I was prompted to write this article after making a rather interesting observation some 10 days ago. I had the great fortune of offering three management development workshops through the St. Lucia Chamber of Commerce. They were: Improving Worker Productivity, Better Time Management, and Delivering Excellent Customer Service. I was quite pleased that first two workshops were heavily subscribed to by government employees, but to my disappointment, government employees were notably absent for the workshop on Delivering Excellent Customer Service. Now, knowing how "thin-skinned" St. Lucians in general and the St. Lucian government are, let me say at the outset that the intent of this article is not to criticize government, but rather to seize an opportunity to raise the awareness of the notion of the "New Business Design" for the 21st century. The business design is a customer-focused design and government institutions are by no means exempted from it. The fact of the matter is that governments all over the world, particularly in the more industrialized nations, have already adopted this idea, and have started unbundling and dismantling their traditional bureaucratic systems and processes in favor of leaner and more efficient systems that serve the public (the customers) better.Let me begin by defining what I mean by the New Business Design. The New Business Design is a customer-focused principle that states that any organization (private or public) will define it mission and align ALL of its core processes with the expressed purpose of serving the needs of its customers. Hence, all institutions must establish who their customers are, identify their needs, and assess whether their mission and organizational design are congruent with the needs of their customers. If the organizational design and customers’ needs are incongruent, then the organizations must establish a mechanism for making the necessary cultural and technical transformation to the New Business Design. If we focus for a moment on the notion of a "democratic" government: a government of the people, for the people, and by the people, then its is quite clear from the statement for the people, that government must be driven by the needs of the people (its customers). Hence government institutions by claiming to be part of a democracy must function as customer-focused organizations. With public sector reform underway in St. Lucia, I would hope that the responsible Minister, Mr. Leton F. Thomas would be duly aware of that requirement. In fact, we have a golden opportunity to adopt the New Business Design.
There are several reasons why governments are extremely slow to adopt a customer-focused design. Among others, these include: 1) the belief that the notion of a customer is a commercial concept and as such, does not relate to government; 2) a customer- focused orientation is a useful competitive strategy, but government has no competitors so there is no need for a customer focus; 3) most administrators in government are either unaware of or aloof to the philosophy; 4) government institutions are being run by fragmented (uncoordinated) leadership with heavy political interferences and interventions; 5) a customer-focused mindset is counter-productive for most politicians since pay back for political favors and support often necessitates the creation of a hierarchy of customers and a hierarchy of service. A customer-focused organization would have to treat and respect all customers equally; and 6) most politicians, administrators, and staff members have no notion of the direct relationship between the degree of customer-orientation and the cost to tax-payers of running government. The lack of a customer-focus perpetuates systems that are highly inefficient, costly to run, and de-motivating for employees. Such systems also promote a never-ending antagonistic relationship between government institutions and the public (their customers).
Adopting the New Business Design in government will be a major challenge in St. Lucia as a small island state with few "arms-length" transactions, high unemployment rates, limited resources, a declining banana industry, a tourism sector which many people are dubious about its value, rampant favoritism, nepotism, an ever-present fear of reprisal for speaking one’s mind, and a public that needs to be strongly educated about its civil rights. Having said this, however, I do not believe that a customer-focused government is an impossibility. Adopting and implementing the New Business Design will require a government with a strong character ethic. Please note the term character ethic and not to be confused with personality ethic. It would appear that because of the negative impact of television, we have come to value personality over character. The government must be committed to the betterment of the nation and its people, committed to honesty, integrity, fairness, and must not be above critique. The government must be committed to leaner competent governance, committed to cost control through better systems design and management, committed to accessibility for all of its customers, and committed to the use of consultative processes to obtain full participation of the population.
In summary, the reality of the times we are living in leaves our government little choice but to adopt the New Business Design, for it holds the promise of effective and efficient government, improved productivity, higher worker motivation, reduced costs, and a happier public. Failure to do so, in my opinion, will only continue to exacerbate the country’s national debt and bring us closer to the brink of IMF intervention. Above all, the government simply owes its people (its customers) the highest level of quality service. Federal, provincial, and municipal governments in Canada, The US, Sweden, and elsewhere are adopting the New Business Design. At the very least, we must explore what it would mean for St. Lucia.
