"We govern either by leadership or by crisis. Leadership means making tough choices and planning ahead.
"That's why we're taking a hard look at future challenges, and what we want our agency to look like five years from now. It's our responsibility to get out in front of any problems, and CIA 2015 will help us do that," Panetta said in his message to the CIA staff.
Outlining CIA 2015's three pillars, he said the first would be investing in people.
The CIA will recruit, train, and retain a highly talented and diverse workforce with the strengths to tackle any mission that arises.
"Bolstering the Agency's foreign language capabilities is essential to that objective. The plan doubles the number of clandestine officers and triples the number of analysts enrolled in language training," he said.
The CIA will enhance its use of more flexible and innovative deployments overseas, including new approaches to cover, paving the way for even better intelligence collection.
More co-location of analysts and operators at home and abroad is expected to enrich the information provided to policymakers and lead to better operational success in the field, he said.
He said this sort of fusion has been key to victories in counterterrorism and counter-proliferation.
Panetta said CIA personnel must be able to operate effectively and securely in a rapidly changing global information environment.
"The plan boosts the CIA's potential for human-enabled technical collection and provides advanced software tools to help Agency officers tackle the huge volume of data they encounter in their work," he said.
The third pillar is to achieve a new level of agility in maintaining the agency's global presence and surging for emergencies. The CIA, he said, will transform its support platforms around the world and consolidate certain business functions.
Commending the agency's tradition of minimal bureaucracy, a key ingredient in its responsiveness and impact, he said: "When we're told to get a job done, we can do it".