Strategic Planning

The chief architect spends their time in planning mode much of their day. They may be attending meetings, but keeping the big picture in mind. There are key areas in which the chief architect can explore and evaluate. Their time is best spent on the most critical of all possibilities. Trouble shooting and operational support is all too often part of their day. The Chief Architect's Big Three Secrets for Enterprise Architecture Planning should give a great reminder or sanity check as to the sources of the best information.

A mission statement based on the five fundamental obligations of an organization lays the foundation for a cohesive strategic plan and resulting objectives that include everyone in the organization. It reduces the tendency to develop only those objectives which will guarantee this year's bonus and promotes attention to the long-tern goals of the organization. A well defined set of obligation statements that covers the entire organization provides the basis for improved productivity and performance at all levels. Traditional management by objectives programs fall short because a lack of true commitment and or understanding. Many times this shortfall is due to a lack of understanding or structure.

A comprehensive strategy to manage your internal and external communications during a period of change might seem like overkill, a tremendous amount of effort for very little gain. But such a view must be evaluated against the fact that the long-term strategic plan will drive the company for anything from the next five to fifteen years. Investing time at the beginning to 'get it right' will pay massive dividends over the longer term.

A proactive approach to scheduling yields a positive affect on both customer care and business growth. The ideal schedule is one based upon how you work rather than forcing you to conform to standards created by others. The following steps are designed to help you develop and implement a customized strategy to create your ideal schedule, ensure quality, increase quantity, and achieve goals.

As another new calendar or fiscal year begins, it is wise to take a good hard look ahead at where your business is heading in light of the business environment of the new year. It is also wise to develop new goals for the upcoming year in this new business environment. The way to take this proactive and positive step in your business is to use strategic thinking and planning. Looking at the start of a new year, we can acknowledge some uncertainty in the business environment and perhaps in our personal lives. Therefore, it is the perfect time to engage in strategic thinking and planning to benefit from the opportunities that are always present, especially during uncertainty.