document and referring to existing 5-year strategic plans can already guide you in terms of successfully creating your own 5-year strategic plan. You may also see marketing strategy plan examples .

In addition to what has been specified above, it is of utmost importance for you to know the purpose of the document, the proper usage and implementation of the simple strategic plan , and the effective planning of your processes for document content execution. More so, there are recommendations and guidelines that can also help you be better in the craft.

Listed below are a few tips and suggestions that you can follow when you are already in the development phase of a 5-year strategic plan.

1. Know the relevance of the 5-year strategic plan with the vision, mission, objectives, and operational nature of the business. There are different strategic plans that are applicable for various industries and corporate practices. As an example, there is a big difference when it comes to the content of a five-year  real estate strategic plan  with that of a five-year hospital strategic plan.

This only goes to show that it is truly essential for you to know all the elements and factors that can affect the potential successes of using a 5-year strategic plan.

2. Know the strategies, techniques, and tactics that you will incorporate in your action plans. You have to define the weight or value that these items can add to the effectiveness of your call-to-actions. Knowing the proper incorporation of these items with your general plans can help strengthen the framework that you will use for the entire five years of business operations.

3. Have a list of both your long-term and short-term objectives. You have to set these items right away as they can provide you an overview of the potential time that you will spend within the processes of business development. This can also help you allocate your resources properly in consideration of the time frames specified in the 5-year strategic plan. You may also check out school strategic plan examples .

References can be very beneficial within the activities that you will undergo in relation to the creation of a 5-year strategic plan. Examples and templates can give you an easier time when learning how to properly put together all the details that are essential to be included in your company’s 5-year strategic plan. You might be interested in health and safety strategic plan examples .

Take your time when looking into all the downloadable examples that we have presented so you can efficiently come up with an impressive 5-year strategic plan.

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

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How to Develop a 5-Year Career Plan

  • Mary McNevin, Ed. D.

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

Stop setting annual goals, and start thinking longer term.

Having a long-term plan for your career can help you reduce career-related stress, increase your perceived employability, and allow you to connect more deeply with your purpose. But how do you move beyond yearly career goals and create a five-year plan?

  • Brainstorm. Start by thinking about how you want your career to develop and what you need to do to get there. This requires self-reflection. You’ll need to identify your primary goal, your passions, how your existing skills contribute to both those things, and your areas for improvement.
  • Gather feedback. We’re not aways the best judges of our own capabilities and strengths. That’s why it can be important early in your planning process to gather feedback from your superiors, mentors, and peers. They may help you discover career opportunities you never considered for yourself, clue you into strengths you may be overlooking, and share insights regarding your areas for growth and development.
  • Map it out. After doing some self-reflection and gathering feedback, it’s time to organize the information you’ve collected. Consider keeping track of your plan in PowerPoint. For example, slide 1 should outline the career goals you identified in your self-reflection. Slide 2 should list out the skills you already have and the ones you would need to achieve your ultimate career goals. Slide 3 should highlight the development activities you plan to pursue over the next five years to help you achieve your goals. And slide 4 should present all of the possible obstacles that might prevent you from achieving your goal and how to address those challenges.
  • Iterate. Unlike year-long goal setting, the process of creating a five-year plan is never complete. One way to ensure you’re keeping your plan updated is to set a quarterly calendar reminder. This will help you address any new developments in your life or career and make changes where necessary.

“Where do you see yourself in five years?”

how to write a 5 year strategic plan

  • MM Mary McNevin, Ed. D. is an executive coach, talent advisor, and former CLO and talent executive. She is a growth-oriented talent management executive with 20+ years of experience in learning, talent management, succession planning, and strategy development. Dr. McNevin earned her doctorate (EdD) from the University of Pennsylvania through an interdisciplinary program between the Graduate School of Education and the Wharton School of Business. Her dissertation focused on Executive Coaching in the C-suite. Dr. McNevin also holds an MBA from the University of Wisconsin – Madison and an MS in Education from the University of Pennsylvania.

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Climate Program Office

Advancing scientific understanding of climate, improving society’s ability to plan and respond

NOAA Climate Program Office Announces Five-Year Strategic Plan

  • February 20, 2024

Today, NOAA’s Climate Program Office published its 2024-2028 Strategic Plan . The new plan highlights CPO’s priorities including its vision, mission, and mandates by Congress to advance scientific understanding of climate variability and change, and to deliver actionable information to society for climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation.

Strategic Plan 2024-2028 cover

This plan was informed by an office review by an external panel, and it was reviewed by the NOAA Science Advisory Board’s Climate Working Group. It aligns with the goals and objectives of the U.S. Department of Commerce Strategic Plan 2022-2026 , NOAA Climate-Ready Nation Plan 2022-2026 , OAR Strategic Plan 2020-2026 , and the U.S. Global Research Program Decadal Strategic Plan . It features four major goals:

  • Goal 1 : Advance the science foundation for climate change adaptation, resilience, and mitigation.
  • Goal 2 : Advance climate adaptation, resilience, and mitigation by enhancing partnerships and providing actionable information.
  • Goal 3 : Improve public understanding and bolster capacity to respond to climate change.
  • Goal 4 : Empower our workforce to advance NOAA’s priorities. 

More specifically, CPO upholds all of NOAA’s core values and principles with four specific foci:

  • Commit to diversity across its work and staff through the CPO DEIJA Strategic Plan . 
  • Uphold integrity from CPO’s rigorous competitive selection process to the research it supports to its excellence in scientific communication.
  • Collaborative innovation to converge around the best ideas to advance science, and invest in a comprehensive approach to deliver meaningful results. 
  • Engage from local to global participatory science to understand the changing environment and inform the public.

This plan highlights CPO’s unique role as the only entity in NOAA that, for over 30 years, has sustained a comprehensive approach to advancing climate science and services, spanning multiple science disciplines, organizations, and timescales.

Read the full strategic plan here .

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IMAGES

  1. 5-Year Strategic Plan

    how to write a 5 year strategic plan

  2. 5-Year Strategic Plan

    how to write a 5 year strategic plan

  3. 32 Great Strategic Plan Templates to Grow your Business

    how to write a 5 year strategic plan

  4. 5-Year Strategic Plan

    how to write a 5 year strategic plan

  5. 5-Year Strategic Plan

    how to write a 5 year strategic plan

  6. How to Write an Achievable 5 Year Plan (Template and 2 Examples)

    how to write a 5 year strategic plan

COMMENTS

  1. 11 Steps for Writing a 5-Year Business Plan

    1. Write an executive summary Include this section at the beginning of your five-year business plan to summarize all the other sections within the plan, and to help employees and investors quickly understand the key points that you may cover within the plan.

  2. PDF How to write a strategic plan

    Overcoming Challenges and Pitfalls. Challenge of consensus over clarity. Challenge of who provides input versus who decides. Preparing a long, ambitious, 5 year plan that sits on a shelf. Finding a balance between process and a final product. Communicating and executing the plan. Lack of alignment between mission, action, and finances.

  3. 5 Steps to Write a 5-Year Business Plan[2023 Guide]

    15 min. read Updated October 27, 2023 Download Now: Free Business Plan Template Learn why the traditional way of writing a five-year business plan is often a waste of time and how to use a one-page plan instead for smarter, easier strategic planning to establish your long-term vision.

  4. Quick Guide: How to Write a Strategic Plan

    The Basics of Writing a Strategic Plan The strategic planning process takes time, but the payoff is huge. If done correctly, your strategic plan will engage and align stakeholders around your company's priorities.

  5. How To Write A Strategic Plan That Gets Results + Examples

    1. Run a strategic planning workshop The first step is to run a strategic planning workshop with your team. Get your team in the room, get their data, and gather their insights. By running this workshop, you'll foster collaboration and bring fresh perspectives to the table. And that's not all.

  6. Four Steps For A Successful 5-Year Strategic Planning

    1. Determine your strategic planning technique. Before you can create your five-year strategic plan, you must select a strategy management framework. We favor the Balanced Scorecard, as it takes four perspectives (financial, customer, internal processes, and learning/growth) into consideration as opposed to just one—finance.

  7. How to Create a 5-Year Plan You'll Actually Stick To [In 4 Steps]

    Skill Development Template And More! Get Your Free Template Learn more Personally, I've said countless times that I want to be fluent in Spanish. However, it's not until I write a detailed plan for how that it will become real. This brings us to our next point: clarity.

  8. Going somewhere? Write the 5-year plan you need to achieve it

    Take quiz What is a 5 year plan? A 5 year plan is a personal and/or professional list of goals that you want to achieve in the next 5 years. Oftentimes, 5 year plans include smaller, concrete goals, to help you achieve the larger goals on your list.

  9. How Do I Write a 5-Year Strategic Plan?

    Small Business | Business Planning & Strategy | Strategic Planning By Kimberlee Leonard Updated March 07, 2019 As a business owner, you need a well-thought out business plan to help you run...

  10. How to write a strategic plan and what it should include

    Now that you know what a strategic plan should include, here's a step-by-step guide on how to write a strategic plan for your business. 1. Hold a strategic planning meeting. No man is an island, especially in the realm of strategic planning. You want to get your entire team involved in the strategic planning process.

  11. 11 steps for writing a strategic 5-year business plan

    Each section holds great value for the business and investors interested in the organisation. Here is a list of 11 steps to help you write a complete five-year plan: 1. Write an executive summary. The first step is to outline goals, objectives, strategies and other aspects of the overall plan.

  12. How To Write a Strategic Plan

    They are what drive the direction and growth. It is recommended to have at least four to six strategic objectives. They are your areas of focus that create the framework for your plan, and this should stem from your vision. Your vision connects your goals, and your goals connect your objectives.

  13. 6 Steps to Make Your Strategic Plan Really Strategic

    Alicia Llop/Getty Images. Summary. Many strategic plans aren't strategic, or even plans. To fix that, try a six step process: first, identify key stakeholders. Second, identify a specific, very ...

  14. What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide

    Business strategy | What is strategic planning? A 5-step gu ... What is strategic planning? A 5-step guide Julia Martins January 23rd, 2024 11 min read Jump to section Summary Strategic planning is a process through which business leaders map out their vision for their organization's growth and how they're going to get there.

  15. Ten 5-Year Plan Examples (For Inspiration)

    1. Define Clear Objectives Start by crystalizing your long-term aspirations and aims into defined objectives, ensuring that each goal adheres to the SMART criteria - being Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound.

  16. How to Write a Five Year Plan: 15 Steps (with Pictures)

    1 Think about how you want to change. [2] A five year plan will include very different sorts of topics, depending on who you are and what you want out of life. What will make your life easier? What will make you a happier person? [3] Visualize yourself, as you see yourself, in five years. Where do you see yourself living?

  17. Strategic Planning Timelines: 3 Year vs 5 year strategic plans

    When choosing a strategic planning timeline for your organization, keep both the future and the present in mind. That is why we advocate three-year strategic plans for your organization because they balance the long and near term better than a 5-year strategic plan. It's long enough to cover the majority of the tasks required to move your ...

  18. 5-Year Strategic Plan Examples, Format, Pdf

    5-Year Strategic Plan. Creating a five-year strategic plan must be considered by your business as it allows the management to have a guide when it comes to setting the direction of the business operations.. More so, a five-year strategic plan presents the vision of the company which is a great way to build action plans that the workforce and other stakeholders can refer to.

  19. How to Create a 5-Year Plan (Plus Template and Examples)

    Here are the basic steps you should take to create your five-year plan: 1. Consider what you want for your life Start by simply evaluating what you want for your life within the next five years. Thoughtfully, and privately, consider what will make you happy in the future and provide you with a feeling of accomplishment.

  20. How To Make an Achievable Five-Year Plan

    Follow these steps to create an achievable and actionable five-year plan for yourself: Determine your plan's breadth. Brainstorm potential goals. Establish long-term goals. Research the process. Identify annual goals. Create a breakdown. Determine your focus. Create change. Revisit your plan. Related: SMART Goals: Definition and Examples 1.

  21. How to create a 5 year plan that fires you up (with examples)

    For the example of running a marathon, the annual goals could be: Year 1: Run a 5K. Year 2: Run a 10K. Year 3: Run a half marathon. Year 4: Run two half marathons. Year 5: Run a marathon. From there, you can create monthly goals to help yourself prepare to run each race designated for the year. 5. Research your goals.

  22. Let's Rethink The Five-Year Plan

    It's amazing what can change in just two years, let alone five. As a leader, you're frequently asked about the so-called "five-year plan" — your vision for the future of your ...

  23. How to Develop a 5-Year Career Plan

    How to Develop a 5-Year Career Plan by Mary McNevin, Ed. D. September 27, 2023 HBR Staff; arnaudbertrande/Getty Images Summary. Having a long-term plan for your career can help you reduce...

  24. NOAA Climate Program Office Announces Five-Year Strategic Plan

    Today, NOAA's Climate Program Office published its 2024-2028 Strategic Plan. The new plan highlights CPO's priorities including its vision, mission, and mandates by Congress to advance scientific understanding of climate variability and change, and to deliver actionable information to society for climate resilience, adaptation and mitigation. This plan was informed by an office review by […]

  25. How to Create a Five-Year Financial Plan

    To make your five-year plan more actionable and help you track your progress, set frequent, regular milestones. One obvious way to break up your goals is by year. So, for example, if you want to save up a $10,000 emergency fund within five years, you could aim to stash away $2,000 a year.