A Book Review from

January 1993

David Osborne and Ted Gaebler

Reinventing Government:
How the Entrepreneurial Spirit is Transforming the Public Sector

Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Inc. 331 pp.

Anyone with an interest in improving government should read this book. This is a collection of stories and examples, in the style of In Search of Excellence, of how local, city and state governments—even the Pentagon— have changed their way of doing business. It is easy to read, and although you may not agree with all of the solutions, you will be impressed with their innovation and effectiveness. This book talks about changes that must take place in government before long term customer satisfaction can be achieved.

Early on, the authors let you know that government is very different from business. Businesses exist to make a profit, governments exist to provide service. Solutions that work for one cannot be necessarily made to work for the other. The following quote sets the tone for an early chapter: The word ‘government’ is from a Greek word, which means ‘to steer’. The job of government is to steer, not to row the boat. Delivering services is rowing, and government is not very good at rowing.—E. S. Savas. The message of the rest of the book is government should be a facilitator, planner, policy maker—not a deliverer of service.

Given this lead-in, I was prepared for a discussion about privatization. The authors framed the question not between public or private, but between monopoly or competition. A compelling example is offered in a discussion of school choice in Minnesota. The result of opening up competition for students and tax dollars spurred schools to shift boardroom discussions away from which lawn mower to buy. . . [to] asking ‘Are we providing anything that anybody would want to come to, by their choice?’ (p.99). One telling statistic in Minnesota’s experience was that in the first two years 1,500 drop outs returned to school. Another example was about garbage collection. Phoenix put out their contract to public bid. Public Works bid along with the private sector. At first they lost most of their business, but over time Public Works learned how to compete and win. The real winners, of course, are the citizens of Phoenix and Minnesota.

Another key discussion was on mission and results. Too many government agencies justify their existence on the number of citizens served or the size of their staffs—but the real justification is results. The authors include a table called What To Measure? (good reading for business people, too). In summary, the table focuses our attention to:

The discipline required to measure these aspects of government service requires a clear mission and a dialog with the customer. Many of the topics discussed in the book are issues business has been dealing with through various efforts, including Total Quality. The value this book brings to the discussion is to recognize the fundamental differences between government and business, and to look at real examples where this reinvention process has succeeded.

Just as In Search of Excellence got a lot of us thinking about how our business could emulate world leaders, Reinventing Government may a catalyst to get citizens and government workers thinking about how to make government more effective and cheaper to run. v