about page -- and red flags -- Partnership for Public Service --

Fueling Innovation

Improving government performance will require changing the culture at many agencies from an environment guided by the status quo to one that constantly strives to innovate. The Partnership drives change in government by providing hands-on assistance to federal agencies from both in-house experts and private sector partners to create models of reform, conducting research to measure government performance in ways that promote transparency and accountability, and growing and training a new class of change agents within our government.

About the Private Sector Council --

... The Private Sector Council — A Unique Reformer

The Partnership for Public Service’s Private Sector Council (PSC) connects experts from America’s top corporations with federal leaders to confront government’s key management challenges on an operational level. PSC’s primary purpose is to engage private sector expertise to improve the business of government.

PSC History

In 1983, President Reagan convened the Grace Commission to devise ways to generate savings in government, increase efficiency and reduce the deficit. In an effort to carry forward the Commission’s work, David Packard led a group of executives to form the Private Sector Council. Their message: businesses exist not just to make a profit, but to make a difference.

PSC has offered both business and government leaders a unique opportunity to come together to tackle our nation’s biggest challenges for more than 20 years. PSC’s 400-plus projects range from digitizing the Food Stamp program to helping develop a pay structure for the Iraqi civil service.

In 2005, PSC joined forces with the Partnership for Public Service. The merger has expanded PSC’s capacity to promote innovation and efficiency in government and has permanently connected it to the nation’s leading experts on government reform.

PSC Results

Working Across Sectors to Improve Federal Contracting
In recent years, federal agencies’ procurement of goods and services has increased exponentially while the size of the federal acquisition workforce has remained constant. Today’s overtaxed procurement workforce needs more training and resources to successfully manage contracts. To address this need, the Partnership’s Acquisition Innovation Group – a select coalition of private and public sector executives – worked to create tools to improve federal contract management.

Partnering with the Federal Acquisition Institute and GSA’s Center for Acquisition Excellence, the group ultimately developed a three-hour online training module available to all acquisition professionals: FAC033 Contract Management: Strategies for Mission Success (to access, please click here). The module is also hosted on the Defense Acquisition University Web site at www.dau.mil. ...

with Rubin, btw --

Retirement Security Project Board members

and -- regarding SS/Medicaid, etc --

... The Retirement Security Project has released a new paper, "Removing Barriers to Retirement Saving in Medicaid and Supplemental Security Income." For the press release, click here. To view the full paper and policy brief, please click here.

The Retirement Security Project has released a paper on "Increasing Annuitization in 401(k) Plans with Automatic Trial Income." ...

... Currently, Ms Killefer is a senior director at McKinsey & Company, a management consultancy that contracts to the US government. ...

calls her a leader on creating opportunities for women --

her page there --

... In over 25 years with McKinsey, Nancy has focused on issues related to strategy, marketing, and organizational effectiveness. Her client service has spanned a broad range of areas, including government agencies, global media, pharmaceuticals, over-the-counter trading, retailing, packaged goods, and personal products.
...

McKinsey aspires to recruit highly talented women and has in place a variety of initiatives focused on women, including a Women's Network. The company recently rolled out a centered-leadership program, which has trained about 1,000 women in a new approach to leadership that aims to help women become more self-confident and effective business leaders.

McKinsey seeks to make a difference for women globally, too. The company actively supports women's economic empowerment through philanthropic engagement with the Global Summit for Women, Vital Voices Global Partnership, Women's Forum for the Economy and Society, Catalyst, the World Economic Forum, and the Cartier Women's Awards. As part of its Leadership Project: Portraits of Women Leaders with Vital Voices, McKinsey has collected oral histories of women leaders from different regions, age groups, and career paths, and has supported the FORTUNE/U.S. State Department Mentoring Partnership, which pairs women from developing countries with female business leaders in the United States.

An integral part of McKinsey's values is to give back to the communities they serve through work in the social sector and in their local office pro bono portfolios. The company recently conducted pro bono work on strategy for the Forte Foundation, which works to increase the number of women business leaders.

The McKinsey Quarterly regularly publishes thought-provoking research on women in business. Articles have focused on global issues, as well as country-specific gender concerns. ...

But her being part of World Bank itself matters more in terms of this job, i'd say.

Unproductive Uncle Sam --

... Despite numerous attempts at management reform and a panoply of opportunities to transfer best practices between the private and public sectors, government seems to have missed out on the productivity boom seen in the private sector. ...

In a white paper our firm, McKinsey & Co., published this week, "How Can American Government Meet Its Productivity Challenge?", we map out an agenda inspired by lessons from the private sector. Having studied productivity growth around the world for over 15 years, the McKinsey Global Institute has shown that competitive intensity at the industry sector level is the prime catalyst for productivity growth. It forces managers to improve performance and allows innovation to diffuse quickly across the sector.
...
That's why we think a radical new approach to transparency of how government programs are performing is required. Only this will push Congress to exert performance pressure on government agencies. First, government should measure public productivity again and set national targets for productivity growth against which everyone can be held accountable. Next, political leaders should create a body we call "Gov-Star," modeled after fund-rating agency Morningstar Inc. (MORN ), to provide completely independent measurement of government program performance; to develop comparable program data over time -- between programs, between governments, and with the private sector; and to make the data and their implications clear to appropriators and citizens.

But in government, pressure without support can yield demoralization and underperformance. So we also need to adopt key transformation initiatives: incentives that allow agencies to reinvest savings to the top line of programs; the introduction of chief operating officers at public agencies, to be appointed based on management experience in government or leading corporations; and a SWAT team of management experts at the Office of Management & Budget to help lagging agencies.
...

Fed Computer Week -- ... After returning to McKinsey in 2000, she joined the IRS Oversight Board, a public/private panel that advises and oversees the IRS. She was a member of the board from 2000 to 2005 and the board’s chairwoman from 2002 to 2004. ...