Grab bag (Week 18/2025)
The public sector strategy gap and how I plan to fill it; the public sector efficiency trap.
Hello friends,
I spent all week sorting out third party logistics services. I’m now over 7 weeks into finding and evaluating my options, and crawling over the numerous small obstacles that national regulations, business imperatives, and legacy technology have scattered in my way. Will it be surprising if I write that shipping things across borders is unnecessarily complicated, and that a thriving ecosystem has emerged of intermediaries who take a significant cut of revenues? Will idk ever emerge from the other side of this logistics changeover? Stay tuned.
Writing
I keep meeting public servants who feel uneasy about doing public sector strategy using strategy frameworks built for the private sector. Indefinite time horizons (not just the next few quarters), the obligation to serve all stakeholders (not just shareholders and employees), the need to address wicked problems — these requirements make doing public sector strategy profoundly different from doing private sector strategy. Yet, where are the good short courses that directly address these requirements and explicitly call out the category error of applying private sector thinking uncritically to public sector strategy? With help from some friends, I’m putting together something to fill this gap.
👉 Read about why the public sector needs a better way to do strategy.
Funding cuts and other crises have recently put public sector organisations onto efficiency drives inspired by private sector “best practices.” The trap here is conflating all inefficiency with wastefulness. In the private sector, companies regularly disappear whenever the business environment changes — but public institutions must operate across much longer time horizons. They need to be resilient to survive unpredictable change, and efficiency always comes at the expense of resilience. Inefficiency isn’t always wasteful. Sometimes it is slack held in reserve to be ready for when things change. The public sector should cut wasteful inefficiency, but preserve useful, redeployable slack.
👉 Read about the public sector efficiency trap.
Elsewhere
I haven’t read anything this week other than absolute garbage which I won’t trouble you with. Back next time, I hope, with cool stuff from other people.
See you next week,
VT
I don't envy you trying to help the public sector do strategy. Perhaps it would help if they realised "efficiency drives inspired by private sector “best practices.”" don't work in the private sector either!