The IBM Center for The Business of Government, sponsored by IBM, connects public management research with practice by commissioning independent, third-party research reports with practical advice from subject matter experts. It encourages discussion among public executives of new approaches to improve the effectiveness of government at the federal, state, local and international levels.
The IBM Center was originally formed as the PriceWaterhouseCoopers Endowment for The Business of Government in 1998. It was renamed when IBM acquired the PWC Consulting business in 2002. Mark Abramson was its founding executive director, and Jonathan Breul serves as its current executive director.
The IBM Center is one of several dozen "good government" organizations located in Washington, D.C. that provide insight and context to federal government management. It is also a member of the Government Performance Coalition, an informal group of non-partisan advocates of increasing the use of performance information and systems in improving government efficiency.
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In its first 11 years, the IBM Center published about 220 research reports and books. Research reports are commissioned through a competitive process. Reports are occasionally co-sponsored with other organizations such as the National Academy of Public Administration (United States) and the World Bank. All research reports are available at no cost on the IBM Center’s website. IBM Center books are published by Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc. and are available commercially. The IBM Center also hosts a weekly radio interview program with senior U.S. public sector executives. The interviews focus on executives’ careers, the management challenges they face as leaders, and their advice to others interested in public service. More than 300 interviews are available for electronic download from the Center’s website at no cost, as well.
Business of Government Magazine. The IBM Center publishes a semi-annual magazine featuring interview guests as well as topical articles on management issues facing public executives. It also provides summaries of recent reports, radio interviews, and events.
Forums, Symposia, and Seminars. The IBM Center also sponsors forums on current management topics as well as seminars with report authors and public executives. Periodically, it convenes symposia of experts to predict near-term public management challenges. Its most recent symposia, in 2007, resulted in a pair of essays, "Reflections on 21st Century Government Management,” [1] that helped frame management issues facing the next president.
In 2008-2009, the Center sponsored a series of books, reports, and web materials to support the pending presidential transition. These materials were provided to the Obama Transition Team as well as to incoming political appointees in the administration. According to the Washington Post, “The books aren’t very long, which is a good thing. Each is less than 200 pages and they are organized in a way that allows readers to jump from topic to topic in order of interest. Bureaucracies run on memos and the authors creatively use that model to the reader’s advantage.”[2]
The materials were shared with incoming political appointees as well as career executives who have not experienced a presidential transition before. Several reports contained recommendations that were subsequently put in place by the incoming Obama Administration. For example, a 2008 report on the operation of the National Security Council by Johns Hopkins professor Robert Worley recommended folding the Homeland Security Council created under President George W. Bush into the NSC.[3] President Obama acted on this reorganization proposal in May 2009.[4]
As part of its transition resources, the IBM Center also sponsored a blog[5] which the Library of Congress is archiving as part of its coverage of the 2008 presidential transition effort.
The IBM Center also participated in the Government Performance Coalition's “Transitions in Governance 2008” project. Together, they created a collaborative network among non-partisan good government groups that sponsored transition-related forums, web-based resources, and recommendations regarding the importance of both improved performance and a focus on workforce issues.
The IBM Center has pioneered public sector research in the areas of citizen engagement, collaboration, partnerships, and the use of social media in government. In addition, it has made major contributions in the areas of performance budgeting and measurement, financial management, and strategic human capital management. Its current research focus reflects management challenges facing the Obama Administration as well as states and localities.
These research challenges are described in a 2008 report, “Ten Challenges Facing Public Managers,” and raise provocative topics such as: fiscal sanity, a crisis of competence, information overload, and the need to be able to “expect surprises.” The IBM Center is also assessing the management initiatives described in President Obama’s fiscal year 2010 budget, which include expanding agency transparency, collaboration, and citizen engagement and performance, workforce, and contracting reform.[6]
Abramson, Mark, Jonathan Breul, and John Kamensky, “Six Trends Transforming Government,” The IBM Center for The Business of Government, Washington, DC(2006)
Breul, Jonathan, John Kamensky, and Albert Morales, “Ten Challenges Facing Public Managers” The IBM Center for The Business of Government, Washington, DC(2008)