Companies need to rethink their financial, business and operating models to thrive in today’s and tomorrow’s complex and dynamic business climate. Taking a unilateral short-term perspective in business and strategy is increasingly costly. Companies who are able to re-orient towards the long-term will be better positioned to grow and deliver better and more stable financial performance than their peers, both in the short and longer term.

Our analysis identified three key patterns differentiating long-term oriented companies from those with a more short-term focus:

1. Focus on long-term value creates superior and more stable financial performance.
2. Long-term oriented companies outperform their peers over the short term.
3. Long-term orientation is also an effective strategy in an economic downturn.
   

With long-term orientation leading to more stable returns, increased short-term performance and increased organizational resilience, it's imperative that CEOs take action to position their companies for long-term value creation. To get started on – or increase the pace of – the journey in your organization, we recommend considering the following steps:

1. Assess your current ability to blend long-term value creation with a shorter-term results focus
2. Start to create a long-term oriented environment within your company
3. Measure the impact of your long-term oriented business programs and projects against the short- to medium term performance of your company and vice versa
4. Bring stakeholder management to the core of your business
5. Put more emphasis on long-term value creation in all investor communications and reporting

For more insights into how to best position your company for the long term, download the full report.