Christopher O'Malley:
What can make the game of IT so challenging is finding the right balance between strategic and tactical investments. CIOs must decide on the best mix of initiatives that hold both compelling long-term ROI potential, as well as, those that provide tactical service improvements for supporting existing demands. In the real world, budget pressures often have a way of pre-determining this balance to the tactical extreme.
While IT is hit particularly hard by this problem, it affects many functional areas of the enterprise. When tactics win over strategy you run the risk of blazing a path into the forest only to discover you are lost.