A lot is being said lately about the importance of strong CEO/CIO relationship and IT-business alignment. This relationship is often tested when IT prepares its strategic plan. It is apparent that the IT strategic plan should be aligned with the strategic plan for the entire company, otherwise efforts to align IT with the business would fail and CEO/CIO relationship would get strained. But does a corporate strategic plan always contain sufficient information for IT planning?
CIOs of entrepreneurial companies know that the challenges they face are somewhat specific, and that lack of an adequate corporate strategic plan is one of them. These companies do not have much experience with strategic planning, nor do they feel the necessity for it until certain point of company growth. This is understandable since the leaders of these companies have been busy establishing and growing the business from ground zero. Strategic planning has not been their focus yet.
Source: CIO, http://advice.cio.com