How Companies Plan Ahead

The companies that did engage in long-term planning for their businesses generally looked out an average of 16 years ahead, according to Gartner.

Furthermore, the survey found that long-term strategic planning is a collaborative exercise for organizations' senior management and directors.

"[Senior management] should look to the longer term, and identify, explore and experiment with potentially disruptive technologies and technology-enabled capabilities to understand, and be able to demonstrate and articulate, their likely business impact," said Prentice in the release.