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Government Leader home > news stories
06/13/06
Accenture launches institute to focus debate on public value
By Richard W. Walker
Government Leader Staff
Accenture Ltd., the global management consulting, technology services and outsourcing firm, has launched a research and development center, the Accenture Institute for Public Service Value. Through original research and analysis, the institute aims to help governments and public-service organizations achieve high performance and improve social outcomes, Accenture officials said.
Greg Parston, executive director, said the London- and Washington-based institute will “build ideas and leadership” around Accenture’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 model tracks the performance of public-service agencies, including government agencies, nonprofit organizations and private-sector companies that provide services to government, against outcomes and cost-effectiveness.
Parston 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.
He said the institute “will be more a ‘do tank’ than a think tank,” focusing on practical methods of applying the concepts of public value to the day-to-day management of public organizations.
Headed by a group of fellows, the institute will convene conferences, host dialogues and undertake, commission and publish research from its associated institutions and fellows. Specifically, the institute will:
- Convene a small number of public conferences each year to discuss the concepts of public value and set the agenda for debate on public value worldwide
- Establish a series of structured dialogues among academics, managers, elected officials and other interested persons to explore issues of public value
- Produce case studies and points of view on good practice in public services
- Undertake research and commission research from associated institutions into particular aspects of public value and, more generally, into policy excellence and the delivery of high-performing public services.
Accenture officials expect the institute will be fully up and running within the next four to five months, during which time about a dozen part- and full-time fellows will be named. The institute’s goal in the next couple of months will be setting the agenda and creating dialogue groups to help determine that agenda, Parston said.
Parston said that the institute is not a marketing arm of Accenture. He described Accenture as the “incubator” of the institute and said that in three to five years it will become independent and seek other sources of funding.
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