What we describe here is an approach that we believe will work for us in planning our research. Other links to websites helpful for strategic planning are listed at the end of this section. The main points of strategic planning are to establish direction and provide alignment. The direction that the Center takes over time is the result of hundreds of individual decisions made by researchers. Thus it's important that we establish the right direction with our strategic plan, that everyone understands and commits to the plan and makes decisions aligned with it.
Strategic planning is a cascade process.
Each step is linked to the preceding one, with shorter range and greater detail. Our vision is a brief and, we hope, compelling statement of the world we seek to create. A revolution involves risk, and we intend to undertake the type of high-risk research that industry typically avoids. We derive the barriers which we must overcome in order to reach our vision by examining the differences between the future to which we aspire and today's world. The statement of mission describes our role in overcoming these barriers to achieve our vision.