Dr. Roger Koranteng Governance Adviser, Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD)

1. Dr. Roger Koranteng Governance Adviser, Governance and Institutional Development Division (GIDD) Commonwealth Secretariat CAPAM -PALAMA REGIONAL CONFERENCEPUBLIC SERVICE RESEARCH AND INNOVATIONA QUEST FOR SUSTAINED SERVICE DELIVERYMARCH 4 – 6, 2013 PRETORIAENTREPRENEURSHIP OF PUBLIC SERVICE INNOVATIONBy

2. Structure of Presentation • Introduction • Entrepreneur defined • Differences between public service and private organizations • Roles of Managers in the Public Sector • New Breed of Public Sector Entrepreneurs • National Partnership for Reinventing Government initiative • Singapore’s Public Service for the 21st Century • Botswana Least Corrupt Country in Africa • Public Officers • Leadership • Conclusion

3. Introduction • The role of government has been recognised as an enabling one: • creating space for entrepreneurs to turn ideas into market opportunities, establishing a positive environment for investment, • designing policies and programmes that stimulate private sector growth. • The current thinking calls upon governments to go beyond enablement. • Governments need to explore how promoting a culture of public entrepreneurship can drive public service innovation for effective and efficient service delivery. • Public service leaders need to reshape service delivery : • to accommodate reduced budgets • to embrace innovation as a means of driving public value and inspire economic growth • by radically adjusting the way they work around new, collaborative organisation models. • These actions taken within the public sector refer to as public entrepreneurship. • Presentation explores how public service leaders operating in a rule-based organisations with fewer resources can continue to deliver public value through entrepreneurship.

4. Entrepreneur Defined • The term entrepreneur is a loanword from French, and is commonly used to describe • an individual who organizes and operates a business or businesses, taking on financial risk to do so. • The term was first defined by the Irish-French economist Richard Cantillon in 1735 • as the person who pays a certain price for a product and resell it at an uncertain price. • Over time, scholars have defined the term in different ways.

5. Entrepreneur Defined • Drucker defines the entrepreneur • as one who always searches for change, responds to it, and exploits it as an opportunity. • an entrepreneur is innovative and sees changes to his work. • Harvard Business School defines entrepreneurship as ‘the pursuit of opportunity without regard to resources currently controlled’. • if public sector leaders are to meet the challenges of reforming their public services over the next few years, this kind of entrepreneurial mindset will be essential. • the need to break away from a view of public service that focuses on the efficient and effective distribution of state resources ,and • instead focuses on the opportunities to improve people’s lives, wherever these opportunities exist and whoever is best placed to take advantage of them. • Thus, entrepreneurship is about identifying opportunities, creatively breaking patterns, taking and managing risk, organising and co-ordinating resources.

6. Entrepreneurial Behaviour • Entrepreneurial behaviour should not be limited to only the private sector • as public organisations operating with limited resources need to find creative solutions to continue the provision of service in order to respond to the increased demands of its citizens. • Public Administration and New Public Management proponents emphasise that governments should run more like business. • However, there remain differences between public service and private sector organisations

7. Differences between public service and private organizations • In the private sector, the emphasis is on profit, • whereas in the public sector the emphasis is providing a service at minimal cost. • The private sector is guided mainly by internal policy, which is flexible and relatively easy to change; • the public sector is guided by law and regulation, which is external to the organization, inflexible and difficult to change. • The private sector is customer-driven, • while the emphasis in the public sector is on complying with the regulations. • The private sector is not strongly committed to job security, • whereas the public sector employees are usually well protected. Thus it is not easy to get rid of the “deadwood” in the civil service. • In the private sector, competition creates pressure for efficiency and effectiveness; • this pressure does not exist in the public sector, because most public services operate in a monopolistic environment.

8. Differences between public service and private organizations • Many public policies are politically motivated; thus the objectives may not be clear, and the administrators have no clear implementation guidelines or direction. • Public servants are seldom rewarded or recognized for doing a good job, but often punished for making mistakes. This discourages public servants from taking chances. • There is more recognition for accomplishments in the private sector and usually less punishment if a mistake is made. • In the private sector, investment is voluntary; there is an acceptance of risk by the investor. • In the public sector, capital is raised through compulsory fees and involuntary taxation, and thus “investors” do not anticipate risk of the funds they have entrusted.

9. Differences between public service and private organizations • Although entrepreneurs in private and public sectors are being challenged by both the external and internal environment, • External environmental factors in the public sector might be different from those in the private sector. • External constraints on public managers are different than those on private managers and they are difficult to deal with. • Public interest and citizen satisfaction are key when measuring the success of a public organisation, because the main purpose of public organisations is to meet societal goals, • whereas for the private organizations, profit seems to be the main motive. • Entrepreneurship in delivery of service remains a potential avenue to resolving inadequate public sector performance and service delivery. • The utility of public entrepreneurship is to improving the delivery of public service through innovation.

10. Rules and Norms • Being entrepreneurial is not simply about doing away with rules. • Some argue that it is not possible to be entrepreneurial within the public service because it is guided by so many rules and norms. • No doubt there are rules that should be abolished and should be gotten rid of as soon as they spotted. • But it is also true that there are rules that exist for good reasons. • As a public service, many of these are needed to ensure the highest standards of governance and accountability. • Ultimately, the public service cannot afford the same flexibilities and space to explore what private entrepreneurs enjoy. • However, these limitations cannot and should not hold down public officers who are truly fired up and persevering.

11. Roles of Managers in the Public Sector • In developing countries, particularly in Africa there is an urgent need for public managers who can give new dimensions to managing the public service in order to enhance service delivery. • In order to respond to the peoples’ demands under the conditions of scarcity of resources, the roles of the managers in the public sector need to be changed in an innovative and proactive way to improve the performance of government. • Entrepreneurship is one answer to the perennial problem of failing public services. • Entrepreneurship in public service requires public managers to play an innovative role for delivering public services, and • its accomplishment has to resonate with citizen satisfaction, efficiency and effectiveness. • The future success factors of the public sector organisation are: speediness, flexibility, integration and innovativeness. • All of which are characteristics closely related to entrepreneurship.

12. New Breed of Public Sector Entrepreneurs • African countries require new breed of public sector entrepreneurs with sense of how to stage or prioritise what is feasible and what is not, and what is most desirable and appropriate given the country context and political will. • Mindful of organisational cultures and unique circumstances public sector managers must be situational sensitive, insightful strategists and skilful implementers. • The doctrine of tailored, step-wise and strategic interventions offers a strong foundation for the greater reform achievements. • This pragmatic approach focuses attention on strengthening processes, institutions and country-specific challenges and opportunities • compared to prescribing a set of generic policies to spur developmentdictated by Breton Woods Institutions

13. The Clinton Administration Initiative:National Partnership for Reinventing Government initiative • The origin of the National Partnership for Reinventing Government initiative was found essentially in the combination of two conditions: • the performance of the private sector was continuously improving while • the performance of the public sector was continuously deteriorating. • This "performance gap" was to be narrowed by the Administration pursuing four major reform themes: "cutting red tape," "putting customers first," "empowering employees to get results," and "cutting back to basics." • At the core of this initiative was "benchmarking" service levels of public institutions with private businesses. E.g. • when citizens visit the post office, they expect the same kind of service they get at UPS or Federal Express: quick, efficient, courteous. • when they call the Internal Revenue Service, they expect to be treated as they would be when calling their local banker or accountant. • The private or business focus of the Administration's initiative calls upon Public Administrators . . . to give citizens the same responsiveness and consideration businesses supposedly give customers

14. National Partnership for Reinventing Government initiative • The Clinton Administration Initiatives was innovation based. • The reform models focused on change management, a customer-driven process, and "bottom-up" employee empowerment with flattened hierarchies. • During the 1994 -1999 period 350 "Reinvention Labs" were created throughout government to pilot innovations and new ways of doing the government's business. • The Initiative claimed that: • 4,000 customer service standards were put in place; • 850 labour-management councils created; • 640,000 pages of internal rules eliminated; • $137 billion in savings realized, • a reduction in the federal workforce of 351,000, and 250 fewer federal programmes/agencies, among other accomplishments.

15. Singapore’s Public Service for the 21st Century • Singapore government initiatives seeks to introduce the entrepreneurial mindset in Singapore civil service. • “Public Service for the Twenty-First Century,” more commonly known as PS21, is a deliberate exercise to achieve two objectives: • To nurture an attitude of service excellence in meeting the needs of the public with high standards of quality, courtesy and responsiveness. • To foster an environment that induces and welcomes continuous change for greater efficiency and effectiveness by employing modern management tools and techniques while paying attention to the morale and welfare of public officers. • The Enterprise Challenge (TEC), a S$10 million fund, was set up to fund and sponsor innovative proposals that may be able to create new value or significant improvements to the provision of public services. • Its purpose is to encourage creativity, innovation and enterprise among the Singapore civil service in order to fundamentally improve public services.

16. Singapore’s Public Service for the 21st Century • According to Lim (2010) being an entrepreneurial public service, does not mean public officers going about starting their own business ventures. • It means developing an enterprising spirit in public officers. • It could simply be the adoption and adaptation of practices never done in Singapore before. • It is the mindset of connecting what you see as good and possible and translating it to the Singapore context. • He states that some of public servants may have been involved in highly entrepreneurial initiatives in the past without having seen them to be so.

17. Singapore’s Public Service for the 21st Century • Singapore would not have come this far had the Government been devoid of entrepreneurship. • We built an economy with world-class competencies despite the severe handicap of scarce land, natural resources and labour. • We maintained an open economy and welcomed multinational Jurong industrial estate out of swampland, Jurong Island out of the sea. • We achieved social harmony despite being a multi-racial, multi­-religious and multi-lingual society. • Instead of enforcing assimilation, we embrace cultural diversity and encourage the preservation of traditional customs. • Instead of social security, we provide for the retirement, home ownership and healthcare needs of the population through a fully-funded savings scheme, the Central Provident Fund.

18. Botswana Least Corrupt Country in Africa • According to Transparency International (TI), for the 17th year in a row, Botswana has being the least corrupt country in Africa, as well as among the least corrupt countries in the world. • Botswana's standing thus placed it in the top 20% of all surveyed nations by TI. • Botswana's success in the annual survey over the past two decades has been attributed to multiple safeguards, including the establishment of such institutions as the: • Directorate on Corruption and Economic Crime (DCEC), • Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board (PPADB) and the Ombudsman, and • constitutionally entrenched provisions for independent oversight by the Auditor General, Parliament and the Judiciary

19. Botswana Least Corrupt Country in Africa • DCEC has reinforced its capacity and reach by putting in place Anti-Corruption Units in ministries and local authorities, which have enforced procurement guidelines. • High Court judge dealing with cases of corruption has been established, • the establishment of DPP Anti-Corruption Unit • introduction of anti-corruption curricula in schools and training institutions has also added value to the fight on corruption. • Private sector plays a role in fighting corruption in partnership with government which is reflected in a Code of Conduct jointly developed by DCEC and Botswana Confederation of Commerce Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM).

20. Public Officers • The mission of any entrepreneurially-based public service is to gain a high and sustainable level of performance through enhanced organisational vitality. • Such organisational vitality can be accomplished by strengthening, stimulating, and capitalising on the creative, responsible, and motivated public servants; • who believe that they have a better idea and something important to contribute to improving organizational performance. • Public officers need to move with speed and intensity in pursuing opportunities. • Entrepreneurs act on opportunities and get on with the execution instead of being tied down with inertia.

21. Public Officers • With pragmatism and flexibility, public officers should be able to adjust as the environment changes. • They should have the mindset that inaction is more costly than having an imagination, sensible and calculated risk at innovations. • Acting upon their convictions rather than past precedence requires confidence and courage. • Should an initiative fail, there is a lesson to be learned and improvements to be made.

22. Leadership • Leadership is absolutely critical for entrepreneurship to flourish. • It is the public sector leader's responsibility to make public officers share the need for entrepreneurship, to keep the Service vibrant with new ideas and energy. • Public sector leaders should walk the talk and model entrepreneurship to followers consistently. • It is the leader who sets the climate for entrepreneurs to thrive. • Public sector leaders’ attitude towards followers' mistakes define the amount of space there is to innovate. • Bad decisions cannot be rewarded. However, a good decision which ultimately fails because of unexpected circumstances deserves recognition and yet another chance. • If Public service leadership are prepared to help officers absorb uncertainty and underwrite risks, entrepreneurship in public service will be more forthcoming.

23. Conclusion • More than ever, the African public service has to invent its desired future. • The Service cannot wait for changes to happen by chance and problems to present themselves. • There the need to nurture entrepreneurship in public service in Africa and reward the entrepreneurs with innovative and creative ideas. • This requires the need and the opportunity for entrepreneurial leadership. • The failure to change is often due to lack of imagination and risk-averse and thereby commits the greater error of missing the long-term advantage. • I hope you leave this conference resolving to be different