Public sector framework

Question

Does anyone have a generic framework to think about public sector cases?

Answer 1

Hi,

There is no generic framework since the variability of public-sector cases is tremendous. Moreover, the overall "Generic framework" approach is the wrong direction in your case prep.

To provide a bit of structure, there are several types of public sector cases:

Factors influencing the price (What are the factors influencing the price of oil? Factors influencing the price of real estate?)
Macroeconomic cases (How will you improve life expectancy in a particular city? How will you decrease the unemployment?)
Public sector non-profits (Increasing the revenues of a museum; increasing the revenues from tourism in a city)
Redesigning the processes (How will you develop a new anti-monopoly regulation?)
Non-profit investments (A billionaire is building a new school. What are the factors to look at?)
Ops and cost-cutting (How to reduce the traffic jams on a bridge? A garbage processing facility is out of capacity, what should they do?)

I recommend always start with the objective. Two types of questions you should ask:

Could you please clarify the model / business model? E.g. if a billionaire is building a new school, is it a school for talented kids, rich kids or mass segment? Is it going to generate revenues?
What are the main criteria for success? Is it NPV, ROI, share talented kids entering the top Universities?

Feel free to reach out if you need help with these cases. I usually give a homework of 10 cases and then we go through them during a session

Best!

Answer 2

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

Framework Resource

In terms of resources, the UPenn Wharton 2011 casebook has a framework for public sector. It's split into:

Strategic rationale (Mission of organisation and stakeholder reactions)
Deal economics (planned investment and returns, if any)
Other (Required capabilities and risks)

Practice Cases

If you want some practice cases:

Tepper 2008's "NGO Effectiveness"
Colombia 2011's "MadeCasse"

Hope this helps, and please don't hesitate to ask any follow-up/clarifying questions!

Answer 3

Hi there, and thanks for asking, Indeed, setting up the framework for a profitability case can be a bit confusing, ho... (read entire answer)

Hi there, and thanks for asking, Indeed, setting up the framework for a profitability case can be a bit confusing, however, I would advise you not to think of “THE” framework wh... (read entire answer)