Dan Chenok

Today governments face very serious, seemingly intractable public management challenges that go to the core of effective governance and leadership, testing the very form, structure, and capacity required to meet these problems head-on. Many of these challenges are wickedly complex not respecting bureaucratic boundaries, nonlinear, and fluid in nature: “where very small effects may produce disproportionate impacts” In many ways, traditional approaches of government seem obsolete and incapable of properly responding to them.

This week, the IBM Center for The Business of Government was honored to host many leaders to commemorate the Center’s 25th anniversary, and to launch a new book, Transforming the Business of Government:  Reflections on Resilience, Innovation, and Performance.   With this post, we share some observations and images about the event and a first view of the book.

Federal spending on mandatory and discretionary grant programs reached a new high in Fiscal Year 2022. Interest in the effectiveness of these intergovernmental partnerships is of increasing importance to policymakers, government agency managers, and citizens.

Cybersecurity has evolved from a conversation among technologists in server rooms to a substantial dialog between industry leaders and policy makers on the international stage. There is an almost universal recognition of the importance of managing risks associated with doing business in the digital age of the 21st century, and three decades of not adapting to modern technical and security capabilities to overcome.

Since the turn of the millennium, pandemics, heat waves, wildfires, floods, cyberattacks, supply chain interruptions, and other crises have deeply stressed governments, communities, businesses, and individuals around the world. This cascade of catastrophic events raises fundamental questions about how governments can anticipate, prepare for, and respond to these and other shocks yet to come.

The IBM Center for The Business of Government and the IBM Institute for Business Value, in partnership with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and a range of other partners, launched an initiative last year to help government leaders identify core capabilities critical to building resilience in the face of “future shocks,” where collaborative action to address anticipated threats requires focus and cooperation across a broad ecosystem of partners and stakeholders.

Blog Co-Author: Virginia Huth currently serves as the SES Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Regulatory and Oversight Systems in the Office of Technology Transformation Services at the U.S. General Services Administration, which is overseeing the modernization of the eRulemaking system. Virginia is writing in her personal capacity; her opinions are her own and do not represent the views of the GSA.

Guest Author: Ross Autry, Strategic Partnership Executive - US Federal Consulting, IBM

Guest Bloggers: Bradley K. Kistler, Associate Partner and Maggie Pool, Managing Consultant - US Federal Talent Transformation, IBM

All of these points hold true today; however, shared services providers are now faced with new customer needs focused on employee experience, creating stress on existing technology and operating models.

New threats and domains for warfare include cyber and space, along with disruptive technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and quantum. Dealing with these issues necessitates an enhanced partnership across governments and within industry.  Achieving mission readiness is growing more complex and requires dynamic defense technology solutions.