EDITOR’S NOTE: This article first appeared at Inc.com
Most companies overestimate what they can achieve in a year—and dramatically underestimate what’s possible in seven.
That’s why goal-setting can’t just be an exercise in optimism. To create real traction, you need a system that connects your long-term vision to what your team does today. At Cheetah, we’ve adopted a framework that not only sets ambitious goals, but also builds accountability and ownership at every level of the company.
Here’s how we do it.
Start with the big one: A 7-year goal
A long-term goal is the North Star that guides your company’s trajectory. We pick a seven-year horizon and ask ourselves:
- What do we want our company to look like?
- What do we want our revenue and profitability to be?
- How do we want the market to describe us?
The answers to those questions define more than just a destination. They spark energy. They give our work meaning. They turn good days into wins—and hard days into purpose.
We don’t just show up to work. We show up to build something that lasts.
Reverse engineer the vision
Once the seven-year goal is clear, we slice it in half. What must be true in three years to give us a strong chance of hitting our seven-year vision?
Here, we get more detailed. We define mid-point revenue and profit targets. We map the barriers that could slow us down. And we identify the major initiatives we’ll need to complete to stay on track.
Then, we zoom in again—this time to the upcoming year. What must happen in the next 12 months to stay on pace for our three-year targets to be met? This is where accountability becomes real.
We set only three to five major company goals per year, with no more than three to five key tasks per goal. That constraint keeps us focused on the work that matters most.
We also build in a 10% buffer to handle the unexpected—because if you’re growing fast, unexpected opportunities (and client needs) will always find you.
Bottom-up execution creates buy-in
The executive team sets the seven-year vision. But we don’t dictate the entire roadmap. Instead, we empower teams to help define the three-year and annual goals that ladder up to it.
Why? Because your frontline managers and teams have the visibility you don’t. They know the nuances. They can see the bottlenecks before they become real. And when they help create the plan, they’re fully bought in.
That’s critical—because scaling isn’t just about more sales or product enhancements. It’s about anticipating everything that growth requires.
If your corporate goal is to grow by 30%, your teams need to answer:
- How many additional clients does that mean?
- How will we staff onboarding, support, and service?
- How long does it take to hire and train?
- Where are the operational chokepoints?
When every department breaks down its responsibilities into measurable building blocks, scaling stops being a guessing game—and starts being a system.
Make the work visible and measurable
We don’t keep our goals in a slide deck or tucked away in a strategy memo. We make them visible—at every level of the company.
Each team tracks progress weekly (at minimum monthly), updating percent-complete for every major goal and sub-task. We publish this internally to reinforce transparency, alignment, and accountability.
We also tie compensation directly to progress. Raises and bonuses are linked to the goals that move our company forward. When teams hit their targets, they win. When we all hit our targets, everyone wins.
The outcome: Alignment, ownership, and competitive edge
This framework turns lofty ambition into daily action. It ensures your company isn’t just dreaming big—it’s executing with discipline and focus.
And here’s the payoff: when your entire organization is aligned, bought in, and accountable, you gain a competitive advantage that’s hard to replicate.
Because your competitors might have a product. They might have a market. But if they don’t have a team that’s unified and fully engaged, they’ll never catch you.
