6 steps to create a long-term business strategy that drives growth

What is a long-term business strategy? 

Long-term thinking is crucial for sustainable success, and a long-term business strategy is the key to achieving this. It’s a detailed plan that defines business objectives for the future, made up of actionable steps for your team to follow. The aim here is achieving gradual, consistent improvement rather than overnight success. Any long-term strategy takes at least one year to achieve, but a comprehensive strategy will address the next five to ten years. 

Importance of long-term strategic planning 

A long-term lens that considers the future, rather than just the here and now, is key for sustainable business growth. It helps you anticipate the risks that may arise further down the line, and from there you can implement a business strategy to deal with them. As put by Applied Futurist Tom Cheesewright, “Having a long-term view avoids full-pelt acceleration into failure”. By embracing this view, you’ll soon have a roadmap full of opportunities for future growth that you can be excited about.

The main benefit of long-term strategic planning is quite simple: most other people aren’t doing it. According to Tom Cheesewright, “Most organisations are not systematically thinking about the future to the extent that they should. By carving out the time to think long-term across the organisation at a top leadership level, but also an operational level, you are differentiating from most of your competition.” This competitive edge ensures that you’re resilient and able to adapt to your customers’ changing needs.

Steps to create a long-term strategy

Now that we’ve established the benefits of a long-term business strategy, it’s important to break down the implementation process into smaller steps to ensure that it’s attainable:

1. Set measurable goals

Measurable goals are easier to track, and more manageable for those working towards your strategy. 

2. Create different strategies to achieve your goals 

You may require multiple strategies to achieve just one long-term goal. Breaking your goals down into smaller strategies makes the bigger picture seem more achievable. 

3. Produce a timeline 

Deadlines help to set expectations and hold people accountable to deliver on key priorities. 

4. Align and communicate with teams 

A collaborative approach ensures that everyone is on the same page. When you foster a culture of long-term thinking in your organisation, you can be sure that your people are confident in working towards long-term plans.

5. Safeguard your strategy

Understanding risks to your market that may arise is crucial when safeguarding your strategy. By keeping up with thought leaders in your industry, you’ll be aware of future trends or predictions to account for.  

6. Analyse and review performance 

When your team sees positive results, they’ll be motivated to keep working on the goals within the business strategy. Recurring meetings to review performance are helpful – they allow you to assess whether your strategy is working or if it needs revisions.

Threats and obstacles to your long-term strategy 

Short-term pressures can be a huge obstacle to your long-term strategy. While quarterly budgets and daily problem-solving are necessary to keep your organisation running, they might be what’s preventing your employees from focusing on the long term. Ian Stewart, Chief Marketing Officer at MHR, notes that “it is difficult to get that time and headspace to think long term when most of the time you’re measured on what’s happening that day, week, month or quarter”. 

People in your organisation may struggle with the shift to a long-term mindset, especially if they’re under a lot of pressure from their managers to focus on daily tasks or achieve quarterly targets. To overcome this resistance to change, it’s important to reward long-term thinking just as much as short-term wins. When senior leaders adopt and encourage long-term thinking, everyone else will be more likely to get on board with it, too. This mindset shift will help you and your team to stay on track with your long-term strategy. 

Don't miss out 

If you’re interested in long-term thinking, take a look at our World of Work 2050 hub on telegraph.co.uk. You’ll find a bank of articles about long-term strategies with contributions from award-winning business thinkers like Dorie Clark and Sophie Howe. 

To address the changes coming to the world of work in the next 25 years, we’re hosting a monthly webinar series to give you the insights you need to think ahead. Register now for access to conversations from MHR leaders and futurists like Tom Cheesewright about a variety of emerging trends, ranging from AI and automation to pursuing global growth.