Strategic Planning in the Finance Department: The Experience of Raleigh, North Carolina.

• Author: James, Perry E.

Although most governments develop their goals through formal documents like multi-year capital improvement plans, comprehensive plans, and task-force reports, the planning activities of their finance departments often are much less organized. At the same time, many finance departments face unprecedented changes in their departmental services, including the management of complex new financial systems, growing expectations for 24-hour information access, and desires for rapid transaction processing between systems and over the Internet.

Reacting to these ever-increasing challenges, the City of Raleigh, North Carolina, finance department sought in 1999 to initiate a formal strategic planning process with three major components:

1) forward-thinking vision to be sure that the department sees what others see,

2) proactive pursuit of change once the vision is developed, and

3) practical implementation within the city organization.

During 1999, the finance department's leadership team developed a preliminary inventory of projects considered important over the next few years. Many dealt with improvements and interfaces to existing systems, but a large number also involved evolving technologies in the e-commerce arena. The department had been successful in recent years in partnering with the private sector in gaining new efficiencies of effort, and the leadership team wanted to build on these successes to meet future needs of the department.

It became evident that this list of projects needed to be prioritized, and that better organization would be needed. Further, the team realized that there needed to be mote information sharing with the other city departments that would be affected. From these realizations, the team concluded that a formal Finance Strategic Plan, covering a defined period of time, would be needed to bring all of the issues and stakeholders together into a manageable plan.

Developing the Strategic Planning Process

There are a number of ways to develop a strategic plan. Because there are many internal and external parties that either influence or are influenced by the finance department's activities, a planning process that was centered on diverse participation and interaction was desired. After reviewing alternatives, the process selected to best fit the departmental objectives was one termed "Future Search." This methodology has been used effectively for more than 40 years by organizations undergoing rapid changes, similar to those that occur with new technology. A consultant in strategic planning was chosen to lead the department through this "Future Search" in the development of a three-year plan produced directly out of a structured two-day conference.

Over the summer months of 1999, department leaders set in place the logistics for a September conference to be held off-site. An important part of this process was deciding who should be invited to the conference to provide an accurate representation of the finance department and its stakeholder groups. Eventually, 36 non-departmental participants were selected to join 27 finance department employees in...