Govern by Number

By Stephen Barr
Monday, March 31, 2008

It's easy to make light of Top 10 lists, but there's a lot to be said for the way they keep it short and to the point.

A new list out today, "Ten Challenges Facing Public Managers," does just that. It comes from the IBM Center for the Business of Government, which is celebrating its 10th anniversary this summer, with an eye to the next 10 years.

"We would not mind a debate on this, whether people say we missed something," said Jonathan D. Breul, the center's executive director, referring to the list.

At the top of the list is "fiscal sanity," a reflection of the widespread concern about how the government is going to keep paying its bills and find more money to finance the Social Security and health-care costs of the baby-boom generation.

"The next president must devise a solution to these issues," the center's briefing book says. "All routes to salvation at the federal, state and local levels require reforming federal retirement and health care programs before they squeeze out other critical national priorities."

No. 2 is "crisis of competence," the government's challenge to compete for talent at a time when many college students turn away from "bureaucracy" and show little interest in making a career in federal service.

If the government has trouble hiring the right kind of talent, "Decisions must be made on the kind of work -- and how much -- should be delivered directly versus contracted out, or even delegated via grants to states, localities and nonprofits," the center wrote.

Other items on the IBM list include "information overload," which increases the risk that important data will be overlooked when a critical decision is made; " 'green' leadership" on energy and environmental issues; and "expect surprises," such as Hurricane Katrina.

The government was no match for Katrina, and in the coming years, federal officials may face breakdowns in food safety systems, a pandemic, a West Coast earthquake or bioterrorism, to name a few.

"Things don't work as planned," Breul said. "In government, the surprises are often nasty and difficult."

The IBM Center will use the list to shape its research for the next decade, with the goal of providing political appointees and federal executives with the latest thinking on issues and practical advice on how to deal with them.

The center, of course, is not the only group looking at the government's problems, especially in a presidential election year. But it has carved out a niche by using experts and academics to write business-oriented analyses of the government's management problems and make recommendations.

For example, Cindy Williams of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology recently wrote a report on how the White House and Congress could help strengthen the Department of Homeland Security. David C. Wyld of Southeastern Louisiana University offered tips for federal officials who yearn to blog.

Other reports have covered such issues as financial management, electronic government, procurement, civil service pay systems and presidential transitions.

The IBM Center offers up to $20,000 in stipends to experts who write the reports.

The practice of having outside experts, rather than company staff, write the reports began when the center was founded as the PricewaterhouseCoopers Endowment for the Business of Government. Five years ago, the center moved to IBM when IBM bought the consulting arm of the global accounting firm.

Albert Morales is IBM's managing partner for the center, which has a small staff that includes former federal employees, including Breul, who worked at the Office of Management and Budget.

Over the past 10 years, the center has awarded more than 300 research stipends and published more than 200 reports and books. It also produces a weekly radio program featuring interviews with government executives.

The center posts most of its reports on its Web site, http://businessofgovernment.org, which receives an average of 52,000 visits every month. About 40 percent of the visitors are from overseas, Breul said.

The center is revamping its Web site so that readers can search for publications based on subject areas, download podcasts and view two-page summaries of research topics, he said.

Stephen Barr's e-mail address isbarrs@washpost.com.