Dan Chenok

As we reflect on this past year, the IBM Center marked a significant milestone with the celebration of its 25th anniversary continuing to expand and diversify its mission to connect public management research with practice. Since 1998, we have helped public sector executives improve the effectiveness of government with practical insights and best practices. 

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has surged across government. National and international legislation has been proposed, and U.S. Federal agencies are now implementing requirements set forth in the new Executive Order on AI. Such policy and progress affect government work across civilian and defense sectors – including work done by tax agencies with the public and business communities.

Today governments face very serious, seemingly intractable public management challenges that go to the core of effective governance and leadership, testing the very form, structure, and capacity required to meet these problems head-on. Many of these challenges are wickedly complex not respecting bureaucratic boundaries, nonlinear, and fluid in nature: “where very small effects may produce disproportionate impacts” In many ways, traditional approaches of government seem obsolete and incapable of properly responding to them.

This week, the IBM Center for The Business of Government was honored to host many leaders to commemorate the Center’s 25th anniversary, and to launch a new book, Transforming the Business of Government:  Reflections on Resilience, Innovation, and Performance.   With this post, we share some observations and images about the event and a first view of the book.

Federal spending on mandatory and discretionary grant programs reached a new high in Fiscal Year 2022. Interest in the effectiveness of these intergovernmental partnerships is of increasing importance to policymakers, government agency managers, and citizens.

Cybersecurity has evolved from a conversation among technologists in server rooms to a substantial dialog between industry leaders and policy makers on the international stage. There is an almost universal recognition of the importance of managing risks associated with doing business in the digital age of the 21st century, and three decades of not adapting to modern technical and security capabilities to overcome.

Since the turn of the millennium, pandemics, heat waves, wildfires, floods, cyberattacks, supply chain interruptions, and other crises have deeply stressed governments, communities, businesses, and individuals around the world. This cascade of catastrophic events raises fundamental questions about how governments can anticipate, prepare for, and respond to these and other shocks yet to come.

The IBM Center for The Business of Government and the IBM Institute for Business Value, in partnership with the National Academy of Public Administration (NAPA) and a range of other partners, launched an initiative last year to help government leaders identify core capabilities critical to building resilience in the face of “future shocks,” where collaborative action to address anticipated threats requires focus and cooperation across a broad ecosystem of partners and stakeholders.

Blog Co-Author: Virginia Huth currently serves as the SES Assistant Commissioner of the Office of Regulatory and Oversight Systems in the Office of Technology Transformation Services at the U.S. General Services Administration, which is overseeing the modernization of the eRulemaking system. Virginia is writing in her personal capacity; her opinions are her own and do not represent the views of the GSA.