For any busi­ness — large or small — it is not only impor­tant to set over­all goals and objec­tives, but it is equal­ly crit­i­cal to devel­op a plan on how the com­pa­ny, as a whole, will meet them. Most of us know that a process such as cor­po­rate strate­gic plan­ning is the cor­ner­stone of suc­cess. But do we know how to real­ly set the goals, plan to meet them, and then stick to the plan — or not stick to it when it’s failing? 

It’s a process just like any­thing else in busi­ness. If you know the steps, then you can eas­i­ly imple­ment it. I’ll go over my check­list for this process from start to fin­ish and explain the ​“whys” along the way.

No Such Thing as an IS/IT Strate­gic Plan

Anoth­er CIO I know told me years ago that there is no such thing as an IS/IT strate­gic plan. He said, ​“There is only one plan and that’s the cor­po­rate strate­gic plan. Every­thing else needs to fall in line with that.” I would have to agree with my friend, and in fact, say that’s the first step in the process. Under­stand where the orga­ni­za­tion is today and where it wants to go in the next cou­ple of years. Once you have that under­stand­ing, you can begin to work in every­thing else.