strategy pyramid business plan example

The result was strategic alignment. The next year we were able to sort and manage programs according to strategies and tactics. We could show a spending pie divided into pieces representing each of our strategic priorities. We could also track implementation to the level of specific tasks assigned to specific managers, with performance on start date, finish date and budget. In some cases we could even track sales back to projections in the plan. So seminar programs that began with sales projections had to live with sales results.

You can use the strategy pyramid in your own planning. Focus on three or four main strategic priorities and build a conceptual pyramid for each one. Don't sweat the details like definitions of strategies and tactics; just make it work for you, in your business, with your pyramid. Do sweat the details like making programs with specific responsibilities, budgets and projected outputs when possible.

You don't have to be a big company. Apple was a huge company to me in the mid-'80s, because it had more than 1,000 employees; yet the Latin American group had less than two dozen people. We made the pyramid work because we wanted to make it work; we wanted to build strategy, not just great parties.

Remember, good business planning is nine parts implementation for every one part strategy.

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Strategic Planning with The Strategy Pyramid (Free Powerpoint)

Strategic Planning with The Strategy Pyramid (Free Powerpoint). The strategy pyramid is a framework that helps organizations align their actions with their overall vision and mission.

StrategyPunk

What is a strategy pyramid.

The pyramid starts with the vision and mission at the top, which provide a clear and overarching direction for the organization. The next level is values , the guiding principles that shape the organization's culture and behavior.

Finally, the action plan is the specific tactics and actions the organization will take to implement the strategy. This pyramid serves as a guide for decision-making and ensures that all activities are aligned with the organization's overall direction.

Why use the Strategy Pyramid for Strategic Planning?

It helps to break down the overall strategy into smaller, more manageable components, making it easier to implement and measure progress.

Strategy Pyramid to Visualize the Corporate Level Strategy

The strategy pyramid can help organizations communicate their corporate-level strategy to stakeholders, including employees, investors, and customers.

The Strategy Pyramid Template

It typically includes a pyramid shape divided into several levels, each representing a different aspect of the strategy. The top level represents the overall vision or goal, while the bottom level represents the tactics or actions needed.

The Strategy Pyramid - Vision

The strategy pyramid - mission.

The mission in the strategy pyramid defines the organization's purpose, what it does, and for whom. It is a clear and concise statement that describes the organization's fundamental reason for existing.

It is important to note that the mission statement should be reviewed and updated regularly to ensure that it stays relevant and aligned with the organization's overall direction.

The Strategy Pyramid - Values

In the strategy pyramid, values come after the vision and mission , providing the foundation for the organization's culture and behavior . They align the actions of the organization with its overall direction and purpose. Values also help ensure the organization's goals and strategies align with its general direction and purpose. By aligning actions with weights, the organization can create a robust and consistent culture supporting its overall direction and purpose.

The Strategy Pyramid - Goals

Goals should be SMART, Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time-bound. They should be reviewed and updated regularly to stay relevant and aligned with the organization's overall direction and purpose.

The Strategy Pyramid - Strategy

A good strategy should be flexible and adapt to changes in the external environment and internal factors .

The Strategy Pyramid - Action Plan

The progress of the action plan should be monitored and reported to the relevant parties to ensure the organization is on track to achieve its goals.

100% free and fully editable PowerPoint and Google Slides Template

The pyramid structure provides a clear visual representation of the plan, which can help to increase understanding and buy-in.

Please subscribe and sign in to see the download link to the PDF and accessible and fully editable template in Google Slides or PowerPoint below.

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Complete Guide to the Strategy Pyramid

The strategy pyramid is a visual tool to help you act on what your plan says you’re going to accomplish. Strategic alignment sounds simple: bring your activities and spending into logical harmony with your strategy.

What is a Strategy Pyramid?

Many organizations produce strategy documents that outline their top-level strategies and plans. But these documents rarely contain activities to accomplish the strategies and plans. Many companies struggle to align their tactical plans and budget with the higher level strategies and plans. The strategy pyramid illustrates the strategic behaviors that are required in order to achieve the strategies and plans on the next level. Every company has three levels of plans, each consisting of logically nested plans. The first level of plans act as a blueprint for a company’s future. The second level plans guide how a company will implement its strategic objectives and build its capabilities to execute its strategy. The third level plans help you get all the appropriate activities in place to ensure activities are in line with the strategies.

Before we go into details, look at the image of the strategy pyramid. The rest of this blog is a detailed explanation of each part of the pyramid.

Step 1: Identify the Strategies

First you must know what your strategies are. Strategies are your end-state objectives, the future outcomes you intend to achieve.

Step 2: Identify the Strategic Objectives

Strategic objectives are the key tasks that need to be accomplished to achieve your strategies. These are the key outcomes you need to achieve these strategies to get to their end-state. Strategic objectives are not the same as departmental goals. In each strategic objective, you must identify the departments that contribute to achieve that objective.

Step 3: Identify the Activities

Activity is the tactical programs, projects and tasks necessary to accomplish a strategic objective.

Step 4: Identify the Capabilities

True strategic alignment of activities and spending requires capabilities in your organization. A capability describes a set of skills, knowledge, systems, or tools that you need to accomplish your strategic objectives. The three basic types of capabilities are functional, core and project. Lines or boxes can be added to the levels that are missing them. For example, did you create performance measures for each strategic objective?

Step 5: Identify the Support Processes

Support processes are the activities that are not directly related to achieving your strategic objectives, but they are important to ensure the activities and capabilities are in alignment and enable the company to achieve its objectives. Examples of support processes are budgeting, resource allocation, or recruitment.

Step 6: Add the Lagging Indicator

Lagging indicators are the outcome metrics that are used to evaluate the performance of your strategic objectives. The most common example of a lagging indicator is a financial metric like sales, profit or market share. A lagging indicator should be placed at the bottom of the level of plan it describes.

Step 7: Add the Backward Feedback

Earlier we said that if activities are planned at the time of strategy development, they will be aligned with the first level of strategies and plans. But since the activities and plans are developed further from your strategic objectives, spending and managing the spending are more difficult the further away they are from actual achievement of the strategies and goals. In organizations where the strategies and plans are created last, activities and spending tends to be less aligned with strategies and plans. We call this phenomenon backward feedback. The backward feedback is the guidance you can give your organization about spending and activities.

Step 8: Wait… Evaluate, Adopt, Adjust and Repeat

It is hard to get things exactly right the first time. Even if you have everything planned, you will need to implement your strategy and modify your spending. This will require patience and deliberate reflection. First, let’s discuss the required activities for evaluating, modifying, and adjusting your strategies and plans. They are:

Once you’ve identified your strategies and plans, you need to evaluate if they’re aligned with your capabilities and resources. If you find something wrong or off, modify or adjust your strategies and plans so they’re on track. This evaluation of your strategies and plans should occur at least annually and should be a part of your planning process. This evaluation creates a positive feedback loop enabling your company to be agile.

If you find something wrong, you must make modifications or adjustments to your spending. Modifications are changes that will make your spending more effective. After evaluating the effectiveness of your spending, you can make changes to your activities or projects. But if something is doing the job, don’t mess with it. If an activity is working, don’t change it. But it’s hard not to change things. At Kraft, we did a post-mortem study analyzing our failed Oreo launch. We found that our marketing and product development did not align with our capabilities. Adopting our capabilities were much more expensive than the actual expenses that ignited that failure.

This is the preferred way. The reality is that even if you’ve planned all the right things, there will be changes in your organization and the external environment. There will be unforeseen delays and problems that will cause you to adjust your spending. Use the information you’ve learned from your evaluation and modify your plans and activities to align them with your strategy.

Evaluate your ability to modify and adjust your spending. Use measurements like the strategy execution score (SES) to measure the effectiveness of your strategies and spending. The goal is to increase your SES so that you are able to adapt to changes faster. This forces your organization to predict the future and get everything off paper and into a computer. Develop the processes that enable you to measure the SES after the project is done.

Now that we’ve discussed the required activities for evaluating, modifying, and adjusting your strategies and plans, let’s take a deeper dive into each one.

Evaluation is about making sure your strategies and plans are working. If they aren’t working, you need to evaluate what went wrong. If you evaluate and find out that something is wrong, you need to evaluate the value provided and the ROI for each activity and spending line item. Use the strategy execution score (SES) to measure the effectiveness of your strategies and spending. The SES should be used to evaluate your strategic objectives, core capabilities, project and functional capabilities.

The goal of modification is to increase the value of an activity while reducing cost. The first thing you need to do is consider the resources you have available. Look at the different ways you can accomplish your strategic objectives with the resources you have already. For example, instead of a strategy objective to build a new distribution center, you might consider better ways to utilize the existing resources you have, such as renting space in a warehouse or third-party logistics company. Reduce the cost of your activities by considering all of your available options before deciding which best fits your objectives.

You’ve planned everything and then, suddenly, disaster strikes. Earlier we talked about “readjustment” in the Strategy Execution Score (SES). Let’s consider how to approach this type of adjustment. Businesses seldom stay on the exact plan. There will be adjustments along the way. This is the question you need to ask in order to ask for resourcing: “In what state would you not proceed with this project?” If the project’s likely outcome is a “go” in your case, then you will proceed. If there is a possibility that the outcome could be a “no go,” then you should analyze how to proceed. You may need to go to the executive level to get the appropriate resourcing.

When you adjust your spending, you are reallocating resources to a different project. The best way to make your spending more effective is to modify your strategies and plans. It is very unlikely that your best strategies and plans will survive long enough to create value. You need to monitor your strategies regularly and make changes accordingly. Modifying your strategies and plans will align your spending with your strategic objectives.

When you decided to close or open a store, you put the resources on or off the list. The process of evaluation, modifying and adjusting your strategies and plans will enable an organization to be agile.

Following the S.M.A.R.T. goal setting methods will ensure that your New Year’s resolutions stick.

S-specs and deliverables should consist of:

M-mission statement: As you create your strategic plan and break it down into actionable steps, you will come up with milestones. Use these as milestones for yourself to check your progress periodically. A great way of accomplishing your goals is to evaluate and bring them back in a monthly basis. The focus should be on the purpose of the milestone, what it’s going to be used for, and how to measure its success.

A-assessment: The assessment is a detailed review of your S-specs and activities. This is an opportunity to evaluate your strategy execution. The results of the assessments can be used to modify your plans.

S-stretch: Each year, each strategy you have must have a stretch goal, a S-sprint goal, a S-sprint goal, and S-step goal and a S-step goal. The stretch goal is your S-sprint goal. The S-sprint goal is a one-year goal. The S-step goal is a one-quarter goal. The execution of each goal can be used to evaluate the progress. The plan should include milestones in each quarter that outline the activities that will make up the strategy. You’ll be able to then analyze how this is going.

R-review: Assess the different paths to each group of goals. How will you accomplish the goals? How are you going to achieve the priorities? What will be the milestones? When you have the plan, what is your contingency plan? Create a time frame for each activity and objectives. Use this time frame to measure your progress. Try to improve the time each quarter so that you’re getting faster and faster.

T-time: Use a time schedule. It is important to set a timeline for everything, so that you can measure your progress every eight weeks. Track the time spent on different activities. List the activities you will complete this quarter, month, and week.

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Free Strategic Plan Template and Best Practices

Written by: Raja Mandal

As a business owner, you know the excitement of witnessing your business thrive, outperforming competitors in a challenging market and achieving the goals you've been longing for.

Strategic planning can make all these things happen by helping define your goals, aligning your business with them, and creating a roadmap to reach them. However, you need the right template to help you get started with strategic plans like business plans, employee development, OKRs, Porter’s Five Forces and more.

That's why we've compiled a list of 11 easy-to-use strategic plan templates. These templates will help you kickstart your journey toward success or refine your existing plan for maximum effectiveness.

Along with the templates, we'll explain what a strategic plan is, its purpose and critical elements to help you get the most out of your strategic business plan.

Table of Contents

What is a strategic plan in business, 11 strategic plan templates, key elements of a strategic plan, types of strategic plans, the main purpose of a strategic plan, strategic plan vs. work plan: what’s the difference, best practices to execute your strategic plan.

• A strategic plan is a written document outlining an organization's strategy and the tactics it will employ to achieve its goals.
• To effectively execute a strategic plan, it is essential to clearly communicate goals, take actionable steps, remain flexible and adaptable, and regularly evaluate the plan's progress.
• The most popular types of strategic plans include Porter's Five Forces, SWOT analysis, PEST model, VRIO, OKRs, Gap planning, Balanced Scorecards, and Blue Ocean Strategy.
• The primary purpose of a strategic plan is to provide guidance and keep an organization focused on its objectives.
• Save time and effort by utilizing Visme's user-friendly strategic plan templates for creating a solid strategic plan.
• With Visme's wide selection of templates , drag-and-drop editor, and variety of design assets such as icons, illustrations, charts and graphs, creating professional strategic plans is easier than ever.

A strategic plan is a comprehensive framework that outlines an organization's vision, goals and the strategies needed to achieve them. It’s an excellent business tool that allows you to coordinate resources, capabilities and actions in a unified manner.

A well-crafted strategic plan covers important areas like analyzing the market, understanding the competition, making financial projections and creating operational strategies. With a strategic plan, you can make smart decisions, take advantage of opportunities and reduce risks for your business.

What Is a Strategic Plan Template?

A strategic plan template is a tool that helps you start or refine a strategic plan with a solid foundation. It’s a document or presentation that comes equipped with the pages or slides a strategic plan needs. Strategic plan templates come in all shapes and sizes to match your needs.

If you regularly conduct strategic planning initiatives, creating a strategic plan template for your brand will help save time and effort. You won’t have to start from scratch every time.

Now comes the most exciting part of this article—the templates. We’ve gathered together eight of the best strategic plan templates out there, so you can easily create your own long-term strategy.

1. Porter's Five Forces Strategic Plan Template

Let’s start with this Porter's Five Forces strategic plan template. The template simplifies the process of presenting each of Porter's five forces: supplier power, buyer power, competitive rivalry, the threat of new entrants, and the threat of substitutes.

Clear headings, concise instructions and visually engaging elements ensure you can input data and interpret the results effortlessly. Additionally, it includes data widgets that enable clear communication of the analysis findings. This feature enhances your ability to effectively present the results, making it a valuable tool for visually showcasing strategic insights.

2. VRIO Framework Strategic Plan Template

Maximize your business growth by utilizing this strategic plan template, which helps identify opportunities for sustainable competitive advantage and allocate resources effectively.

Each element of the VRIO framework (Value, Rivalry, Imitability, and Organization) is presented on separate slides, featuring a clean and minimal design that focuses on essential information for your strategic plan.

Personalize the slides with your brand's unique identity by adding brand colors , brand fonts and logos . With Visme's brand design tool , this process becomes incredibly easy. Simply set up your branding kit in Visme and apply your branding assets to your presentations with just one click.

This seamless integration allows your strategic plan to reflect your brand consistently and professionally.

3. Gap Planning Strategic Plan Template

Do you need a tool to close the gap between your company's present and future state?

Our user-friendly gap planning template helps you visually map your organization's current situation and identify the gaps between your current position and desired goals. Defining these gaps allows you to create effective strategies to bridge them and achieve success.

The template's whiteboard format provides flexibility and promotes collaboration, making it perfect for team discussions, brainstorming sessions and strategic planning meetings . Utilize Visme's online whiteboarding tool to brainstorm with your team using this template and many other whiteboard templates like it.

Creating a strategic plan is almost impossible without effective collaboration between teams and stakeholders. That's why Visme comes with a wide range of collaborative design features that empower your team to work collaboratively.

Invite your team members via email or a shareable link, allowing them to edit, pin, circle or point out specific parts of the plan, leave comments, reply to discussions and resolve issues seamlessly.

With the live editing feature, you can edit any part of the design and the changes will be visible to every collaborator in real-time.

Here is a video guide that you can watch to learn more about how to collaborate with your team in Visme.

Visme has been instrumental in revolutionizing how businesses approach design collaboration. But don't just take our word for it; hear what one of our satisfied customers, Jaime Kelm, the Director of Business and Data Strategy at LAFC, had to say:

"I absolutely recommend Visme due to its dynamic functionality and ability to integrate everchanging media and digital technologies. That combined with a collaborative environment which empowers our team to be more efficient with time has been a huge plus."

4. Balanced Scorecard Strategic Plan Template

Are you unsure if your company is making progress in the right direction? Our Balanced Scorecard Strategic Plan Template can help you assess and measure your organization's performance in various areas.

Imagine a visual representation of your organization's performance across various dimensions, all in one place. Our template lets you see the big picture by showcasing the financial, customer, internal processes and growth perspectives. It's like having a clear roadmap right before your eyes.

By utilizing this powerful tool, you'll uncover valuable insights and pinpoint areas for improvement. You can find other strategic planning charts in the Visme template library.

5. OKRs (Objectives and Key Results) Strategic Plan Template

As your company expands, you may encounter challenges aligning goals among different teams and departments, resulting in inefficiencies and resource wastage.

The OKRs strategic plan template offers a straightforward solution to address this issue by assisting you in effectively managing your company's goals and ensuring their successful attainment.

The strategic framework template simplifies the process by allowing you to define precise objectives and track the progress of three key results associated with each objective. Using this strategic plan template, you can streamline goal management and enhance productivity.

6. General Strategic Plan Template

The General Strategic Plan Template provides a solid foundation for businesses in the early stages of planning their growth. It covers essential components such as company vision, mission, goals, objectives, implementation strategies, and resource allocation.

Using this template ensures that your company stays focused on its mission and vision while promoting employee alignment. It serves as a simple yet effective tool to keep everyone moving in the same direction.

Customize the template by including your own text, images, brand elements and more. Editing the templates gets even easier with Visme's dynamic fields , which eliminate the need for manually entering certain information repeatedly.

Simply set your company name, address, contact information, and other details once, and the templates will automatically populate the relevant fields whenever you use them.

Watch the video below to learn more about this amazing feature.

7. Marketing Strategic Plan Template

Are you searching for a simple and clear marketing strategic plan template to guide your marketing efforts? Look no further! This template is specifically designed to assist you in strategizing and planning your marketing initiatives.

The marketing strategic plan template encompasses all the essential components required for a comprehensive marketing strategy, including a value proposition, promotional strategies, and SWOT analysis.

By providing in-depth details for each section, this template offers a deeper understanding of the crucial elements necessary to thrive in today's highly competitive marketplace.

Moreover, this template features a unique Flipbook effect , allowing you to navigate your strategic plan conveniently. Experience the flipbook-like view as each page turns seamlessly, providing a user-friendly interface for easy accessibility.

8. Communication Strategic Plan Template

Clear and effective communication is crucial for any successful business. It involves not only speaking but also actively listening and understanding your audience's needs.

With the communication strategic plan template, you can evaluate your company's current communication strategies and identify improvement areas.

Utilize a combination of complementary colors and legible fonts to emphasize the significance of communication to your employees.

Enhance your texts by utilizing Visme's text animation feature, which offers eight different styles to make them more engaging. You can also adjust the animation speed to suit your preferences.

Consider incorporating interactive elements like hotspots, clickable menus and hover effects into your visuals to engage your audience further. These additions will make your content more captivating and interactive.

9. Company Bundling Business Model Plan Template

Are you looking for a new strategy in your business promotion efforts? Follow the idea from this strategic plan template and bundle services together to offer packages that bring better value and more affordable prices.

In this business model strategy plan, you can highlight the packages themselves and why they’re important in terms of convenience, value and customization.

Other pages include an overview, ideal customer cohorts, and an explanation of why the approach is a good idea.

Use the AI Image Edit Tools inside the Visme editor to edit the images for your strategic plan by removing backgrounds or unwanted objects. If you have a blurry image, you can unblur it and if the image is too small, you can enlarge it.

10. Strategic Business Plan Template

This strategic business plan template spans 7 pages to get you set up with a solid foundation for your business’s strategic plan. The layout starts with an executive summary and continues with a company overview, product description, market analysis, and planned strategies.

Do you need a shortcut to create a strategic plan document like this one? The Visme AI document generator can help you with content and visuals at the same time. In the document templates gallery, choose the generator and input a prompt that explains what you need and let the AI work its magic.

11. Leadership-Based Employee Development Strategy Plan Template

Help your employees improve in their career trajectory by planning a development strategy for them that’s leadership-based and well planned out.

This template for a strategic plan includes sections such as development objectives, a candidate profile, a skills assessment, a training roadmap and an evaluation.

Work with your Learning and Development team to create the best strategy plan with this template using the workflow feature . Assign specific pages to different people, set due dates and keep track of what’s done or still needs doing. Collaborate with the team to create the best employee development strategy plan.

Though there are no universal standards for what a strategic plan should contain, there are several key elements that most plans share. Each element of a strategic plan plays a crucial role in achieving the organization's long-term goals.

Here are the five of them:

1. Vision and Mission

A strategic plan should begin with a concise statement of your organization's vision and mission. The vision statement describes what the company hopes to achieve in the long term, while the mission statement focuses on how it plans to accomplish that goal.

A clear and compelling vision and mission statement can motivate employees and stakeholders to collaborate more effectively toward achieving their objectives.

These are also the first sections you should write when creating a plan because they provide direction for the rest of the document.

2. Objectives

The next element of a strategic plan is a list of specific goals or objectives. These are the things that you're trying to achieve over a given period, such as increasing sales by 15 percent over the next year.

You should have an objective for each section of your strategic plan: marketing, finance, human resources and so on.

Set SMART goals, which stand for Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Timely. Here is an example of a SMART goal:

Increase company revenue by 15% (Specific) through targeted marketing campaigns and expanding customer base in new geographic regions (Achievable, Realistic). Achieve this goal within the next fiscal year (Timely), allowing for clear measurement of progress (Measurable).

Visme's SMART goal-setting templates are the best tools to set and achieve your goals.

3. Strategy

Once your goals are set, it's time to develop a strategy to achieve them. A strategy is a plan that outlines how you will achieve your goals. It should include what actions you will take, who will be responsible for each action and when each action needs to be completed.

This is the part where you choose how to allocate resources, differentiate from competitors and position the organization in the market.

4. Approach

The approach specifies the methods and actions to put the strategy into action. It involves using available resources wisely and adjusting to changes in market conditions.

Include a description of how you will measure success, track progress toward your goals and what resources are required to achieve them. It can also include a timeline if your goals are set for the future.

Tactics are the specific steps you take to implement your strategy and achieve your goals. They can involve changing processes, reorganizing departments and even changing personnel.

Suppose you want to increase sales by 15%. In that case, a few possible tactics could be:

• Offer limited-time discounts or promotions
• Implement a referral program
• Enhance product displays and packaging
• Increase social media presence and engagement

The difference between approach and tactics is that the approach in your strategic plan serves as the foundation or framework for deciding tactics. And tactics are the actions you will take to execute your strategic plan.

Here’s a pyramid chart template that you can use to document your sales tactics.

Strategic plans come in various types, and each type has its own set of benefits and drawbacks. To help you find the right one for your business, we will now provide an overview of the eight most popular strategic plan types.

Go through them and choose the best one that best suits your business needs.

SWOT Analysis

The SWOT Analysis is a widely used strategic planning tool that evaluates an organization's internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats.

By conducting a SWOT analysis, businesses gain valuable insights into their current position, competitive landscape and areas for improvement. This analysis enables decision-makers to identify strategic priorities, capitalize on strengths, address weaknesses, exploit opportunities and mitigate potential risks.

With a clear understanding of internal and external factors, you can formulate effective strategies to achieve your goals.

Here’s a SWOT analysis template you can use to create your own. Customize these templates using Visme’s SWOT analysis generator to fit your business needs.

PEST stands for Political, Economic, Social and Technological. The PEST analysis model helps you identify external factors that affect your business environment and can impact its success. It involves analyzing:

• Political Factors: What laws govern your industry? How do they impact your business operations?
• Economic Factors: What are the trends in your industry or economy? How will these trends affect your company's performance?
• Social Factors: Who are your customers, and what does their behavior tell you about them?
• Technological Factors: What new technologies can help your business? Are there any new technologies that will make it harder for you to compete?

To examine your business's internal and external factors, you can use this strategy alongside another one.

This whiteboard is an excellent starting point for brainstorming your company’s PESTEL analysis.

OKRs (Objectives and Key Results)

This is a popular technique developed by Intel for setting goals.

An OKR is an objective, or a goal, broken down into key results (KRs), which are measurable actions taken to accomplish the objective. For example, if you want to increase sales by 10%, one KR might be “Increase website conversion rate from 2% to 3%.”

To implement this strategy, you have to set an objective and then break it down into a list of critical results.

Porter's Five Forces

If you are looking to increase your business's competitive advantage, Porter's five forces is the perfect strategic plan for you. It's a framework for analyzing your business's competitive environment and understanding where the opportunities and growth lie.

The five forces are

• Competition in the industry
• Competition from new entrants
• Bargaining power of suppliers
• Bargaining power of buyers
• Threat of substitutes

The tool offers a simple way to quantify the threat posed by each of these forces. In addition, it provides you with a clear picture of how your business stacks up against its competition and what's preventing you from gaining market share.

Here's Porter's Five Forces Model template from Visme to help you create your own.

VRIO Framework

Understanding the competitive landscape and how your business measures up against your peers is the first step to developing strategies for success. The VRIO Framework helps you do just that.

The framework uses four key variables that determine a company's competitive advantage:

• Value : Determines if the resource or capability provides value and contributes to the business's competitive advantage.
• Rarity : Evaluate the uniqueness of the resource or capability compared to competitors in the industry.
• Imitability : Examines the difficulty of replicating or imitating the resources or capabilities of others.
• Organization : Assesses the company's ability to effectively organize and exploit the resource or capability for sustained competitive advantage.

Gap Planning

Gap planning is a strategic approach that helps you bridge the gap between your business's current and desired future states. It involves identifying the gaps or discrepancies between where your company currently stands and where it aims to be and then formulating a plan to close those gaps.

You need to do a gap analysis to utilize the power of gap planning. Here's how it works:

1. Identify the gaps between where you are now and where you want to be. 2. Determine what prevents you from closing those gaps (for example, time, resources, or technology). 3. Develop strategies for bridging those gaps by providing solutions for each one.

Balanced Scorecard (BSC)

As the name suggests, a balanced scorecard measures organizational performance by focusing on four key areas: financial, customer, internal business processes and learning and growth.

The idea behind BSC is that organizations are more successful when they have a clear and balanced view of their overall performance.

For example, a company may excel at generating high returns but neglect customer satisfaction, leading to a decline in brand loyalty and market share.

By incorporating the customer perspective into the balanced scorecard, the organization can identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to enhance customer experiences.

Blue Ocean Strategy

Imagine a market where your business faces no competition. That's a blue ocean—a market that either doesn't exist yet or where you can offer a fresh value proposition for customers.

But it's not a magic show where you wave a wand and suddenly, your business is completely unique. There's much more to the blue ocean strategy than just creating new market spaces.

The idea is to focus on what matters most to customers, develop innovative solutions and find a path where your business stands alone, free from competition.

The main purpose of a strategic plan is to set growth targets for your business and create effective strategies to achieve them, turning those strategies into actionable tasks.

The plan also helps businesses focus their efforts, prioritize objectives, and create a sense of urgency around key initiatives. It provides a framework that enables businesses to make better choices even when faced with difficult situations or obstacles.

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While they may sound similar, a strategic plan and a work plan serve different purposes and are used at different times in business planning.

A strategic plan is a high-level document that outlines a business's long-term goals and objectives. It considers the company's mission, vision, values and overall strategy and provides a roadmap for success. A strategic plan is typically created at the beginning of a planning cycle and is reviewed and updated periodically.

On the other hand, a work plan is a more detailed document that outlines the specific tasks and activities that need to be completed to achieve the goals and objectives outlined in the strategic plan. It is a more tactical document that focuses on the business's day-to-day operations. Businesses create a work plan as part of the implementation phase of the strategic planning process.

For example, a software development team creates a work plan to outline coding tasks, testing and deadlines for a new mobile app project. Meanwhile, the company's strategic plan focuses on long-term growth by diversifying the product line, expanding into international markets and investing in emerging technologies.

If you have successfully created the strategic plan, you're just halfway there. And your execution plan is equally important.

So, follow these four best practices to get the most out of your strategic planning process.

1. Communicate Goals Clearly

Clearly define your strategic goals and ensure they are effectively communicated to everyone in your organization. This helps align all employees towards a common objective and ensures everyone understands their role in achieving it.

2. Take Actionable Steps

Break down your strategic goals into actionable steps or initiatives. Assign responsibility and create a system of accountability to ensure these steps are executed effectively and on time. Regularly review progress and make adjustments as needed.

3. Stay Flexible and Adaptable

Recognize that the business environment is dynamic, and plans may need to be adjusted. Remain open to feedback and monitor changes in the market or industry that may impact your strategic plan. Build flexibility into your plan to allow for timely adaptations, seize emerging opportunities, or address unexpected challenges.

4. Evaluate Regularly

Establish a system for ongoing evaluation and learning. Regularly assess the progress and outcomes of your strategic initiatives. Identify areas of success and areas for improvement. Encourage a culture of learning from both successes and failures and use these insights to refine your strategic approach over time.

By following these best practices, you can enhance the execution of your strategic plan and increase the likelihood of achieving your desired outcomes.

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Creating a strategic plan is an important part of any business. But it's not enough to just create the plan and forget about it. You need to manage and execute this plan to achieve its goals.

Whether customizing your favorite template, collaborating with your team, or securely storing and updating the plan, Visme makes the entire process a breeze. Choose a strategic plan template from the list and customize it to make it your own.

In addition to the strategic plans and features mentioned above, Visme provides a vast selection of templates to fulfill almost all your business document creation requirements.

With over 50 different template types available, including presentations , infographics , whiteboards , budgets , roadmaps and more, there are endless possibilities for you to explore and create with Visme.

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Three Levels of Strategy: Corporate Strategy, Business Strategy and Functional Strategy

Strategy is at the foundation of every decision that has to be made within an organization. If the strategy is poorly chosen and formulated by top management, it has a major impact on the effectiveness of employees in pretty much every department within the organization. In our previous article on ‘ What is Strategy?! ‘ we have already tried to define and explain what business strategy refers to and what is NOT considered to be part of strategy. In this article, we will dissect strategy in three different components or ‘ Levels of Strategy ‘. These three levels are: Corporate-level strategy, Business-level strategy and Functional-level strategy. Together, these three levels of strategy can be illustrated in a so called ‘ Strategy Pyramid ’ (Figure 1). Corporate strategy is different from Business strategy and Functional strategy. Even though Corporate-level strategy is at the top of the pyramid, we start this article by explaining Business-level strategy first.

Figure 1: Three Levels of Strategy Pyramid

Business-level strategy

The Business-level strategy is what most people are familiar with and is about the question “How do we compete?”, “How do we gain (a sustainable) competitive advantage over rivals?”. In order to answer these questions it is important to first have a good understanding of a business and its external environment. At this level, we can use internal analysis frameworks like the Value Chain Analysis and the VRIO Model and external analysis frameworks like Porter’s Five Forces and PESTEL Analysis . When good strategic analysis has been done, top management can move on to strategy formulation by using frameworks as the Value Disciplines , Blue Ocean Strategy and Porter’s Generic Strategies . In the end, the business-level strategy is aimed at gaining a competitive advantage by offering true value for customers while being a unique and hard-to-imitate player within the competitive landscape.

Functional-level strategy

Functional-level strategy is concerned with the question “How do we support the business-level strategy within functional departments, such as Marketing, HR, Production and R&D?”. These strategies are often aimed at improving the effectiveness of a company’s operations within departments. Within these department, workers often refer to their ‘Marketing Strategy’, ‘Human Resource Strategy’ or ‘R&D Strategy’. The goal is to align these strategies as much as possible with the greater business strategy. If the business strategy is for example aimed at offering products to students and young adults, the marketing department should target these people as accurately as possible through their marketing campaigns by choosing the right (social) media channels. Technically, these decisions are very operational in nature and are therefore NOT part of strategy. As a consequence, it is better to call them tactics instead of strategies.

Corporate-level strategy

At the corporate level strategy however, management must not only consider how to gain a competitive advantage in each of the line of businesses the firm is operating in, but also which businesses they should be in in the first place. It is about selecting an optimal set of businesses and determining how they should be integrated into a corporate whole: a portfolio. Typically, major investment and divestment decisions are made at this level by top management. Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) is also an important part of corporate strategy. This level of strategy is only necessary when the company operates in two or more business areas through different business units with different business-level strategies that need to be aligned to form an internally consistent corporate-level strategy. That is why corporate strategy is often not seen in small-medium enterprises (SME’s), but in multinational enterprises (MNE’s) or conglomerates.

BCG Matrix and Levels of Strategy Video Tutorial

Example Samsung

Let’s use Samsung as an example. Samsung is a conglomerate consisting of multiple strategic business units (SBU’s) with a diverse set of products. Samsung sells smartphones, cameras, TVs, microwaves, refrigerators, laundry machines, and even chemicals and insurances. Each product or strategic business unit needs a business strategy in order to compete successfully within its own industry. However, at the corporate level Samsung has to decide on more fundamental questions like: “Are we going to pursue the camera business in the first place?” or “Is it perhaps better to invest more into the smartphone business or should we focus on the television screen business instead?”. The BCG Matrix  or the GE McKinsey Matrix  are both portfolio analysis frameworks and can be used as a tool to figure this out.

Figure 2: Hierarchy of Strategy

Levels of Strategy In Sum

The most common level of strategy is Business strategy and exist within strategic business units with as goal to gain competitive advantage in a certain market. If a company has multiple SBU’s, there needs to be an overarching Corporate strategy that ties all SBU’s together through corporate configuration. Here, top management must decide on resource allocation and where to invest and where to divest. Lastly, Functional strategy exist within departments such as Marketing, HR and Production. Ideally, we should refer to tactics instead of strategies because of the operational nature of the decisions made within these departments.  

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12 thoughts on “ Three Levels of Strategy: Corporate Strategy, Business Strategy and Functional Strategy ”

I can see how a business wants to build up its cooperation and they want to make sure that they can grow and build and get more revenue. Getting some better strategies to do so and to prevent them from losing money in a crisis with some help from a professional. It was interesting to learn about how there are some better investments and divestments so that they can be integrated into a portfolio.

Great Articles

Well explained with examples.. Thank you Keep posting such an articles

Such a wonderful blog about levels of strategy corporate business functional and I appreciate your effort for bringing this in to notice. Great blog indeed, will visit again future to read more!!

I appreciate your help in bringing this information or strategy and marketing framework to my notice.

A good insight indeed. So it literally means they is no how you can think of your business strategy before you study your environment ?Internal by VRIO,SWOT etc. and external by PESTEL or Porters 5 forces

Well explained the BCG model with suitable example . Thank you for uploading the video. It will be great help for all the students of strategic management. looking towards more such videos on strategic management area.

well simplified

thank you for the well explained BCG matrix, can you also look at Parenting advanrage concept and the Ashridge theory

As a student,I now knows that the ability to learn is an ultimate competitive advantage.Thanks for the simplicity and it’s very nice to invest my energy and time to read such instilling articles.

A commercial effectiveness strategy is critical for every business’s success, but it is especially critical for small businesses. A commercial effectiveness strategy, by definition, is a method for finding and delivering value to consumers through the production and distribution of goods or services.

thank you very much, very helpful information

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Strategy Pyramid of a Marketing Plan

by Sam N. Austin

Published on 9 Aug 2019

The term "strategy pyramid" refers both to a methodological approach to running a marketing organization and to a particular document that captures and reflects that approach. The notion of a strategy pyramid is not specific to marketing, but it is a general way of planning a business’s activities. In a strategy pyramid, a business plan is divided into three layers, which are referred to as the strategy, tactics and programs layers. The strategy pyramid of a marketing plan takes the basic system and applies it specifically to marketing.

Pyramid Strategy Implementation Document

A marketing plan is a written document that spells out the anticipated activities of a marketing organization over a specific time. Often, marketing plans are designed to account for activities for a full year and may subdivide activities quarterly. Within the general marketing plan document, the contents are then guided by each of the layers of the strategy pyramid.

The Top Tier: Strategy

The top layer, for which the pyramid is named, is the strategy layer. The strategy component of the document is a summarized version of a company’s marketing strategy. The marketing strategy, which should be designed to support the overall business strategy, names strategic marketing goals and milestone dates for achieving them. For example, a strategic marketing goal might be “​ to become recognized as a provider of the highest-quality widgets ​” in a given class. Because this is a high-level view, this section does not include details, but simply sets key priorities.

The Middle Layer: Tactics

The tactics layer of the strategy pyramid sets forth the particular approach or set of approaches that the marketing organization will take to meet its strategic objectives. For example, if the marketing strategy calls for overall product diversification, then the tactics layer names the particular products or product lines on which the organization will focus.

The Pyramid Base: Programs

The most detailed and specific layer of a marketing plan strategy pyramid is the programs layer. This section of the document spells out the specific programs that will support each of the named tactics in the tactics section. For example, you might have a social media program to promote your product lines.

You need to have highly detailed information in your overall document for the best pyramid strategy implementation. Include details about human resources required for each program, budget requirements, preliminary timelines and key calendar milestone dates.

Updating Your Strategy Pyramid

Like many marketing documents, a marketing plan strategy pyramid is subject to regular updates and revisions. Updates to the plan may be based on changes in corporate strategy that, by extension, change the marketing strategy. However, even if the strategies remain the same, changes in the marketing landscape might require updates to tactics and programs.

For example, a new product from a competitor might change consumer demand, a change which must then be reflected in the plan. In addition to reviews based on reactions to market events, a strategy pyramid document should be reviewed quarterly.

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• What is the Pyramid Principle? 
• Lead with the answer  

How to create effective presentations with the Pyramid Principle

Final notes.

At McKinsey, one of the lessons we learned was the importance of constructing compelling arguments. But persuasive communication is not only relevant for consultants, it's essential to most corporate jobs. 

Yet, most people struggle with this. 

This article presents a simple framework you can use to solve this issue and make your communication a lot more effective.   

Picture this:  It's Thursday afternoon, and you receive a message informing you that a 30-minute meeting with the CEO has been scheduled for TOMORROW so that you can present your strategy for the coming quarter. 

You know every detail of the strategy, but the coherent, persuasive narrative you need to bring your CEO on board is still only a few unstructured notes. 

Fear not; the Pyramid Principle comes to the rescue.

Apply the Pyramid Principle across your consulting presentations .

What is the Pyramid Principle?  

The Pyramid Principle was developed by Barbara Minto during her more than ten years at McKinsey. While at McKinsey, Minto noticed that people, in general, were terrible at constructing compelling arguments. Their arguments lacked structure and focused too much on presenting data and facts upfront. As a result, by the time they reached their final recommendation, the audience had already lost interest or become distracted by the details. 

Minto realized that unlike how you usually tell a good story, where you build suspense by delaying the resolution of a key issue until the very end, in a business presentation context you should do the exact opposite:  Start with the answer. 

Your colleagues or stakeholders don't need to be entertained; they're busy and want to get things done. So, the simple solution is to start with the answer. 

This is what is known as the Pyramid Principle:

• Start with the recommendation/answer/solution upfront
• Back up that recommendation with a handful of supporting arguments
• Build trust in your arguments using supporting data

If you do this the structure of you argument ends up looking like a pyramid:

It's the exact opposite of what most of us are naturally drawn to — the upside-down-pyramid:

Complement your strategic knowledge with our article on " 5 Key Elements of Successful Strategy ".

Most people, consciously or unconsciously, tend to use to the upside-down pyramid when presenting complex information. This is how we think and process information. We build up to a conclusion by first reciting all of the facts, recounting all of the analyses that have been done, or reviewing all of the supporting ideas. Then, we get to the punch line. 

However, effective communication and thinking are not done in the same way. As Minto put it,  "You think from the bottom up, but you present from the top down.".       

Lead with the answer  

At McKinsey, "lead with the answer" is drilled into every new hire. So, when an executive asks, "What should we do?", you should immediately respond with, "You should do X." Only after stating your conclusion should you delve into the reasons behind it.   

Why is this approach effective?

• Time Efficiency:  Executives are constantly pressed for time and appreciate brevity. They're accustomed to digesting information swiftly and can become restless if they feel you're beating around the bush. By leading with your recommendation, you respect their time. Sometimes, they might already align with your conclusion, so this method lets them agree and move on without needing a lengthy justification.
• Big Picture Thinking:  Most executives prefer a "top-down" approach. They prioritize overarching strategies over minutiae. Presenting your conclusion upfront aligns with this mindset, letting them quickly grasp your main point.
• Persuasiveness:  Directness conveys confidence. When you state your recommendation assertively from the start, it underscores your conviction, making you more persuasive. It ensures you appear decisive and straightforward.

Let's look at an example:     

Before the Pyramid Principle

Hi (Manager),

I'm increasingly concerned about our customer churn rate in the car insurance division.

Look at the charts below showing our churn rate and revenue development over time and the forecasted car insurance churn and profitability for next year.

Data from Customer Service shows that churn is highly correlated with customer satisfaction, as seen here. Dissatisfied customers are reporting several reasons, listed and ranked in this table. As seen here, two sub-segments of customers account for 91% of the total churn.  

Finally, our exit surveys indicate that 72% of churning customers are switching to our competitor XYZ, who are increasingly aggressive in the market. A summary of their pricing, value proposition, and product offering can be seen in this table.

To address this situation, I propose we dedicate our next strategic planning session to devising effective churn reduction initiatives.

Let me know if you approve of this course of action. 

After the Pyramid Principle

I propose we dedicate our next strategic planning session to devising effective churn reduction initiatives for the car insurance division. 

Here's why:  1) Our customer churn rate is growing significantly faster than our division top line.

• See this chart showing historical development in churn and revenue.
• See this chart projecting our churn rate for next year.
• See the projected impact on the overall division profitability. 

2) Customer dissatisfaction is causing churn.

• Here's data from our Customer Service team showing a clear correlation between churn and dissatisfaction.
• See the list and ranking of main drivers for dissatisfaction. 
• See how the problem is isolated to two customer segments.

3) 72% of churning customers are switching to competitor XYZ

• See this exit survey report
• Here's a graph showing their growing ad spend and sales reps headcount.
• Here is a one-pager summarizing XYZ pricing, value proposition, and product offering. 

I look forward to hearing your thoughts on this matter.

Can you see the difference?  Suddenly, the ask is clear, and each following argument ties directly to it and strengthens it. The pitch is not only a lot more reader-friendly, but it's also way more persuasive and confident.

When creating business presentations, "starting with the answer" translates to launching with a punch. Your initial slide should be a clear and well-structured  Executive Summary , delivering the key takeaways, implications, or recommendations stemming from your analysis.

When you get into the details of your analysis, use the Pyramid Principle to lay out your proposed recommendation: answer first, followed by supporting arguments.  

If you're interested in learning more, check out the  original book by Barbara Minto . At Slideworks, we have applied the Pyramid Principle across many of our most popular slide decks - e.g., our Business Strategy and Business Case templates.

We recommend that you try the Pyramid Principle when writing or presenting your next consulting proposal , strategy presentation, or pitch. We are confident that you will notice the difference. 

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Blog Business Strategic Plan Examples (With Free Templates)

Strategic Plan Examples (With Free Templates)

Written by: Tobi Ojenike May 17, 2024

Many businesses get caught up in the daily grind and lose sight of innovation and growth. 

Ask any thriving business their recipe for success, and you’ll get a clear answer — set long-term goals routinely and write a plan of action that outlines how to achieve objectives. 

Enter the strategic plan. It’s a document that every business (and even professionals) should invest in. 

In this blog, I’ll share examples of strategic plans for different industries. If you want to create a strategic plan easily, check out our  Plan Maker  and  strategic plan templates  (PS: You don’t need design skills to edit these templates). 

Click to jump ahead:

What is a strategic plan?

Why use a strategic plan.

• Strategic plan examples

A strategic plan is a document that outlines a company’s objectives and how it plans to achieve those objectives. It also outlines the step-by-step process and resources required to drive organizational success.

Organizations that invest in strategic plans experience long-term success. Here’s an overview of the benefits of strategic plans.

• Provide clarity : Strategic plans highlight who is responsible for what task or goal, which eliminates confusion and saves time.  
• Aid in decision-making : By setting specific goals, strategic plans make it easy to determine which actions, tasks, or activities must be prioritized. 
• Enables adaptability : Since strategic involve planning, organizations are better equipped to anticipate and adapt to changes.
• Better communication : Strategic plans promote communication across teams and departments, which helps create a sense of ownership. 

Strategic plan examples 

For the remainder of this blog, I’ll provide strategic plan templates you can edit in Venngage for different industries and scenarios. Hint: You don’t need design skills to make professional strategic plans! 

For each example, you can take our sample text or add your own to the template.

Non-profit organization

A non-profit organization can use strategic plans to guide operations and improve its impact. Here’s an example of how a non-profit might structure a plan.

• Mission: Focus on social impact and community engagement.
• Goals and objectives :  Increase beneficiaries served, expand volunteer base, and secure funding.
• Strategies: Implement new programs, launch fundraising campaigns, and build partnerships.

Healthcare organization

Strategic plans help healthcare companies chart out long-term growth, improve patient care, optimize operations, and stay competitive in a rapidly changing industry.

Here’s a sample strategic plan a healthcare company might use.

• Mission: Deliver high-quality and accessible healthcare services.
• Goals and objectives : Improve patient outcomes, enhance operational efficiency, and adopt new technologies.
• Strategies: Invest in staff training, implement new treatment protocols, and upgrade facilities.

Business organization

Most business organizations use strategic plans to help set long-term goals, develop effective growth strategies, and guide decision-making.

Here’s an example of how a business can develop its strategic plan.

• Mission: Maximize profitability and market share.
• Goals and objectives: Increase revenue, expand into new markets, and develop innovative products/services.
• Strategies: Implement marketing campaigns, invest in research and development, and optimize supply chain.

Startup company

Despite being in their infancy, startups also benefit from strategic plans to establish a clear direction for the future, allocate precious resources effectively, and guide growth and development.

Here’s a sample template a startup company can use to create a strategic plan.

• Mission: Disrupt an industry and achieve rapid growth.
• Goals and objectives: Secure funding, develop a minimum viable product (MVP), and acquire initial customers.
• Strategies: Participate in pitch competitions, build a solid online presence, and leverage social media marketing.

Schools can use strategic plans to meet their vision and mission, enhance student outcomes, and foster a positive educational environment. 

Here’s a great example of a strategic plan schools can implement today.

• Mission: Provide a quality education that prepares students for future success.
• Goals and objectives: Improve student academic performance, enhance graduation rates, and create a safe and inclusive learning environment.
• Strategies: Implement new teaching methods, offer personalized learning opportunities, and create after-school programs.

Government agency

Government agencies can use strategic plans to set priorities, allocate resources efficiently, and ensure that their activities align with public needs.

Here’s a strategic plan template that any government agency will find compelling.

• Mission: Deliver essential public services and uphold the law.
• Goals and objectives: Enhance public safety, improve infrastructure, and promote economic development.
• Strategies: Implement new crime-fighting initiatives, invest in infrastructure projects, and enact new regulations.

Student (personal development)

Students can use strategic plans for personal development to set clear goals, create actionable steps, and track progress toward achieving goals.

Here’s a great strategic plan template students can use.

• Mission: Achieve academic goals and personal growth.
• Goals and objectives: Improve study habits, develop time management skills, and explore career options.
• Strategies: Set SMART goals, create a study schedule, and network with professionals.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurs can use strategic plans to guide their professional growth and achieve long-term career goals.

If you’re an entrepreneur, check out this strategic plan template.

• Mission: Launch and grow a successful business venture.
• Goals and objectives: Develop a sound business plan, secure funding, and attract and retain customers.
• Strategies: Conduct market research, participate in business incubators, and leverage lean startup methodologies.

Technology company

Technology companies can use strategic plans to navigate the fast-changing environment and adapt for long-term success.

Here’s a strategic plan template that any technology company can use.

• Mission: Develop cutting-edge technologies that improve lives.
• Goals and objectives: Launch innovative products, expand the user base, and stay ahead of the competition.
• Strategies: Invest in research and development, attract top talent, and build a strong brand reputation.

Conclusion: Create strategic plans with ease using Venngage and taste long-term success

Whether you’re a student, educator, non-profit organization, or any other business, strategic plans are handy documents to invest in.

Without a strategic plan (and setting goals and a strategy), it’s difficult, if not impossible, to transform your vision into reality. If you’re worried about the complexities of designing a strategic plan, why not edit a Venngage template?

Take control of your life or business, check out our strategic plan templates and start creating!

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The 4 Levels Of Strategy: The Difference & How To Apply Them

Every business leader should be familiar with different levels of strategy. Strategy comes in various forms: the strategy for a multi-national company will differ from that of a startup.

Yet, the principles remain. To understand how strategies shift, we'll examine the existing strategy levels and how an organization can apply them.

The key takeaway from this article is that  strategy is for everyone .

You don't have to wait until your business grows to a certain size to “get strategic.” Be aware of where you are as a business so you can develop a strategy that fits and grows with your organization.

In this article, we'll discuss how the strategy levels in an organization differ and provide context on how to use these  different levels of strategy in  strategic management .

We’ll also show you how you can centralize your strategy in Cascade and ensure the alignment between the different levels for successful and effective strategy execution!

The Levels Of Strategy

Strategists often refer to three levels of strategy:  corporate level  strategy,  business level  strategy, and  functional level  strategy.

But, they are missing a fundamental level that is key for successful strategy execution :  operational level strategy .

This article outlines the basics of the four levels in strategic management, but if you're interested in delving deeper into a specific level, we also offer individual articles dedicated to each one:

Corporate Level Strategy

Business level strategy, functional level strategy, operational level strategy.

No matter the level of strategy, "organizations that promote transparency and a collective culture when it comes to strategy, generate a stronger commitment and sense of accountability from their employees." This statement by Guillermo Hermosillo Cue, Global Innovation Director at Burger King in our state of strategy report echoes the importance of strategic communication regardless of the strategy level.

The  corporate strategy  is the highest-level strategy in an organization. It defines the organization’s overall direction and the high-level ideas of how to move towards it.

These plans are usually created by leadership, such as the CEO and top management. Generally, this is the group involved because they have a deep understanding of the company and the strategic business knowledge needed to steer the organization in the right direction.

A corporate strategy is generally broader than the other strategy levels. Strategies at this level are more conceptual and futuristic than the other levels. They usually span a 3-5 year period.

A corporate strategic plan generally encompasses:

• The core business metrics
• The strategic focus areas
• The corporate goals
• The strategic objectives
• The most important KPIs

⚠️ Important! The corporate level strategy needs to take into account the foundational elements of the organization: its vision statement , mission statement, and company values .

Why create a corporate strategy?

In the corporate strategic plan, you're essentially mapping out where your organization should play.

This master plan sets the stage for developing business unit strategies and functional level strategies, along with nitty-gritty operational plans.

These strategies, in turn, will guide the downstream decisions made by employees of all levels. Therefore, every decision made in the organization should directly or indirectly contribute to the strategy's corporate objectives.

Every organization needs a corporate strategy. There is no such thing as a too-small organization nor a too-large one to define what they want to achieve and how they will do it.

👉🏻 Grab your free  corporate strategy template  to follow a structured approach and create your corporate strategic plan.

The  business level strategy  is the second tier in the strategy hierarchy. Sitting under the corporate strategy, the business strategy is a means to achieve the goals of the specific business units in the organization.

The objectives and strategic initiatives within each business unit’s strategy will be focused on gaining a competitive advantage in the particular market in which the business unit operates.

There are different types of business level strategies organizations adopt depending on the competitive advantage they want to gain. Organizations face crucial decisions here, with options like adopting a growth strategy, differentiation strategy, or embracing a cost leadership approach.

📚 Learn more about the different types of business strategies in our article: What Is A Business Level Strategy? How To Create It + Examples

Each business area must make a strategic decision and define the approach they’ll choose to get closer to their goals.

Business strategy examples

A large bank is a prime example of an organization selling multiple services in different industries.

To name a few, it has business units like  retail banking, investment management, and insurance company . Each of these business units has distinct goals and a distinct business unit strategy to achieve them.

📚 Read more:  The 7 Best Business Strategy Examples I've Ever Seen

Include middle managers in the business strategy

Strategies at the business level should be constructed by VPs and —global or regional— business unit heads. However, also including other middle managers within each business unit is a best practice.

Including a range of managers from each unit to participate in the  strategy process  has two main benefits:

• It increases buy-in: Managers who've had a chance to contribute to the strategy formulation feel included in the decision-making. Therefore, they’re more likely to accept the strategy and jump on board with its execution.
• It improves ownership: Employees who are given the opportunity to contribute to the strategy development are more likely to take ownership of its completion.

💡 Pro Tip: If your organization has multiple business units, this strategy level becomes crucial. However, if you only have one business unit, you don't need to worry about this level and can skip to the functional strategy level.

👉🏻 Grab your free  business strategy template  to follow a structured approach and create your business strategic plan.

This level of strategy designs the approach for the different functional areas or departments —we’ve already given you a little spoiler with the previous image of the bank strategy levels example.  These functions can include the marketing department, finance, supply chain, manufacturing, human resources, and more.

The primary objective of functional strategy is to  align  the activities and efforts of these individual departments with the broader goals and strategic objectives set at higher levels, such as corporate and business strategy.

Functional strategies have a fairly narrow focus. They are designed to address the unique challenges and opportunities within each functional area.

Your finance strategy, marketing strategy, human resource strategy, etc., all have goals and responsibilities to deliver. Having a visible functional level of strategy that aligns with the overarching corporate strategy will increase the chances of success.

These strategies involve  resource allocation , measurable goals, and a focus on continuous improvement, all within the context of individual functions.

The secret to a successful functional strategy

Having each department equipped with a well-defined functional strategy is an excellent beginning. But beware of the pitfalls of isolating each functional area in its own strategy bubble; that's venturing into siloed territory.

There are two pivotal aspects to keep in mind for a successful functional strategy:

• Cross-functional collaboration : The magic happens when different departments join forces. Fostering  collaboration  between these functions opens the door to innovation and synergy.
• Strategic alignment : Ensuring that the strategy of each functional area seamlessly matches the overall corporate strategy goals is the foundation of success.

In  Cascade , you can create  strategic plans  for each function in your organization, which link back to the main corporate plan to ensure everything is moving in the right direction.

"A journey of a thousand miles begins with one step,” as the saying goes.

Check out strategic planning templates for different functions:

• Marketing Strategy Template
• HR Strategy Template
• Financial Strategy Template
• Supply Chain Strategy Template

📚 Explore thousands of other free strategy templates in our  Template Library !

Companies usually stop at the first three levels of strategy, but the fourth level is the most important one to ensure successful execution. These three levels of strategy—corporate, business, and functional—set the foundation, but it's the operational strategy that brings all the plans to life on the ground.

Operational level strategy, situated at the lowest tier of the strategic hierarchy, focuses on the day-to-day actions and  tactics  needed to run the business, manage processes, and implement change effectively . It’s the “boots-on-the-ground” aspect of strategy, ensuring that plans are translated into tangible actions and results.

In simple terms, this is the strategy that will inform the day-to-day work of employees and will ultimately keep your organization moving in the right direction.

It's primarily concerned with short-term objectives and the practical execution of plans, detailing the specific actions, procedures, and activities that need to be executed to meet organizational goals.

The operational strategy involves roles like  PMOs , team leaders, individual contributors, and team members, and plays a pivotal role in the successful  implementation  of broader strategies.

Cascade Strategy Execution Platform improves operational efficiency by eliminating duplication and aligning teams toward common goals. It helps reduce waste caused by misalignment, promoting streamlined operations and optimal performance.

Key characteristics of operational strategy

• Tactical Execution : Operational strategies focus on executing tactical steps to achieve business objectives, offering a detailed  roadmap  for execution.
• Short-Term Focus : Geared towards short-term goals and might encompass quarterly, monthly, or even daily activities.
• Resource Utilization : Deals with resource allocation at a detailed level, including workforce management, budget allocation, and technology deployment for specific projects and  initiatives .
• Project Management : Operational strategies often include  project management  to coordinate teams and meet time and budget constraints.
• Feedback and Adaptation : They incorporate feedback loops, allowing adjustments as circumstances change.
• Immediate Impact : Success at the operational level directly contributes to achieving broader business and corporate goals, serving as a linchpin in strategy execution.

Differences Across The Four Strategy Levels

Understanding the differences helps ensure that each strategy level is tailored to its unique role within the organization.

Decision-making timeframes

Corporate-level strategy involves decisions that span several years to decades, defining the organization's overall direction and long-term vision. In contrast, business-level strategy concentrates on 3-5 year plans, dealing with the competitive position in specific markets or industries. Functional-level strategy targets optimizing department functions like marketing, HR, or finance within annual cycles, while operational-level strategy addresses day-to-day decisions to implement higher-level strategies.

Scope of influence

The entire organization is influenced by corporate-level strategy, which sets broad strategic objectives affecting all business units and functions. On the other hand, business-level strategy focuses and zeroes in on individual units to create competitive advantage in the market. Aligning departmental activities with business and corporate goals is the main focus of functional-level strategy. Operational-level strategy, however, details steps for teams and individuals to achieve functional objectives and ensure smooth operations.

Focus areas

Growth, mergers and acquisitions, diversification, and portfolio management are central to corporate level strategies. Competitive strategy, market segmentation, and value proposition for a specific target market or product take precedence in each business unit strategy. Functional-level strategy aims to optimize department-specific activities and resources to support business unit goals. Finally, operational-level strategy emphasizes executing tasks, managing projects, and meeting immediate objectives to support functional goals.

Strategy Levels Aligned: The Key To Effective Execution

Understanding the levels of strategy is a big part of getting the creation right. However, with increased levels, there can be increased confusion.

Our dedicated  strategy execution platform ,  Cascade , allows you to centralize your strategy into one central hub. It empowers you to build your strategic plans and visualize how they work together. Easily see how your corporate strategy breaks down into business, functional, and operational plans , all in one cohesive platform.

Cascade simplifies the alignment of projects and encourages collaboration across plans and departments, making strategic execution a breeze.

Sign up to Cascade for FREE  or  book a demo  with one of our strategy experts to learn how you can plan, execute, and track your strategy in one easy-to-use platform.

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85. 3 Strategy Yin Yang Slide 86. 4-Part Puzzle Piece 87. Roadmap Slide 88. 4-Part Flower Framework 89. 8-Part Flower Framework 90. Speedometer Slide 91. Pyramid Framework 92. 3-Ellipse Framework 93. Funnel Framework 94. Alternative Funnel 95. Project Template 96. Performance Template 97. 3-Box Framework 98. Staircase Framework 99. Org Chart 100. US Map 101. Global Map 102. Downward Flow Template 103. 4-Piece Process Framework 104. Core Initiative Framework 105. Milestone Framework 106. 4-Box Framework 107. 3-Box Framework 108. 3-Box Segmented Framework 109. KPI Template 110. KPI Goal Template 111. STRATEGY ICONS 112. Light Blue Background 1 of 3 113. Light Blue Background 2 of 3 114. Light Blue Background 3 of 3 115. Dark Blue Background 1 of 3 116. Dark Blue Background 2 of 3 117. Dark Blue Background 3 of 3 118. White Icons 1 of 3 119. White Icons 2 of 3 120. White Icons 3 of 3 121. Dark Blue Icons 1 of 3 122. Dark Blue Icons 2 of 3 123. Dark Blue Icons 3 of 3 124. CHARTS 125. Donut Chart 126. Pie Charts

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How to create a winning marketing plan, with 3 examples from world-class teams

A marketing plan helps leaders clearly visualize marketing strategies across channels, so they can ensure every campaign drives pipeline and revenue. In this article you’ll learn eight steps to create a winning marketing plan that brings business-critical goals to life, with examples from word-class teams.

To be successful as a marketer, you have to deliver the pipeline and the revenue.”

In other words—they need a well-crafted marketing plan.

Level up your marketing plan to drive revenue in 2024

Learn how to create the right marketing plan to hit your revenue targets in 2024. Hear best practices from marketing experts, including how to confidently set and hit business goals, socialize marketing plans, and move faster with clearer resourcing.

7 steps to build a comprehensive marketing plan

How do you build the right marketing plan to hit your revenue goals? Follow these eight steps for success:

1. Define your plan

First you need to define each specific component of your plan to ensure stakeholders are aligned on goals, deliverables, resources, and more. Ironing out these details early on ensures your plan supports the right business objectives, and that you have sufficient resources and time to get the job done. 

Get started by asking yourself the following questions: 

What resources do I need? 

What is the vision?

What is the value?

What is the goal?

Who is my audience?

What are my channels?

What is the timeline?

For example, imagine you’re creating an annual marketing plan to improve customer adoption and retention in the next fiscal year. Here’s how you could go through the questions above to ensure you’re ready to move forward with your plan: 

I will need support from the content team, web team, and email team to create targeted content for existing customers. One person on each team will need to be dedicated full-time to this initiative. To achieve this, the marketing team will need an additional $100K in budget and one new headcount. 

What is the vision?  

To create a positive experience for existing customers, address new customer needs, and encourage them to upgrade. We’ll do this by serving them how-to content, new feature updates, information about deals and pricing, and troubleshooting guides. 

According to the Sales Benchmark Index (SBI) , CEOs and go-to-market leaders report that more than 60% of their net-new revenue will come from existing customers in 2023. By retaining and building on the customers we have, we can maintain revenue growth over time. 

To decrease the customer churn rate from 30% to 10%, and increase upgrades from 20% to 30% in the next fiscal year. 

All existing customers. 

The main channel will be email. Supporting marketing channels include the website, blog, YouTube, and social media. 

The first half of the next fiscal year. 

One of the most important things to do as you create your marketing strategy is to identify your target audience . As with all marketing, you need to know who you’re marketing to. If you’re having a hard time determining who exactly your target audience is, try the bullseye targeting framework . The bullseye makes it easy for you to determine who your target audience is by industry, geography, company size, psychographics, demographics, and more.

2. Identify key metrics for success 

Now it’s time to define what key marketing metrics you’ll use to measure success. Your key metrics will help you measure and track the performance of your marketing activities. They’ll also help you understand how your efforts tie back to larger business goals. 

Once you establish key metrics, use a goal-setting framework—like objectives and key results (OKRs) or SMART goals —to fully flush out your marketing objectives. This ensures your targets are as specific as possible, with no ambiguity about what should be accomplished by when. 

Example: If a goal of your marketing plan is to increase email subscriptions and you follow the SMART goal framework (ensuring your objective is specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, and time-bound) your goal might look like this: Increase email subscription rate from 10% to 20% in H1 . 

3. Research your competition 

It’s easy to get caught up in your company’s world, but there’s a lot of value in understanding your competitors . Knowing how they market themselves will help you find opportunities to make your company stand out and capture more market share.

Make sure you’re not duplicating your competitors’ efforts. If you discover a competitor has already executed your idea, then it might be time to go back to the drawing board and brainstorm new ways to differentiate yourself.  By looking at your competitors, you might be surprised at the type of inspiration and opportunities you’ll find.

To stay ahead of market trends, conduct a SWOT analysis for your marketing plan. A SWOT analysis helps you improve your plan by identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats. 

Example: If your competitor launches a social media campaign identical to what you had planned, go back to the drawing board and see how you can build off their campaign. Ask yourself: How can we differentiate our campaign while still getting our message across? What are the weaknesses of their campaign that we can capitalize on? What angles did they not approach?

4. Integrate your marketing efforts

Here’s where the fun comes in. Let’s dive into the different components that go into building a successful marketing plan. You’ll want to make sure your marketing plan includes multiple supporting activities that all add up into a powerful marketing machine. Some marketing plan components include: 

Lead generation

Social media

Product marketing

Public relations

Analyst relations

Customer marketing

Search engine optimization (SEO)

Conversational marketing

Knowing where your consumer base spends the most time is significant for nailing this step. You need to have a solid understanding of your target audience before integrating your marketing efforts. 

Example: If your target audience is executives that spend a lot of time on LinkedIn, focus your social media strategy around placing branded content on LinkedIn. 

5. Differentiate with creative content

Forty-nine percent of marketers say visual images are hugely important to their content strategy. In other words, a clear brand and creative strategy is an essential component to every marketing plan. As you craft your own creative strategy, here are some tips to keep in mind: 

Speak to your audience: When defining your creative strategy, think about your audience—what you want them to feel, think, and do when they see your marketing. Will your audience find your creative work relevant? If your audience can’t relate to your creative work, they won’t feel connected to the story you’re trying to tell. 

Think outside the box: Find innovative ways to engage your audience, whether through video, animations, or interactive graphics. Know what screens your creative work will live on, whether desktop, mobile, or tablet, and make sure they display beautifully and load quickly across every type of device. 

Tie everything back to CTAs: It’s easy to get caught up in the creative process, so it’s important to never lose sight of your ultimate goal: Get your audience to take action. Always find the best way to display strong Calls to Action (CTAs) in your creative work. We live in a visual world—make sure your creative content counts.

Streamline creative production:   Once you’ve established a strong creative strategy, the next step is to bring your strategy to life in the production stage. It’s vital to set up a strong framework for your creative production process to eliminate any unnecessary back and forth and potential bottlenecks. Consider establishing creative request forms , streamlining feedback and approval processes, and taking advantage of integrations that might make your designers’ lives easier.

Example: If your brand is fun and approachable, make sure that shows in your creative efforts. Create designs and CTAs that spark joy, offer entertainment, and alleviate the pressure in choosing a partner.

6. Operationalize your marketing plan

Turn your plan into action by making goals, deliverables, and timelines clear for every stakeholder—so teams stay accountable for getting work done. The best way to do this is by centralizing all the details of your marketing plan in one platform , so teams can access the information they need and connect campaign work back to company goals.  

With the right work management tool , you can: 

Set goals for every marketing activity, and connect campaign work to overarching marketing and business objectives so teams focus on revenue-driving projects. 

Centralize deliverables for your entire marketing plan in one project or portfolio .

Mark major milestones and visualize your plan as a timeline, Gantt chart, calendar, list, or Kanban board—without doing any extra work. 

Quickly loop in stakeholders with status updates so they’re always up to date on progress. This is extremely important if you have a global team to ensure efforts aren’t being duplicated. 

Use automations to seamlessly hand off work between teams, streamlining processes like content creation and reviews. 

Create dashboards to report on work and make sure projects are properly staffed , so campaigns stay on track. 

With everything housed in one spot, you can easily visualize the status of your entire marketing plan and keep work on track. Building an effective marketing plan is one thing, but how you operationalize it can be your secret to standout marketing.

Example: If your strategy focuses on increasing page views, connect all campaign work to an overarching OKR—like “we will double page views as measured by the amount of organic traffic on our blog.” By making that goal visible to all stakeholders, you help teams prioritize the right work. 

See marketing planning in action

With Asana, marketing teams can connect work, standardize processes, and automate workflows—all in one place.

7. Measure performance

Nearly three in four CMOs use revenue growth to measure success, so it’s no surprise that measuring performance is necessary. You established your key metrics in step two, and now it’s time to track and report on them in step eight.

Periodically measure your marketing efforts to find areas of improvement so you can optimize in real-time. There are always lessons to be learned when looking at data. You can discover trends, detect which marketing initiatives performed well, and course-correct what isn’t performing well. And when your plan is complete, you can apply these learnings to your next initiative for improved results. 

Example: Say you discover that long-form content is consistently bringing in 400% more page views than short-form content. As a result, you’ll want to focus on producing more long-form content in your next marketing plan.

Marketing plan examples from world-class teams

The best brands in the world bring their marketing plans to life every day. If you’re looking for inspiration, check out these examples from successful marketing teams.

Autodesk grows site traffic 30% three years in a row

When the Autodesk team launched Redshift, it was initially a small business blog. The editorial team executed a successful marketing plan to expand it into a premier owned-media site, making it a destination for stories and videos about the future of making. 

The team scaled content production to support seven additional languages. By standardizing their content production workflow and centralizing all content conversations in one place, the editorial team now publishes 2X more content monthly. Read the case study to learn more about how Autodesk runs a well-oiled content machine. Trinny London perfects new customer acquisition 

In consumer industries, social media is crucial for building a community of people who feel an affinity with the brand—and Trinny London is no exception. As such, it was imperative that Trinny London’s ad spend was targeted to the correct audience. Using a work management tool, Trinny London was able to nail the process of creating, testing, and implementing ads on multiple social channels.

With the help of a centralized tool, Trinny London improved its ad spend and drove more likes and subscriptions on its YouTube page. Read the case study to learn more about how Trinny London capitalized on paid advertising and social media. 

Turn your marketing plan into marketing success 

A great marketing plan promotes clarity and accountability across teams—so every stakeholder knows what they’re responsible for, by when. Reading this article is the first step to achieving better team alignment, so you can ensure every marketing campaign contributes to your company’s bottom line. 

Use a free marketing plan template to get started

Once you’ve created your marketing strategy and are ready to operationalize your marketing plan, get started with one of our marketing templates . 

Our marketing templates can help you manage and track every aspect of your marketing plan, from creative requests to approval workflows. Centralize your entire marketing plan in one place, customize the roadmap, assign tasks, and build a timeline or calendar. 

Once you’ve operationalized your entire marketing plan with one of our templates, share it with your stakeholders so everyone can work together in the same tool. Your entire team will feel connected to the marketing plan, know what to prioritize, and see how their work contributes to your project objectives . Choose the best marketing template for your team:

Marketing project plan template

Marketing campaign plan template

Product marketing launch template

Editorial calendar template

Agency collaboration template

Creative requests template

Event planning template

GTM strategy template

Still have questions? We have answers. 

What is a marketing plan.

A marketing plan is a detailed roadmap that outlines the different strategies your team will use to achieve organizational objectives. Rather than focusing solely on the end goal, a marketing plan maps every step you need to reach your destination—whether that’s driving pipeline for sales, nurturing your existing customer base, or something in-between. 

As a marketing leader, you know there’s never a shortage of great campaign and project ideas. A marketing plan gives you a framework to effectively prioritize work that aligns to overarching business goals—and then get that work done. Some elements of marketing plans include:

Current business plan

Mission statement  

Business goals

Target customers  

Competitive analysis 

Current marketing mix

Key performance indicators (KPIs)

Marketing budget  

What is the purpose of a marketing plan?

The purpose of a marketing plan is to grow your company’s consumer base and strengthen your brand, while aligning with your organization’s mission and vision . The plan should analyze the competitive landscape and industry trends, offer actionable insights to help you gain a competitive advantage, and document each step of your strategy—so you can see how your campaigns work together to drive overarching business goals. 

What is the difference between a marketing plan and a marketing strategy? 

A marketing plan contains many marketing strategies across different channels. In that way, marketing strategies contribute to your overall marketing plan, working together to reach your company’s overarching business goals.

For example, imagine you’re about to launch a new software product and the goal of your marketing plan is to drive downloads. Your marketing plan could include marketing strategies like creating top-of-funnel blog content and launching a social media campaign. 

What are different types of marketing plans? 

Depending on what you’re trying to accomplish, what your timeline is, or which facet of marketing you’re driving, you’ll need to create a different type of marketing plan. Some different types of marketing plans include, but aren’t limited to:

General marketing plan: A general marketing plan is typically an annual or quarterly marketing plan that details the overarching marketing strategies for the period. This type of marketing plan outlines marketing goals, the company’s mission, buyer personas, unique selling propositions, and more. A general marketing plan lays the foundation for other, more specific marketing plans that an organization may employ. 

Product launch marketing plan: A product launch marketing plan is a step-by-step plan for marketing a new product or expanding into a new market. It helps you build awareness and interest by targeting the right audience, with the right messaging, in the right timeframe—so potential customers are ready to buy your new offering right away. Nailing your product launch marketing plan can reinforce your overall brand and fast-track sales. For a step-by-step framework to organize all the moving pieces of a launch, check out our product marketing launch template .

Paid marketing plan: This plan includes all the paid strategies in your marketing plan, like pay-per-click, paid social media advertising, native advertising, and display advertising. It’s especially important to do audience research prior to launching your paid marketing plan to ensure you’re maximizing ROI. Consult with content strategists to ensure your ads align with your buyer personas so you know you’re showing ads to the right people. 

Content marketing plan: A content marketing plan outlines the different content strategies and campaigns you’ll use to promote your product or service. When putting together a content marketing plan, start by identifying your audience. Then use market research tools to get the best insights into what topics your target audience is most interested in.

SEO marketing plan: Your SEO marketing plan should work directly alongside your content marketing plan as you chart content that’s designed to rank in search results. While your content marketing plan should include all types of content, your SEO marketing plan will cover the top-of-funnel content that drives new users to your site. Planning search engine-friendly content is only one step in your SEO marketing plan. You’ll also need to include link-building and technical aspects in order to ensure your site and content are as optimized as possible.

Social media marketing plan: This plan will highlight the marketing strategies you plan to accomplish on social media. Like in any general or digital marketing plan , your social media strategy should identify your ideal customer base and determine how they engage on different social media platforms. From there, you can cater your social media content to your target audience.  

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Jumpstart a better way to do strategy

This episode of the Inside the Strategy Room podcast features excerpts from an address that McKinsey senior partner Chris Bradley gave at our recent Global Business Leaders Forum. He discusses the eight practical shifts that executive teams can make to move their strategy into high gear. This is an edited transcript. You can listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts , Spotify , or Google Podcasts .

Sean Brown: From McKinsey’s Strategy and Corporate Finance Practice, I’m Sean Brown. Welcome to Inside the Strategy Room . In today’s episode we will hear from Chris Bradley, a senior partner based in our Sydney office and one of the authors of McKinsey’s recent book Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: People, Probabilities, and Big Moves to Beat the Odds (John Wiley & Sons, 2018). In our two earlier podcasts, Chris and his co-authors, Sven Smit and Martin Hirt, talked about how social dynamics and biases can undermine strategy development, and explained the power curve of economic profit , which shows how well—or how poorly—the strategies of the world’s largest companies are succeeding. We also heard about the most important strategic moves companies can make to rise up that power curve.

Today we’d like to share excerpts from a presentation Chris gave at our Global Business Leaders Forum in New York. Chris will take us through some of the practical changes that companies can make to their strategic planning process to unlock those bold moves.

Here’s Chris on how he and his co-authors approach the challenges faced by executive teams in the strategy room, and how they help them make the first shift.

Chris Bradley: Business books are notoriously boring. To make any story interesting, you need a villain. If your goal is to scale the power curve of economic profit and make big moves to beat the odds of strategic success, the villain is the thing that gets in your way of achieving that goal. What is it that gets in the way? It’s called the social side of strategy. This villain is a funny one. Rather than causing big catastrophes, it usually causes inertia, and the risk that your company moves slower than the market it’s in.

This is how it works. You start your strategy season with high hopes. You’re going to make the big moves. You will get on top of the trends. But when you get to the strategy room, you find it crowded with all sorts of stuff. There are negotiations, there are egos, there are last year’s plans. There are other people, and you want to look good to them. There is so much else going on than just strategy. So, we ended our book with a kind of manifesto for how you could manage your company differently.

What we need to do is reengineer the way we do strategy. There are eight shifts we propose (exhibit). The first one concerns planning. It’s extraordinarily important to know what is going to happen next month, what resources need to move, and what initiatives you have to launch. The problem is, that’s a different mode of thinking from strategy. As soon as you put strategy and planning together, planning will always win. The shift we suggest making is to go from this annual planning ritual to treating strategy as a journey.

Let me make that practical: you need a two-track process. First you need an efficient way of doing your plans—that’s really important, making sure the budget lines up every year. But you need a parallel track to do strategy, and that has completely different timing. By the time you come to planning, you should already have your strategy in mind.

I’m going to bring this to life through what we call micropractices. If you want to reengineer the way a company works, you can talk in themes and theories, but it tends to come down to lots of small things you do differently. For example, some companies have, outside of their normal strategy-planning season, a set of regular meetings with an evolving agenda of big strategic topics and stimulating discussions about them to make decisions, so you get into a discipline and a cadence of strategic conversations. That’s a micropractice. It’s very rare, but increasingly we’re seeing companies move to more agile ways of working, even outside of the tech space.

Strategy plans are often elaborate management ballets perfectly choreographed to do only one thing, and that’s get to a yes. Chris Bradley

Something fascinating happens when they go agile. They discover, “Oh, our planning processes actually don’t work anymore because we are now in this 90-day cycle.” I think agile is an exciting place for strategists to find inspiration because of this idea of having a story updated every 90 days that then cascades down into all the squads and tribes.

So, the idea with the first of the eight shifts is, how do I continually go from big goals to little goals in a much more robust way. This is strategy as a journey.

Sean Brown: The second shift Chris identified was about encouraging the strategy team to debate real alternatives rather than simply seeking to get a yes to the proposal on the table. Here is Chris again.

Chris Bradley: Strategy plans are often an elaborate management ballet that seems perfectly choreographed to do only one thing, and that’s get to a yes. That’s because what do you walk into the room with? A proposal. And if you walk into a room with a proposal, a good outcome is acceptance of your proposal—and usually it’s the last page that matters, which is where you ask for the resources you need.

This is just entirely the wrong place to start strategic planning. You need to debate real alternatives. Let me bring this to life with a bit of research I came across about how private-equity firms make investment decisions. An experiment put teams in two rooms. One evaluated investment decisions one at a time and the other compared two simultaneously. What they found was that there was a 30 percent difference in decisions between the two. Later, when they did a randomized trial, they found that the team with two alternatives to consider always made the better decision. The fact packs were the same, but the room weighing two alternatives did a better job of digging into the footnotes. That’s because the investment case always has the problems in it but usually they are summarized in the footnotes or the appendix. Having two alternatives to choose from just made it safer to dig into the cons.

In that sense, what I would argue is, this idea of working from a single proposal or the one-off plan introduces a 30 percent error into what you are doing. See, in the world of getting to a yes, everyone has high market share. There’s a famous story that Jack Welch, when he took over GE, said that every business had to be number one or number two in its segment. Of course that happened, by people playing the denominator game—everyone’s market got really small and so they became number one or number two instantly. He said then, “No, no, no. Now you have to define your market so that you have less than 10 percent market share.” He found a way to get through the problem with the proposals. But the reality is, most companies don’t work like this. They are not comparing alternative plans. Their strategies are framed more around promises and financial goals than they are around choices.

Sean Brown: In Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick , the authors emphasize the importance of making big, bold commitments to initiatives that can really elevate the company’s performance. But it’s hard for most companies to move resources around in a big way. Next, Chris addressed ways to get resources moving dynamically toward businesses with the greatest potential.

Chris Bradley: The harsh reality of the way we do strategic planning now is, there is a pot of money and we all compete for it. But when we did our research on companies that rose up the power curve, we found that it usually was not the whole company improving but one or two out of ten business units that disproportionately went up. It’s just a small part of the company that explosively grows.

That’s easy to logically understand, but when you’re in the strategy room and trying to be one of those winners, you may create a lot of losers. And you can see how, with the social side of strategy, that really becomes a problem. If you ask ten business-unit leaders in the room, “Which of you runs the bottom five units?” you will get a uniform answer: none of them is in the bottom five. But if you ask them which is the one business the company should disproportionately back, they usually know which it is.

So, what we want to do is go from spreading resources evenly like peanut butter, which is the enemy, to picking one-in-tens with breakout potential. That means we must deal with some tough stuff. An example is the Dutch semiconductor firm NXP. They went from around $2 billion market cap to $25 billion, and at the source of that were tough choices. They moved 70 percent of their R&D to backing just two of the 13 trajectories they had. But to do that, you create 11 losers. So how do we make winners out of losers? Reckitt Benckiser is an innovative consumer-goods company, and they are also quite innovative in their management practices. They have taken the concept of granularity and taken it to the extreme whereby they’re running 200 markets and 106 brands. That’s a big matrix. But what’s really interesting is that they have chosen 19 brands in 16 markets that they call “power cells.” These get disproportionately more resources.

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If you think about the level of visibility that such practices imply for resource allocation, it’s much different from what you get when you just roll up a bunch of business-unit (BU) plans—an order of magnitude of difference. Also the leadership style is very different, because instead of talking to each BU president and accepting their plan as a package deal, you actually have portfolio visibility at three or four levels down the organization.

Sean Brown: The next shift Chris explained is the transition from simply negotiating budgets to discussing the big moves a company needs to make.

Chris Bradley: Strategic planning is often just a cover for the real game, which is the three-year plan. Once you have anchored your strategic plan on the numbers, you’ve lost the plot because now you’re negotiating. What do you do about that? We go from budgets to moves, and what I mean by that is, don’t start with the numbers you’re going to achieve; start with the moves you’re going to make.

The enemy here is the base case, which is usually an extrapolation enabled by Excel, because when you click on a cell and you get the little crosshair and you drag it across, it’s easy just to extrapolate. The problem with it is that you extrapolate away the fact that the management team before you worked very hard to get those results—that’s not a base case. But you lay your strategic initiatives on top of it anyway, and then usually there is a gap in your waterfall chart to budget that says “stretch.”

That doesn’t work. What we propose instead is to ask, what is the momentum case of the business? In other words, if you just kept your current policies and capabilities, with no new initiative or investment, what would happen to the business? Some businesses do OK; they may have a lot of tailwind. For most businesses, however, the momentum case will be frightening. If you take your pedal off the metal, most companies will fade out pretty fast. So, if you’re a retailer and you stop refurbishing your stores, your comparable sales will fall quickly, and when your comp sales fall, that will very quickly leverage into your bottom line. It’s frightening, but that’s the right basis, because then you can calibrate. “OK, if that’s my momentum case, how much do I need to do to get to my aspiration? And what will get me there?” It focuses the discussion on the moves you need to make.

The most important thing to start with is, know your business really well. Often, we think the hard part of strategy is that we have to guess the future. I think the hard part of strategy is busting your own myths. The most important question a strategist can ask is, why do we make the money? I think of it like being on a dirt road in the Australian outback and you look in your rearview mirror. It’s very hard to see where you’ve been because a lot of dust has been kicked up. For the social side of strategy, this ambiguity about the past ends up being really useful, because you can say that when you did well, it was management prowess, and when things were tough, it was because of the weather. Remember, in the strategy room, it’s important to look good.

Rather than negotiating a financial promise, put some calibration around your moves. There is an increasing trend of basing investments purely on artificial intelligence, which judges an investment story based on many variables, then spits out a probability. That’s a good way of also getting the approving of budgets out of the way. And then AI [artificial intelligence] will tell you, based on how much you are investing and your technology and the sector you’re in, what your budget should be—as an outcome, not as an input.

If you want to drive strategic change in your company, you should be its chief liquidity officer. You can’t move resources that aren’t liquid. In other words, you cannot reallocate if you don’t also de-allocate. Chris Bradley

Sean Brown: Once the company has decided on which moves to make, the next challenge is following through and allocating sufficient resources to those priorities. That’s not easy. Chris talked about how to free up those resources. He then explained how managers can overcome sandbagging and risk aversion.

Chris Bradley: There is often a rude awakening. While we’ve all agreed that we will move resources to businesses B and C, on Monday morning we discover that we don’t have any resources to move. The reality is, most companies can’t responsibly move those levels of resources on a dime. In a recent survey my colleague Tim Koller did, only 30 percent of managers agreed that their budgets were aligned with the three-to-five-year plan. That’s a lot of dissonance.

So how do you create liquid resources? If you want to really drive strategic change in your company, you should be its chief liquidity officer. You can’t move resources that aren’t liquid. In other words, you cannot reallocate if you don’t also de-allocate. By the way, in a survey we did , this was the shift that respondents admitted they struggle with the most. Only 5 percent agreed that resources at their companies are freed up ahead of time to create a kitty of contestable funds in the annual budget.

A root cause of this is that managers are not charged an opportunity cost. I work a lot in retail, and I’m always bugging CEOs to measure their buyers on return on space, because otherwise they will never give shelves back to you. If they are measured on sales, they will always want more space. I’m sure you can apply the same principle in other businesses.

Here is another idea. Everyone has heard of zero-based budgeting, but it’s completely unrealistic. I can’t zero-base my bank branch network tomorrow because it’s already there. But what about 87-percent-based budgeting, or 93-percent-based budgeting? In other words, create a norm where you force contestability over that last bit of resources. A big part of this is about de-anchoring next year’s budget from being this year’s budget.

Let me introduce another problem. My colleague Dan Lovallo is a professor who works in applying psychology on biases to management topics. A simple test he did at an investment bank showed that if you applied the CEO’s risk tolerance to all the investment decisions made at lower levels rather than the more junior decision makers’ risk tolerance, the decisions would have had a 32 percent better outcome. So, there is this tax of risk aversion, and it makes sense: if you’re the CEO, you feel pretty diversified because there are probably 20 or 30 bets sitting in your portfolio, so you can afford a few fails. But you are asking your business-unit leaders to take undiversified risk, and then get killed on their key performance indicators when they don’t hit the numbers. It should be little surprise then that a lot of the risk gets edited out of the system.

The shift I want to encourage here is to go from this sandbagging to open risk portfolios. In other words, go from your strategy being lots of mini hockey sticks that you add together to one big hockey stick that has many risk trade-offs made at the enterprise level. There is a simple way of doing that: don’t have cross-subsidization by creating attacker units that report separately. That’s super-important in a world of digital disruption. Companies often try to protect their earnings core from growth businesses. One way to undo the package deal is to separate those different types of businesses.

Sean Brown: Chris then went on to explain how CEOs can promote the mind-set that will encourage business-unit leaders to take the risks that will help the overall company reach its aspiration.

Eight shifts that will take your strategy into high gear

Chris Bradley: We get what we incentivize. We ask our managers to hit their budgets 90 percent of the time and then criticize them for being too risk-averse. We love scenario analysis at strategy planning time, but who has ever seen that scenario analysis brought out again at performance review time?

One thing I propose is throwing out balanced scorecards. They are not very good because you end up having 20 goals, each at 5 percent, and therefore no individual one matters. Unbalanced scorecards are much better, because then the total potential bonus is driven by financial outcomes, but it may be reduced by how you got to that outcome. We have to reengineer how we evaluate people, particularly in risky contexts. Rather than “you are your numbers,” take a holistic performance view.

How do we make sure noble failures get rewarded and dumb luck does not? It’s interesting that in our survey, by far the most respondents said they believe their companies, when evaluating performance, penalize noble failures and don’t recognize the risks someone took. There is some missed wiring in the way the incentive system works, so it’s little surprise that we are not getting these big moves to happen. One innovation private equity brought in is basing incentives on having more skin in the game over a longer period of time.

Sean Brown: The final shift Chris discussed is the move from long-range planning to forcing the first step. He described how you can’t finish the strategy meeting until you have figured out what you will do tomorrow to start putting it into action.

Chris Bradley: I’ll describe this last shift with a story that’s relayed by my co-author Sven Smit. He was with insurance executives and everyone had just listened to this truly inspiring presentation about the paperless future of insurance. The CEO asked an inconvenient question: “I love this presentation, but how much paper are we budgeted to use next year?” And there was a bit of shuffling of feet, and I think someone had to go out of the room to find the number. The answer turned out to be 5 percent more paper. The CEO said, “I love the paperless future, but maybe next year can we do minus 5 percent paper use? Can we start there?”

So, a lot of this is about setting the most radical goal that’s achievable in a six-month period. That should be the first challenge.

I want to take the pressure down a bit here. These shifts are hard to do. If you get good at even a few of them, you are straightaway putting yourself into some seriously rare territory. There is a reason, aside from the fact that markets are competitive, that companies aren’t making big moves. It’s because the social side of strategy overwhelms them. Maybe make some of these shifts, think boldly, be aspirational, and do it not just by having fancier presentations and nicer-sounding initiatives but by really getting inside the social side of strategy in your company.

Sean Brown: Thank you for joining us for Inside the Strategy Room today. You can learn more about these shifts to the strategy-development process in “ Eight shifts that will take your strategy into high gear .” You can also do the Eight Shifts Diagnostic  to see how well your executive team is performing on each of the eight shifts and how your performance compares to other companies. And, of course, you can find more information in the book, Strategy Beyond the Hockey Stick: People, Probabilities, and Big Moves to Beat the Odds .

Chris Bradley is a senior partner in the Sydney office, and Sean Brown is the firm’s global director of communications for strategy and corporate finance, based in the Boston office.

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Top 5 Goal Pyramid Templates with Examples and Samples

Sapna Singh

“Our goals can only be reached through a vehicle of a plan, in which we must fervently believe and upon which we must vigorously act. There is no other route to success,” Pablo Picasso, one of the best and most influential artists of the 20th century, stressed the value of planning when achieving goals in this quotation.

Organizations use the goal pyramid technique in their planning to break down "big ideas" (such as mission, vision, and strategic priorities) into easy-to-do and team-focused activities. The goal pyramids connect the long-term objectives to the short-term goals.

To help you set goals and ambitions in the proper direction, download the Goals and Objectives Templates   from SlideTeam.

Goal Pyramid: The ideal graphic tool for outlining goals from top to bottom

A goal pyramid is a practical framework to help in goal visualization. It clarifies how each step contributes to your goal. This framework enables you to define specific and attainable goals, increasing your motivation, progress, and happiness with each step ahead.

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SlideTeam’s Goal Pyramid Templates  gives you a practical framework for strategic planning at the personal, department, and company levels. These templates are the perfect goal-setting tool that helps translate big ideas into manageable actions. It offers a sense of direction and focus, which helps to change the actions and mindsets necessary to achieve the goals. The 100% customizable nature of the templates allows you to edit your presentations. The content-ready slides give you the much-needed structure.

Use SlideTeam’s PowerPoint Templates to boost the sense of manageability of the big picture and take the tiny steps that pave the way for huge, long-term success.

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A hierarchical view of your strategy management will help align your corporate goals. Use this PPT Template to present an aligned goals strategy pyramid model to devise strategies, actions, and goals and accomplish your vision. It incorporates tactical and operational plans as the foundation for achieving goals and missions and developing initiatives and strategies. The second layer represents the goals to carry on the procedures required for the end vision, and the third layer represents the project's or business plan's mission. Use this presentation template to make sound judgments in your business. Get it now!

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Template 2: Strategic Plan Pyramid with Vision Goal and Action Plan

Use this PowerPoint Template as a visual tool to arrange and convey qualitative goal information from strategic planning in an understandable manner. This could act as an action plan for creating a competitive strategy for business expansion. This slide is the foundation for goal-setting and decision-making to lead the organization's day-to-day operations. Use this PPT Presentation Template to outline the objectives of your business plan from top to bottom, which are required to realize the company's vision. Grab it now!

Template 3: Pyramid Hierarchy of Marketing Goals in Business

Want to create integrated corporate goals aligned with your marketing strategy and business action plan? Use this PPT Template to illustrate marketing goals and objectives that brings together your strategic marketing to provide clear direction to the team. This slide contains information about the business's topline objectives, qualitative goals, achievement metrics, team goals, marketing strategies and campaigns, and how to plan marketing activities based on the size of the audience targeted and the resources available. Use this design to add structure, visibility, and accountability to your marketing operations. Grab it now!

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A good marketing plan is built on the foundation of planning and strategy. Use this PPT Template to develop a functional strategy for achieving your corporate goals. This slide displays your top marketing objectives, paired with qualitative goals, KPIs, and strategies to attain the goal. It is a five-stage process that comprises goal, outbound, inbound, branding, and strategy to assist businesses in developing a marketing plan in the proper order. Use this presentation to establish strategies to support your goals and methods to implement them. Grab it now!

Template 5: Organizational Goals And Strategy Hierarchy Pyramid

Use this PowerPoint Template to show the hierarchy of organizational qualitative goals to match company actions with the overall goal. It includes corporate goals, competitive, functional, and  operating strategies to aid in the execution of tasks that supports the organization's  plan. Use this presentation to break down a larger goal into smaller goals and the activities. Grab it now!

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FAQs ON GOALS PYRAMID

What are the types of goals based on results.

The three results-based goals are:

• Performance or outcome goals are concerned with enhancing one’s performance or activities.
• Learning goals concern the new abilities and competencies you gain and how you will use them in the future.
• Process goals are focused on the method of achieving the desired results. It prioritizes the process above the outcome and allows you to choose which aspects of your life to focus on.

What is a planning pyramid?

The planning pyramid is a paradigm for instructional planning that aims to improve student learning. It is a management strategy for focusing instruction to maximize student learning. This has three learning levels, and its body supports trainers in comprehending learners’ varied phases of learning. Participants have equal access to knowledge, albeit presentation may vary based on the needs of the trainees

What is a strategy pyramid?

The strategy pyramid is a structure for organizations to match their actions with their vision and mission. It depicts the strategic behaviors required to attain the next level of strategies and plans. Each company has three layers of planning, the first of which is a road map for the future. The second-level plans guide the implementation of a company's strategic objectives, and the third-level plans put all essential actions in place to ensure that activities align with the strategies.

Related posts:

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• Top-Notch B2B Communication Strategies For Marketing Like a Pro (Top 10 Templates Included)

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Top 10 Brand Pyramid Templates to Create a Personalized Marketing Strategy

Top 10 yearly goals templates with examples and samples.

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