In public sector cases, what do we mean by the goal being demand or supply driven? Could you give an example?

Question

Hi! I've been reading through threads on public/non-profit sector cases, and I noticed a couple of experts talking about evaluating whether the goal/solution is demand/supply driven. What do you mean by that? could you give some examples? Appreciated!

Answer 1

Hi there,

i can't really speak to what they mean by this (as I didn't write that), but that's quite a confusing way to break it down. Fundamentally, there are a myriad goals that public sector cases could have, and you have to be able to think through how to resolve them.

They could be improving educational attainment, resolving key issues, ensuring smooth rollouts of initiatives, etc. etc.

I think supply vs demand is confusing and oversimplistic...

My approach

Public sector cases are tricky because they feasibly be any case type (Product Launch - new service for citizens; M&A - merging two departments; even Profitability - cost cutting mandate). For any public sector case, I recommend:

First identifying the type of case it is.
Second, leverage your knowledge of the public sector as constraints/considerations.

Considerations/Constraints

Regards #2, you know that public perception is particularly important to consider in any public sector move. Additionally, you can count on bureacracy/slowness in implementation. You should identify the goal/mission of the organisation as well and keep this top of mind (if it loses money, but achieves it's goal of helping the poor, no problem). Howvever, just because the government sector doesn't have profit as a target, doesn't mean you should ignore the profit tree altogether - governments are still obliged to take into costs (and sometimes revneues) in decisions (example: setting up a public transport initiative). Don't get tricked into thinking you can't consider the economics of the case!

Other items to consider include, but are not limited to:

Politlcal landscape (i.e. upcoming elections, special interest groups)
Sustainability
Private-public partnerships
International vs governmental vs state vs local partnerships/alignment
Income = taxes/budgetary landscape
Digitialization of government

Answer 2

Could you please provide a bit more context or an example? I think otherwise there might be misinterpretation what your question is actually about. Thank you!

Answer 3

Hi there,

I agree with Florian and Ian that this is very difficult to assess without knowing the exact goal and comment. I would recommend adding it so that we can comment on that.

Best,

Francesco

Answer 4

Awesome answers. Thanks!

Answer 5

Hi, a link to the previous case would be essential to understand the context. There are no general rules, but the client goal is crucial in understanding how to better structure it

Best,
Antonello