Dialogue of Horizons: Bridging the Gap Between Strategy and Execution

The annual Planingo and Anaplan roundtable discussion, “Dialogue of Horizons: Bridging the Gap Between Strategy and Execution”, took place on 12 June 2025 at the Ritz Carlton Almaty hotel.

Together with strategy and business planning executives from leading Central Asian companies, we discussed:

• Have strategies become more dynamic in today’s world?
• How effectively do strategies adapt to a rapidly changing business environment?
• To what extent can technologies such as artificial intelligence and mathematical optimization improve strategic planning?

During the discussion, we conducted a short survey of participants to learn how companies are coping with the task of integrating strategy into operational planning.

Strategic planning horizon:

Most of our respondents (76%) look ahead 3–5 years, while only 24% plan for more than 5 years. The strategic planning horizon is largely determined by the business model used and the length of the investment cycle, both of which vary significantly from one industry to another. In addition, long-term planning requires long-term stability in target markets.

Link between strategy and operational plan:

• Only 13% of respondents fully align their strategy with their operational plan.
• 40% have a partial alignment between strategy and operations.
• The remaining 47% either do not integrate strategy directly into operational planning or use it as a general guideline.

Therefore, in almost half of the companies surveyed, strategy exists as a ‘document’ or set of KPIs, but not as a real driver of daily decisions.

Adapting to change:

• 31% of respondents consider their strategy to be dynamic, updating drivers in real time.
• 15% review it regularly, taking general trends into account.
• 54% only adjust their strategy when there are significant changes.

The role of technology:

82% of respondents believe that AI tools, including machine learning (ML) and mathematical models, can help with strategic planning. However, so far, only 18% actually use them in practice.

Such discussions remind us that strategy is not just about long-term goals, but also about building a step-by-step bridge to implementation where people and technology work together. This is an area in which Anaplan can help.