TEI charts course for future: vision 20/20 strategic planning work concludes.

From time to time, organizations must review where they have been and how they got there in order to confirm where they should be going or, more broadly, to candidly assess their present in order to ensure they have remained on a course that will meet the needs of their members. When David M. Penney began his term as Tax Executives Institute's International President last August, he called for the creation of a task force to review the Institute's strategic direction and to define the ideal TEI at the end of the decade. The Vision 20/20 Task Force, which completed its work in June when the Institute's Board of Directors approved a strategic plan, provides a clear path for the future and confirmation that TEI remains dedicated to and focused on the needs of its members. The Institute's "itinerary for tomorrow" is reprinted in this issue.

"The purpose the Vision 20/20 project was to develop a strategic plan that allows the Institute to remain responsive to the needs of the in-house tax community," said Mr. Penney. "Since adoption of TEI's last strategic plan in 1999, the Institute has grown, with our total membership up 30 percent and much more global in its reach. This was clearly an appropriate time to re-examine TEI's vision and objectives."

TEI's self-examination demanded more than relying only on hunches and gut feelings. To ensure the voices of the members were heard and understood, TEI engaged a highly regarded strategic planning consultant to guide the overall planning effort and to gather data from TEI members and other stakeholders. Task Force members and the consultants spoke with and surveyed a broad cross-section of TEI's membership and others in the tax community including the Institute's current leadership, former leaders (at both the chapter and Institute level), committee members, younger and culturally diverse members, practitioners, and former government officials. This research served as the foundation upon which the Institute built its new strategic plan.

Mr. Penney said that one of the reassuring things about the process used by the Vision 20/20 Task Force was that it confirmed that TEI's core mission remains aligned with the needs and desires of its members. That said, he continued, one of the challenges created by success is learning how to keep its positive momentum. That is certainly the case with TEI's international operations. In 1999, the Institute has just established its European Chapter (now EMEA) Chapter and...