Strategic plan template
A strategic plan sets out where an established company wants to be in three years, the few priorities that will get it there, how progress will be measured and who answers for each part. This free Word template runs from vision and mission through goals, initiatives, resources and risks to the review cycle that keeps it in use.
Running a company of 30 to 200 people? Documents like this are now worth money.
It's for the leadership team of a company that already trades, ideally written before the annual budget so that year one can be funded.
What's in the template
Strategic plan
| Company | |
|---|---|
| Plan period | e.g. January 2027 to December 2029 |
| Plan owner | |
| Approved by the board on | |
| Next full review |
1. Vision and mission
| Vision | Where we'll be at the end of the plan, in terms someone could check |
|---|---|
| Mission | What we do, for whom, and what sets us apart |
2. Where we are now
| Measure | Three years ago | Last year | This year (forecast) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Revenue | |||
| Gross margin % | |||
| Operating profit | |||
| Largest customer's share of revenue | |||
| Staff turnover |
- What's working, and the evidence
- What isn't
- What's changing outside: customers, competitors, costs, regulation
3. Strategic priorities
Three to five, each with what you'll stop or do less of to make room for it.
| Priority | Why now | What we'll stop or reduce |
|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||
| 2. | ||
| 3. | ||
| 4. |
4. Goals and measures
| Priority | Goal and measure | Now | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. | ||||||
| 2. | ||||||
| 3. | ||||||
| 4. |
5. Initiatives
| Initiative | Priority | Lead | Start | Finish | Budget |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
6. Resources and funding
| Resource | Year 1 | Year 2 | Year 3 | Funded by |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| New roles | ||||
| Capital spending | ||||
| Initiative running costs | ||||
| Total |
7. Risks to the plan
| Risk | Early warning sign | Response | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|
8. Review cycle
| Review | How often | Who | What it decides |
|---|---|---|---|
| Initiatives and measures | Monthly | Leadership team | What to unblock or stop |
| Priorities and goals | Quarterly | Board | Where to move people or money |
| Whole plan | Yearly | Board and leadership team | Roll it forward a year; set the budget |
9. One-page summary for staff
The vision, the priorities and the few numbers everyone should know, in plain words.
Strategic plan or business plan?
The two share several headings but do different jobs.
| Business plan | Strategic plan | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Persuade someone to lend, invest or buy | Decide where to focus, and what to stop |
| Main reader | A bank, investor or buyer | Your board, managers and staff |
| Content | The whole business explained from scratch, with full forecasts | Choices: priorities, goals, initiatives and the resources behind them |
| Lifespan | Written for a loan, funding round or sale | Reviewed quarterly, rolled forward each year |
| Success means | The money is approved | The goals are met |
An established company needs a strategic plan all the time, and a business plan only when it borrows, raises money or sells. Year one of the strategic plan becomes the annual budget.
How to write a three-year strategic plan
- Agree the facts first: three years of revenue, margin and profit, customer concentration, staff turnover and competitors' moves. A SWOT analysis helps organise them.
- Write the vision as a destination, not a slogan. "Packaging is half of a £10m business by the end of 2029" can be checked; "the partner of choice" can't.
- Choose three to five priorities and say what you'll stop. A priority that takes nothing from anything else isn't a choice.
- Give each priority one or two goals, with a starting figure and a number for each year.
- Turn priorities into a few initiatives with a lead, dates and a budget, and check capacity: the same managers still run the business every day.
- Cost the plan, agree how it's funded and build year one into the budget.
- Name the risks, with an early warning sign for each.
- Book the reviews before you publish, and give staff the one-page summary.
Example: a fictional printer moving into packaging
A fictional 80-person commercial printer has watched brochure and magazine work shrink for five years, while short-run packaging for small food and drink brands has grown to £1.9m of its £8.4m sales. Its largest customer, a magazine publisher, is 18% of revenue.
Vision: by the end of 2029, packaging is half of a £10m business, sold mostly direct to brands, with no customer above 10% of sales.
| Priority | Goal and measure | Now | Year 3 | Owner |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Grow short-run packaging | Packaging sales | £1.9m | £5.0m | Sales director |
| 2. Sell direct to brands | Brands spending £50k+ a year | 4 | 20 | Managing director |
| 3. Protect margin in print | Gross margin on print work | 24% | 30% | Operations director |
| 4. Build the skills to deliver it | Operators trained on the packaging line | 6 | 24 | Production manager |
What it stops: magazine contracts won on price alone, and the smaller second site when its lease ends in 2028. Year-one initiatives: a second digital cutting table (£180,000), a design service for small brands, and automated proofing to cut print costs. Biggest risk: many of the brands are young businesses; the warning sign is repeat orders slowing for two months running.
At the first quarterly review packaging was ahead of plan but training was behind, so the board brought two training places forward rather than slow sales.
Common mistakes
- Everything the company already does, relabelled as priorities. If nothing stops, nothing was chosen.
- Goals with no starting figure, so nobody can tell whether anything moved.
- Too many initiatives at once, all led by the same three directors.
- A budget that ignores the plan. Initiatives nobody funded don't happen.
- Written at an away day, then filed. Without quarterly reviews it's out of date within a year.
- Kept from staff, who will do most of the work.
Frequently asked questions
How long should a strategic plan be?
Short enough to discuss properly in one board meeting: a few pages, plus one page for staff. The SWOT, financial model and other analysis go in appendices.
Should a strategic plan cover three years or five?
Three years is long enough to justify investment and short enough to plan with real numbers. Look further ahead for longer commitments, such as buying a building, and keep the most detail in year one either way.
How do OKRs and a balanced scorecard fit in?
They're ways of running the plan. OKRs turn its priorities into a few measurable goals each quarter; a balanced scorecard tracks whether the strategy is working across finance, customers, processes and people.