Entrepreneurialism in Whitehall: oxymoron or ambition?

"...freeing you from top down micro-management and targetry... Liberating the hidden army of public service entrepreneurs, deeply seized with the public service ethos, but who itch to innovate and drive improvement themselves. I know there's a hunger for this... There is huge pent-up frustration among so many public sector workers who see how things could be different but can't make it happen."

(speech by David Cameron on modern public services, 17 January 2011)

Does David Cameron (or the Coalition government) really want an army of entrepreneurs to emerge in Whitehall?

More efficient and better services have universal appeal - but entrepreneurs are people who innovate, take risks and often fail. Is this really what Ministers want?

On 8 March, former UKTI CEO Sir Andrew Cahn debated these questions with, Mervyn Davies, Lord Davies of Abersoch, former UKTI Minister at the Institute for Government.

Entrepreneurialism in Whitehall: Business, government and the civil service

Panellists Sir Andrew Cahn, former Chief Executive of UKTI and Lord Davies of Abersoch, whom he served as Trade Minister, debated how to make the civil service more entrepreneurial and how to get more business people involved in government.

The event marked the launch of Andrew's InsideOUT pamphlet: The Whitehall Entrepreneur: Oxymoron or Hidden Army.

Revolving doors

Both Andrew and Lord Davies wanted more revolving doors between government and business – both for Ministers and civil servants. But Lord Davies set out the barriers businessmen faced in joining government – not least the amount of scrutiny and the speed with which a businessman was expected to rearrange his financial affairs.

Andrew noted that – after his six year stint at British Airways, after a thirty year plus Whitehall career – he was still counted as a businessman coming into government.

Management shortage

Lord Davies saw no shortage of talent in the civil service – but he did see a shortage management – and like many businessmen, despaired of the way government was organised:

"We've got a company, that has no chief executive, that basically is one of the biggest employers, and you want to have change management, you want to have clear objectives? The problem is that this is an outdated model that is not fit for today's society... If it was a business, it would have gone bust."

Both agreed that GOATs ("Gordon Brown's government of all the talents") were a good idea widening the gene pool for Ministers. Andrew thought his two GOATS – Lord (Digby) Jones and Lord Davies – were the best of the seven Ministers he served at UKTI.

Lord Davies thought the role and terms and conditions needed to be clearer: GOATs needed a contract, terms of reference, and a fixed term of office – all of which he lacked whilst in post.

Whitehall boards

They welcomed the idea of non-executive directors (NEDs) on departmental boards, but thought the changes were not being implemented well.

Their lack of decision-making powers meant NEDs were focusing solely on cutting costs, rather than planning for growth and jobs, and they were not being given sufficient training to prepare them for what they needed to do.

Andrew's pamphlet ends with a call for more tolerance of failure – to allow more risk-taking. But both panellists through that needed a change away from the destructive culture of negativity that characterised much public debate in the UK.

More information

• Read Andrew Cahn's view piece, The Whitehall Entrepreneur