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Goal Core · Object

Long term goals

The far horizon: where the organisation intends to be in years rather than quarters. Long term goals give the short ones a direction to point in, and are the first thing to go missing when a company is busy.

The term

What it is

Long term goals describe a state the organisation is working towards over years — far enough out that the route to them is not yet known, and near enough that decisions taken now can be judged against them.

They differ from purpose in a way worth keeping clear: purpose cannot be completed, while a long term goal can. Collins and Porras made this concrete with the idea of a long-range ambition that is clear enough to know when it has been reached, ambitious enough to be uncomfortable, and remote enough that no current plan fully covers it.

The main risk they carry is not being too ambitious but being too certain. A goal set for five years out rests on assumptions about a world nobody has seen, which is why the assumptions themselves deserve to be written down beside the goal rather than left implicit inside it.

This object names a point in time, not a level of decision. How it relates to the altitude objects is set out once, on the core page: Two axes, not four boxes

Why it earns a place

What goes wrong without it

01

Without them, short goals drift

A sequence of well-executed quarters does not add up to a direction. Long goals are what make it possible to say that a quarter went well but the wrong way.

02

They decide what is worth starting now

Work with a long payback — capability, brand, relationships — is only ever justified against a long goal. Where none exists, that work reliably loses to whatever pays back this quarter.

03

They are the first casualty of a busy year

Nothing forces a long goal to be reviewed, so nothing does. Fixing a date for that review is the whole of the discipline.

One level in

The modules within long term goals

Four working areas. One sets the ambition, two shape where growth comes from, and one keeps the whole thing honest.

  1. Long-range ambition

    The single stated destination: specific enough to recognise on arrival, distant enough that the route is not yet designed. Usually one, occasionally two — more than that is a list rather than an ambition.

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  2. Growth horizons

    Separating what defends today’s business from what builds the next one and what merely keeps an option open. Each needs different funding, different measures and a different tolerance for failure.

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  3. Direction of growth

    Whether the ambition is reached through existing markets and offers, new offers, new markets, or genuinely new ground. Naming the direction is what makes the risk visible.

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  4. Assumptions and scenarios

    What has to remain true for the goal to make sense, written down where it can be checked. A long goal is a claim about the future, and claims can be falsified.

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Across the framework

What it touches

  • Vision CoreThe vision describes the future state; long term goals are the measurable steps into it.
  • Market CoreDirection of growth is a claim about markets, and has to be checked against them.
  • Time CoreMarket timing and golden opportunities decide when a long goal becomes reachable.

Beyond the framework

Models worth knowing here

The Omnigoal says where this belongs and what it touches. It does not tell you how to think about it — other people have done that, and done it well. These are theirs.

  1. The big hairy audacious goal

    Collins & Porras · 1994

    Also known as BHAG

    A single long-range goal clear enough to need no explanation and large enough to change the company on the way.

    It is defined by a horizon of ten to thirty years, a finish line anyone can recognise, and a genuine risk of failure. The mechanism is commitment: a goal that cannot be quietly reinterpreted three years in has to be either pursued or abandoned in public.

    Reach for it when
    When long-term goals keep coming out as this year’s plan with a bigger number on it.
    Where it stops
    It rewards clarity over correctness. A company can commit to a vivid goal for twenty years and be pointed the wrong way for all of them.

    James C. Collins & Jerry I. Porras, Built to Last, HarperBusiness, 1994.

  2. Three horizons

    Baghai, Coley & White · 1999

    Separating the business you are running from the one you are building and the one you are only betting on.

    Horizon one defends and extends what already earns; horizon two builds what is emerging; horizon three places options on what might exist later. Each needs different funding, different measures and different people, and the model exists because judging all three by the first one’s standards kills the other two every time.

    Reach for it when
    When long-term goals and this quarter’s numbers are being argued in the same meeting with the same yardstick.
    Where it stops
    The horizons are a way of talking, not a portfolio theory. Nothing in it says how much belongs in each, and it is easily used to protect pet projects from any measurement at all.

    Mehrdad Baghai, Stephen Coley & David White, The Alchemy of Growth, Perseus, 1999.

These are other people’s models, named here so you can go to the source and use them properly. The Omnigoal is not affiliated with their authors and is not endorsed by them; nothing of theirs is reproduced here — no canvas, no diagram, no wording. Each is described in our own words, with the originator credited, because the framework is a place to put thinking, not a replacement for the people who did it. Model names and trademarks belong to their respective owners and are used here only to refer to the work itself.

Every model in the framework, and where each one belongs

Set the review date at the same time as the goal. Long term goals are rarely abandoned deliberately; they are abandoned by never being looked at again.

The other objects in the Goal Core

Purpose

This is the fundamental reason for the organisation’s existence from an internal perspective. It’s the driving force and guiding principle behind the company’s actions and decisions. The Core Purpose is deeply rooted in the company’s values and mission, focusing on why the organisation exists beyond making a profit. It’s about the impact the company wants to have on its employees, stakeholders, and the values it upholds.

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Short term goals

Focuses on immediate objectives and quick wins that are crucial for near-term success and momentum.

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Tactical goals

Targets specific, actionable steps and tactics that support the strategic objectives and operational efficiency.

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Strategic goals

Outlines high-level, overarching goals that shape the company’s direction and align with its core purpose and vision.

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