INTELLIGENCE BRIEF:
Short-term thinking breeds chaos. It leaves businesses vulnerable to unhelpful trends, distracted by urgency, and stuck in cycles of unpredictable revenue. By contrast, thinking in five-year blocks builds resilience, reputation, and strategic clarity by creating a natural filter for all your actions.

 

While quarterly and year-end metrics are important, focusing on those short-term, revenue-based goals causes companies to lose sight of the bigger picture - and sacrifice valuable steps in their positioning. 

 

This isn't about obsessively predicting the future or running forecasting exercises. It's about anchoring your current actions to a long-term identity - i.e., who your company is becoming and what you will be known for.

 

And it works. Companies that think long-term dramatically outperform the rest. According to McKinsey, these companies generated 47% higher revenue and 81% more economic profit over a 15-year span. (The Case Against Corporate Short Termism, McKinsey, 2017.)

 

Five-year planning shifts you from reacting impulsively to engineering your future.
 

YOUR MOVE:
Stop setting goals based strictly on next quarter and replace it with: “What will we be known for in 5 years? What must we do now and each year to make that identity inevitable?

 

Define your 2030 position. Write a single sentence that articulates what your business will be known for five years from now - the category you'll lead and the reputation you will own. (This is a positioning goal, not a profit target.)
 

Map your reverse timeline. Start with your year 5 vision and work backward to today. Identify the strategic benchmarks that build toward your ultimate identity. Each year should represent a positioning accomplishment, not just financial growth. Treat it like a blueprint for your company's evolution.

 

Designate one weekly “build day”. Schedule time every week strictly for future-planning. No client work, no admin. Use it to refine systems, design new offers, make connections, or audit your business through the lens of your five-year vision. 

 

Build your long-game filter. Every new idea, opportunity, or offer must pass one test: Does this reinforce our Year 5 identity? Make that question your compass for everything your business does.

 

It's human nature to overvalue immediate rewards - a cognitive bias called hyperbolic discounting. Planning for 5 years out counteracts this by forcing you to think from your future identity, not your current circumstances. It aligns your moves with legacy, not urgency.

 

If you want to build a big business, don't chase the next small win. Create the entire long game.

Thursday’s Memo: How to Engineer Intrigue for Your Personal or Business Brand.
 

Visibility isn't about being everywhere and on every platform - it's about being clearly positioned in front of the right people. If that's not the case right now, your time is better spent observing and listening to your ideal audience and then showing up only when you can craft a clear, clean, and powerful message.

 

PS. We work directly with a small number of clients each year, but our mission is much larger than that. 

The Midnight Memos exist to arm intelligent and ambitious women everywhere with the tools to build unstoppable businesses and careers. Because the world needs more women in positions of real power.

 

If a woman comes to mind while reading this, please forward the memo to her. That's how real power spreads - from one smart woman to another.

 

If this was sent to you, click here to join the list.