Annual Planning Meetings are the strategic deep dive that aligns leadership, sharpens long-term vision, and sets the company up for high-impact growth in the year ahead.
While weekly and quarterly meetings keep execution on track, real momentum comes from clarity about where you're headed and why. That’s the role of the Annual Planning Meeting (APM).
In The 90 Way, the APM is more than a once-a-year retreat—it’s a strategic checkpoint for company-wide recalibration. It allows leadership teams to reflect, reconnect with the vision, assess what’s working (and what’s not), and set bold yet achievable goals for the year ahead. It’s where direction becomes strategy, and strategy becomes actionable plans.
As companies move through the Stages of Development—especially into Stages 3, 4, and 5—annual planning becomes essential to drive clarity, intentionality, and scalable growth.
Overview
Without an intentional Annual Planning rhythm, companies often struggle with:
Strategic drift—no clear focus or too many competing priorities
Disjointed execution across departments and functions
Failure to build on lessons learned from the prior year
Misaligned leadership on vision, values, and goals
Poor handoff between strategy and operations
Lack of accountability and follow-through on annual goals
The Annual Planning Meeting solves these by:
Centering the company around a shared long-term vision
Clarifying what success looks like in the next 12 months
Creating cohesion across all growth drivers (Vision, Strategy, Execution, Data)
Facilitating honest reflection and cultural alignment
Equipping leaders to model clarity and accountability
Defining high-leverage Rocks that create measurable progress
Growth-minded companies treat Annual Planning not as a formality, but as a launchpad for everything that follows. When you get it right, the entire year moves faster—and with greater purpose.
Are Your Meetings Effective — or Effectively Pointless? Take our quiz to find out.
