The Annual Strategic Planning process can often be overwhelming. From the annual leadership team offsite to the company rollout and every quarterly strategy session in between, Strategic Planning is no small task. But when done well, Strategic Planning can be a secret weapon in how a company accelerates growth and unlocks new opportunities across the business. 

Our team at Elate has the opportunity to work with some of the leading strategy and operations leaders to help shape how their companies think about Strategic Planning. From our time working with these leaders, we’ve found that a critical area to a successful Strategic Plan is how a company goes about setting their annual objectives. 

At Elate, we actually have another word to describe annual objectives: Themes. Whether your company refers to them as annual objectives or Themes, these are the priorities that leadership teams are setting as rallying cries or high-level goals that equate to success. And these aren’t only the measures of success for the year, but milestones to be reached on the company's overall journey to build something special. 

These Themes often help create momentum at the beginning of the year, and keep employees aligned on the overall business goals and objectives set by the leadership team. 

We’ve found that Themes and annual objectives are especially important in clearly communicating and sharing the strategy and direction for the company. They create clarity, alignment, and a sense of direction for employees. By taking the time to prioritize annual objectives or Themes, you allow your team to sift through the endless list of business goals that might distract from executing on goals in business plan. 

After working alongside hundreds of companies and leaders as they've set business goals and objectives, we wanted to highlight some of the high-level organizational goals examples we've seen set by leading high growth companies. 

Objectives of Strategic Planning 

Before diving straight into the types of business objectives set at an organizational level or discussing how to write strategic objectives, let's start by first outlining the objectives of Strategic planning. If the goal is achieving company goals and objectives, then we first need to understand how they're built, and why they're important to the company's success. 

This may go without saying, but Strategic Planning isn't just about simply checking a box. Strategic Planning done well can help outline your commitment to bring every employee along on your journey of building something special. If you go in with the mindset that this process is something designed to help unlock new opportunities for growth and propel your company forward, then the time you spend in these sessions will be well spent. 

At Elate, we believe that successful Strategic Planning comes down to the people, process and tools put in place. By establishing an outline for the purpose of strategic planning you're aligning the people with the process to allow for success in the long-term.

Strategic Planning done well can help accomplish three things: 

- Connects the long-term vision of the company with tactical execution

- Creates clarity on where the company is going, and how they will get there 

- Provides an operating framework for how the company sets, plans, reviews, and takes action on the priorities moving the business forward 

Now let's dive into some of the company objectives examples we've seen work well at high growth companies. 

Company Objectives Examples 

Different from employee objective examples or quarterly objective examples, annual company objective examples bring together a number of other objectives and moving pieces across the business. With objectives uniquely built to accommodate specific departments, employees, and with a variety of different KPIs or metrics, it can be easy to overcomplicate your strategic objectives examples. 

However, one pro tip we’ve seen that helps keep this process manageable: Keep it simple. Keep it clear. 

For many companies, examples of short- and long-term goals for a business tend to be focused on a few key areas: 

- Reaching revenue milestones 

- Delighting Customers

- Building new products 

- Creating an amazing culture 

Each of these corporate objectives examples can be a great starting point. Frankly, bringing on new customers, delighting existing ones, delivering incredible products, and doing all this with an amazing culture are company goals and objectives examples most companies would strive to achieve. 

But the key in any of these examples is also aligning the objective with the 'why' behind it. As an example: 

'Build the industry-leading Planning Feature to help companies Propose, Review, and Finalize Company Objectives to bring together the entire Strategic Planning process.' 

In this example, we know what we are building, why we are building it, and if done well, we should have key measurables that determine success across every team. 

Setting company objectives should be simple, streamlined, and focused on the big priorities that all your department, team, and individual objectives should connect with. If your company objective is revenue driven try, something like: 

'Reach $50M in ARR on our way towards becoming a $1B Strategic Planning platform, powering the growth of 10,000+ businesses.'

Again, a specific goal for this year, connected with the long-term vision. 

These are just some of the examples of how setting Company Objectives examples can connect the day-to-day execution with the long-term vision for the company. 

Strategic Planning Goals and Objectives Template 

Now that you have an idea for what an annual objectives examples could look like for your company, we can start focusing on how you create a repeatable model for how your team can consistently build awesome company objectives. By creating a strategic planning goals and objectives template you can help empower your leadership team to create objectives that align across the business. 

Similar to writing strategic goals and objectives examples, the template should connect the short- and long-term business goals. Here are three key fields to ensure you include in your template: 

- What is your Company Objective for the year?

- Why does this help your company achieve your long-term vision?

- How will you measure the success of this Company Objective for the year? 

If you follow these objective setting examples, your company will always be able to answer how the short- and long-term objectives are being met and achieved by your teams. 

For some companies they choose to structure these templates in PDFs, excel, or other manual ways. However, by manually building strategic objectives pdf or excel examples, you lose the ability to connect objectives throughout the business and align teams. 

Instead, consider building your strategic planning goals and objectives template in a Strategic Planning platform. Not only will your team maintain a level of consistency and effectiveness in building these objectives, but you will also benefit from the value of connecting objectives for alignment and reporting. 

Annual Objectives in Strategic Management 

So as you head into your Strategic Planning sessions remember that Strategic Planning isn't just a box to be checked. Done well, Strategic Planning can serve as the catalyst for your company meeting their goals for the year. But in order to maximize your Strategic Planning efforts, remember that it takes collective buy-in and intentionality. 

Rather than diving directly into building your plan, take a step back and start with a mutual understanding across your leadership team of the following areas: 

- What is the purpose of strategic objectives? Don't assume every team member is bought in or has as complete of an understanding as you heading into your Strategic Planning sessions. 

- Why Annual Objectives should be the starting point for your annual planning. From the high-level goals that connect your long-term vision and the tactical execution, Annual Objectives or Themes help create the momentum for your company. 

- How to write Company Objectives in a consistent, effective way across all areas of your business. Clarity, consistency, and communication will prove invaluable as you look to create a Strategic Plan that aligns every layer of your business. 

While the types of Strategic Objectives may vary from year-to-year, department-to-department, or company-to-company, the intentionality behind how they are built can't be overstated. To make the most of your Strategic Objectives, consider leveraging a Strategic Planning platform to create the level of consistency and intentionally needed to overachieve on any business plan. 

As we shared earlier, we believe that Strategic Planning is about the People, Process, and Tools. So as you continue on your journey to maximize Strategic Planning for your company, a solution like Elate can help take your Strategic Planning to the next level by driving alignment, collaboration, and a unified view into the performance of key objectives powering your business. 

If you're interested in learning how Elate is powering Strategic Planning for these high growth companies, reach out to a member of our team today. We'd love to share how Strategic Planning can unlock new opportunities in your business!