“Taking Responsibility: Government and the Global CEO” draws, and builds, on the results of PwC’s earlier Global CEO Survey which pointed to uncertain and volatile growth, lack of stability in capital markets, and tumbling short-term business confidence.
PwC’s global leader, government and public services Jan Sturesson says, “One thing is clear: with an increasingly disruptive future, ‘business and government as usual’ is not an option.”
The common agenda for government falls into three categories:
Dealing with deficits
Prioritisation, making tough choices, and doing more or the same for less are the keys to success.
“Governments around the world are facing the need to reduce deficits and debt in order to avoid the risk of consuming their citizens’ future,” says Sturesson.
The priorities to deal with deficits are:
• Developing and executing plans to achieve better-balanced public finances, focusing on cutting costs and finding new sources of funding;
• With labour costs in mind, developing new approaches to workforce reform;
• Innovating service delivery, in particular by making better use of the private and voluntary sectors;
• Improving accountability and transparency; and
• Seeking transitional assistance through mechanisms such as sovereign wealth funds.
Enabling growth
Governments have major responsibility to create the right conditions for growth which is financially, economically and environmentally sustainable ie, ‘good growth’.
State and city-owned companies provide an invaluable opportunity for governments in the areas of job creation and fostering innovation. new scorecard that focuses on measurement beyond traditional financial metrics is needed to provide holistic view for government leaders as well as taxpayers.
Three key features for enabling growth include:
• Cities, which are key engine of sustainable growth. Smart cities are also heralding new level of cross-sector collaboration, driven by focus on clean technologies, energy efficiency and sustainability;
• Clusters of economic activity: which are vital to competitiveness. So too is the need for innovation systems and new ways of prototyping and financing growth, prioritised and focused through national innovation strategies;
• balanced, integrated infrastructure programme, which is needed for any modern economy to function effectively and competitively.
Tackling the talent crunch
Scott McIntyre, PwC’s global government & public services co-leader, says the public and private sectors must work together to help organisations recruit and retain good staff.
“Governments can do more to create an environment to overcome market skills and talent shortages.”
Governments have responsibility to help businesses meet their skills needs by:
• Creating programmes that will equip people with range of ’employability skills’;
• Developing new career entry paths which provide recognised and credible routes to high-skill careers;
• Tackling untapped and under-used talent pools which could boost productive potential;
• Other actions that government and public sector organisations must also take include increasing the attraction of public service, developing durable strategic workforce plan, defining talent needs, systematically mapping talent and nurturing local talent.
