biggus, quite. I know from a meeting some years ago that long term planning is pretty close to short term. IMHO this is because the staff officer levels have been refined to such an extent that the majority are operating on reactive and routine work and there is no spare capacity for 'blue sky' or 'out of the box' thinking.
Any 'off the wall' ideas would need staffing and if there is no staff then the idea will 'wither on the vine'.
Again, IMHO, it is one reason why procurement gets such a 'bad name' because there are not enough people to really 'brainstorm' a problem.
All trite buzz words but I think there is much truth in that.