Capacity to govern and for change and improvement

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The capacity to govern and for change and improvement is limited. Resources are exceeding limited and place constraints on what government can do. This is one of the first things with which executives must consider.

In government, there are legislated obligations, a slate of things that must be budgeted and funded as givens. There are programs and activities that either are not productive or have reached the end of their lifecycle. These are activities that the executive can curtail and save money.

The process of doing this is management. In my book, Smart Data, Enterprise Performance Optimization Strategy, ©2010 Wiley Publishing, I use the Obama administration and his management approach to illustrate how the government executive needs to address these issues systematically.

President Obama has no experience. Many of his key staff has no experience. As a result, I conclude that they will have many failures before and if they ever get it right. Given that we didn’t have a better choice, President Obama is the smartest of the candidates from which we had to chose, and none had CEO experience. That is a criterion that I would suggest as most essential to consider in the next election.

So, the article below discusses that the State Department doesn’t have the resources to execute its strategy in Iraq. I would suggest that this is a failure of the President’s strategy and the State Department Secretary. You do not embark on a strategy until you know for a fact you have the resources to implement it. It is not a viable strategy otherwise.

The United States government is greatly overextended in many areas including Defense and State. Society’s needs at home are too great to support nation-building and war strategies.

America’s homeland security begins at home. Economic security is the first line of defense.

Attention to private sector job creation is the top priority, and working with business and academic leaders to address this is essential and top priority.

The President said he understood this. He said he would end the wars and refocus priorities. He needs to follow through.

The President needs a Secretary of Commerce who is respected and engaged in renewing manufacturing America.  Tax incentives must be given for new product and new business development for businesses that produce products for global consumption.

The State Department’s saying it doesn’t have resources to execute its mission is a trouble symptom that goes right to the top, and that is the government’s chief executive needs to learn how to become one—fast.