Strategic planning maturity reflects how well an organization formulates, aligns, and executes its strategy. But what happens when the 'organization' being assessed is not a single entity, but an entire nation in collaboration with a global ecosystem?

Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 challenges conventional boundaries. As a national strategic plan with ecosystem-wide implications, it aims to align every ministry, sector, and region around a single, long-term vision. Evaluating it through the lens of strategic planning maturity is not only possible—it reveals best practices that even high-performing institutions can learn from.

This article explores how Vision 2030 exemplifies excellence across the dimensions of strategic planning capability: strategy formulation, strategic focus, articulation, and governance. 

A tiered architecture

To conduct our assessment, we analysed publicly available documentation—the Vision 2030 blueprint, the 2024 Annual Report, official program highlights, and delivery plans for key Vision Realization Programs (VRPs). 

To understand the depth of Vision 2030’s design, we examined it across multiple interconnected levels:

• The Vision itself – a national manifesto organized around three pillars: a vibrant society, a thriving economy, and an ambitious nation.
   
• Vision Realization Programs (VRPs) – medium-term implementation vehicles with defined strategic objectives and KPIs.
   
• Delivery Plans – including the 2021–2025 HCDP roadmap, which translates VRP goals into tangible sectoral and regional actions.
   
• National and Regional Strategies – cascading operational plans tied to ministerial and local delivery frameworks.

Vision 2030 transforms strategy from a statement of intent into an actionable, nationwide framework for delivery.

How we analysed the data

Our approach combined evidence-based analysis and perception mapping, in line with GPA Unit’s maturity assessment methodology. We reviewed official reports and digital content, cross-referencing these with real-time perceptions captured through media coverage. 

We then benchmarked Vision 2030 against our Integrated Maturity Model Framework, focusing specifically on four core dimensions of the strategic planning capability: formulation, focus, articulation, and governance.

Key insights

Key Insight #1: Strategic Horizons—Short, Medium, and Long-Term

Vision 2030 stands out for integrating objectives across three time horizons:

• Short-term: Annual reporting and rolling KPIs drive tactical responsiveness.
• Medium-term: VRPs operate in 5-year cycles with mid-range goals.
• Long-term: Vision 2030 itself spans 15 years, broken into three phases:
  • Phase 1 (Foundation): Reform and capacity building.
  • Phase 2 (Acceleration): Sectoral expansion and private-sector integration.
  • Phase 3 (Delivery, 2026–2030): Final push for sustained impact.

This multi-horizon design is a hallmark of strategic planning excellence, allowing the Kingdom to maintain focus while adapting to change.

Key Insight #2: Strategic Cascading in Action

Vision 2030 achieves what many institutions struggle with: a consistent, rigorous approach to cascading objectives. KPIs exist at three levels:

1. Vision-level KPIs (e.g., “three Saudi cities ranked among top 100 globally”).
2. Program-level KPIs (e.g., percentage increase in workforce digital skills under HCDP).
3. Delivery-level indicators embedded in ministry and regional plans.

This alignment enables real-time monitoring of how local actions contribute to national outcomes. Crucially, objectives are classified into direct and indirect contributions, reflecting a systems-thinking mindset that accounts for interconnected impact and emergence—a sophisticated approach rarely seen in national planning.

Key Insight #3: Strategic Articulation Through Storytelling

What sets Vision 2030 apart is not just the clarity of its goals, but the way those goals are communicated—clearly, consistently, and compellingly. Each strategic pillar is expressed through purpose-driven language that resonates beyond policy circles:

• A vibrant society with strong roots and fulfilling lives.
• A thriving economy offering rewarding opportunities.
• An ambitious nation that is effectively governed and responsibly enabled.

But the real strength lies in how these themes are translated into public-facing narratives that make strategy tangible and relatable. Across official websites and communication materials, Vision 2030 uses:

• Executive summaries that make complex plans accessible to non-specialist audiences.
• Striking visual storytelling, including diagrams and thematic overviews, to convey strategic links between initiatives and long-term goals.
• Infographics and thematic framing that help individuals and sectors understand how their contributions connect to national objectives.
   

This level of strategic communication fosters a performance culture where people don’t just understand the vision—they can see themselves in it. Many organizations, even high-functioning ones, struggle with this degree of narrative alignment, especially at scale. Vision 2030 makes it look effortless.

Key Insight #4: Governance That Precedes Execution

One of the most mature aspects of Vision 2030 is its interconnected governance infrastructure, which aligns a wide range of institutions under a unified strategic direction. Rather than functioning in silos, entities work within a multi-layered governance model that ensures coordination from vision to execution.

• Governance is layered, with different bodies responsible for strategic alignment, resource coordination, implementation support, and communication—each playing a distinct but connected role.
• Institutional roles are clearly defined, allowing for consistent decision-making and seamless handoffs between planning, delivery, and oversight functions.
• Integration is a key strength—institutions operate within a shared system that reinforces strategic coherence across ministries, regions, and sectors.
• A central enabler is the National Center for Performance Measurement (ADAA), which unifies performance tracking through common tools, digital platforms, and quarterly reporting, ensuring that measurement links directly to strategic outcomes.

This level of structured coordination elevates governance from administration to a core component of strategic planning excellence and a driver of performance culture across the public sector.

Key Insight #5: Platformization and Self-Evaluation

Vision 2030  builds institutional capacity for learning. Through platforms launched by ADAA, public entities can:

• Self-evaluate their performance maturity. 
• Automate data reporting for transparency and consistency.
• Align their KPIs with national benchmarks in real time.

This reflects a mature performance culture where improvement is not episodic but continuous—and where strategic planning is a living process, not a static plan.

Conclusion: Planning in a Different League

Strategic planning is hard. National strategic planning is harder. But executing a multi-tiered national strategy with cascaded KPIs, robust governance, and real citizen engagement? That’s playing in a different league.

Vision 2030 offers more than a roadmap for Saudi Arabia—it serves as a global best practice in how to architect, communicate, and operationalize large-scale strategic transformation. For institutions, ministries, and countries aiming to embed excellence in strategic planning and performance culture, Vision 2030 offers both a benchmark and a challenge.

Are we planning to manage? Or managing to deliver?