Looking Ahead: NASBA’s Strategic Planning Progresses

NASBA’s strategic planning work is moving into a new phase as the organization narrows a broad range of ideas into a more focused set of priorities for the years ahead. The accounting profession and regulatory environment continue to change, and this work is about making sure NASBA evolves alongside them and stays useful to the boards it serves. Members can expect to hear more about that direction at NASBA’s Annual Meeting in October, including the major themes taking shape and how the organization plans to move from strategy into implementation.

Several broad themes are emerging from the work, including strengthening NASBA’s support for state boards, helping members anticipate and respond to regulatory issues, improving tools and services, and ensuring the organization’s governance and operations are aligned with future needs.

Those priorities are the product of an extensive process that began with a broad organizational diagnostic. The diagnostic included more than 100 hours of interviews with NASBA board members, senior staff and individuals connected to 90 percent of NASBA’s member boards. It was designed to give an honest, outside-in look at what is working well and where the organization should focus. That work was followed by a six-month phase in which member and staff task forces generated and explored new ideas.

The task forces explored opportunities across six areas: brand identity; meetings; communications and engagement; internal operations; governance; and deregulation. Hundreds of ideas were generated through that process and then consolidated and prioritized into a more concentrated group of potential strategic initiatives.

The current focus is on refining those ideas and determining what they would require in practice. That includes evaluating priorities through the lens of staffing, budget, timing and implementation so the eventual strategic plan can serve as a practical guide for decision-making.

Following the Annual Meeting, NASBA will begin developing a formal five-year strategic roadmap. Additional updates will follow as priorities are finalized and implementation begins.