eated, they are created with a mission, purpose, and some objectives. Very few organizations are created with a limited life. If the organization is a business and is contemplating use of borrowed or equity capital, its founders almost surely prepared multiple-year financial statements and elaborated on what they planned to do to earn a return on invested capital. If a plan is created properly and thor- oughly, most of its value comes from the process of creating the plan. Once it's created, it becomes a guide and its execution is subject to change from outside forces, as well as organizational behavior. Many organizations think of their long-range plan as a living document subject to periodic review and change as the entity evolves and conditions around it-over which it has no control- change. There's no lack of literature on the subject of strategic planning. Strategic planning has gone in and out of vogue as a subject of interest since the 1960s. The basics have to do with the organization or enterprise posing a set of questions and then making a conscious decision to formulate answers, eventually resulting in a so-called long-range or strategic plan. Questions along the following lines should be asked and addressed in detail: What is our mission? Who are we, and why are we here? What is our planning horizon? What are all the possible things we could do if we had unlimited resources? Which possibilities do we choose, and how do they fit in our time frame? How should we go about pursuing our objectives? How much can we afford, and are willing, to spend? 13 TECHNOLOGY FORECASTING AND STRATEGIC PLANNING What are the risks and estimated rewards of each project or program we might choose? What kind of environment can we expect to operate in during the plan period? What regulatory and/or technology limitations or enablers are likely to impact the organization during the plan period? Many non-profit and government organizations make their long- range plans public. Many of them include great detail on their plans for 