Another global consulting firm has decided that helping government executives and service organizations is good for the public, not to mention good for its business.

Accenture Ltd. last month launched the Accenture Institute for Public Service Value. Its mission is to provide research and analysis to help public service agencies and governments improve performance and better serve their constituents. The institute, based in London and Washington, also will stage conferences and produce case studies.

Accenture officials said the institute will build ideas and leadership around the company’s public service value model, which adapts the core concepts of shareholder value from the business world to define and measure governments’ return on tax money spent.

"The government is changing, and we’re looking more at the private sector not as contractors, but as partners." —Carl Fillichio, Council for Excellence in Government

“There’s always room for discussion and debate and dialogue about ways to improve government,” said Carl Fillichio, vice president at the Council for Excellence in Government.

“The government is changing, and we’re looking more at the private sector not as contractors, but as partners,” he said. “Accenture can bring some great expertise, intelligence and resources to the table in convening discussion.”

Public Value. Greg Parston, executive director of the Accenture Institute, said the time is right for the creation of a research institute that focuses debate on public value.

“The shape of the public sector is changing,” he said, noting the emergence of a “hybrid economy” in which governments, nonprofits and private contractors combine to provide public services.

There’s a growing interest among private companies in setting up nonprofit research centers such as Accenture’s, Fillichio said.

“You’re going to see more and more of this,” he said. “I don’t think they’re taking away from anybody. They’re adding to the richness of the discussion.”

Accenture isn’t the first corporate-backed research institute to focus on public policy. The IBM Center for the Business of Government provides grants for research into government policy management. The center was set up in 1998 to “take stock” of the lessons learned in the Clinton administration’s “Reinventing Government” initiative, and “we have been very pleased with the quality of research that our grantees have produced,” said Mark Abramson, executive director of the IBM Center.

“The good-government community is pretty small,” Fillichio said. “I’m glad that it’s getting bigger, and I’m glad the private sector is taking a real interest in it. Anything with the goal of adding value, adds value.”

Fillichio said Accenture’s expertise in getting separate entities to work together smoothly should be especially valuable to local, state and federal government agencies as they coordinate efforts with the private sector in areas such as homeland security and disaster preparedness.

“Clearly we saw, post-Katrina, some interoperability issues,” he said. “That’s something I certainly hope they’ll look at.”

“Government increasingly is not operating alone, because we know that doesn’t work,” he added. “I think Accenture is poised to do some pretty amazing stuff in that area. It’s what they know. They’re very good at that.”

Effective Action. Accenture’s move was also welcomed in academia. “The more focus of attention on these issues there happens to be, the better it will ultimately be,” said Robert Tobias, director of the Institute for the Study of Public Policy Implementation at American University’s School of Public Affairs. “There’s a lot of disparate research that exists, but little real effort to translate the research into effective action, and that’s really the key for more effective public policy implementation.”

Accenture, Tobias said, will “bring a focus of attention that will be, I think, welcome in the community.” The backing of a global corporation with a strong interest in helping the federal government become more efficient should result in some good things, he said.

“I think it’s very important to move from the abstract to the applied,” Tobias said.

“There are conferences and discussions and lamenting and wringing of hands and stamping of feet and threats and all of that, but when the day is done, nothing happens unless there is a focus on public policy implementation and those responsible take action.”

Ultimately, however, the value of Accenture’s move “depends on how much and how successfully this institution is able to engage federal-sector political appointees and career executives in the significant change efforts that are associated with their interests,” Tobias said.