Unleashing public innovation
Serial innovation and the public sector
William D Eggers
Research Director,
Public Sector
Deloitte
How do we typically innovate?
1920
2011
Ford
Model
Tata
NanoT T
Price in 2011 C$
Log scale and inverted
$3,200
$2,100
20
33 Horsepower
Bugati Type 35
$180K
140 Horsepower
Horsepower
Low end
High end
Bugati Veyron
$1.9 million
987 Horsepower
Higher education: 439% increase after
inflation
Health care inflation equally bad….
2,500,000
Other third party payers and programs
2,000,000
Health insurance
Out of pocket
1,500,000
1,000,000
500,000
0
1960 1962 1964 1966 1968 1970 1972 1974 1976 1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000 2002 2004 2006 2008
Innovation is about breaking tradeoffs
Bridge International Academies
$4
$3
15:1
47:1
Fee per month of
private education
for 1 student
Cost in bribes for
public education
for 1 student
Pupil: teacher
ratio at a Bridge
school
Pupil: teacher
ratio at average
Kenyan school
Bridge International’s “school in
a box” model makes it easy to
open and operate new schools.
What started with 1 school in
2009…
Is now more than 70 schools…
With a target of 1,800 schools by
2015
Key Factors for Public Innovation
Authority
Innovative
activity that
could create
public value but
is not permitted
Capability
Public value
created by
innovation
Innovation that
should happen
but won’t
Potential
innovations
that can’t
happen
Culture
Capabilities
The innovation process: One weak link in the
chain can stump the flow of innovations
Idea Generation
Create systems
to generate and
maintain the
flow of good
ideas
1
Testing
&Selection
Filter good
ideas by
creating an
efficient
sorting
process
Implementation
Convert ideas
into products,
services and
practices
GNL Senior Leaders - Innovation Workshop
Sustaining
& Diffusion
Manage
stakeholders
and
disseminate
ideas widely
Measuring Innovation
There has typically been a wall between those on the inside of
government and those on the outside
Government
…but that leaves a lot of minds untapped
Governments need to open up to
everyone…
Government
…and engage the outside world in problem solving
Expanding the space for public innovation
Authority
Innovative
activity that
could create
public value but
is not permitted
Capability
Public value
created by
innovation
Innovation that
should happen
but won’t
Potential
innovations
that can’t
happen
Culture
NASA enlists the world’s help to advance the
U.S. Space Program
NASA will post its challenges
online for a network of more
than 180,000 self-enlisted
solvers to tackle
Kaggle’s Dark Matter Competition
on the White House blog
“The world’s brightest physicists
have been working for decades on
solving one of the great unifying
problems of our universe”
“In less than a week, Martin
O’Leary, a PhD student in
glaciology, outperformed
the state-of-the-art algorithms”
Rules/authority
“Try again. Fail
again. Fail better.”
-Samuel Beckett
Chris Rock
Rapid prototyping, rapid engagement
Gmail beta:
1 day
First version of
Twitter:
2 weeks
24
Changing the rules
• Hold a ‘failure case studies’ conference
• Report to parliament on failures as well as
successes
• All annual reports include a section on failures
and what was learnt
• Put innovation into performance plans
• Put failure into KPIs
• Funding for failure
• Have a system to share failures
OCTO Labs: Managing Risk the Right Away
The idea was that we would throw
hundreds of ideas on the wall and even if
five of them survive, they will be
transformative.” –Vivek Kundra
26
Improving Policy Execution
Five Strategies for Innovation
1
2
Cultivate
3
Replicate
Partner
Seek new
solutions
External
partners
Tap into Tacit
Knowledge
Core Group of employees
Mechanisms
to Identify
innovation
Develop
Emerging Ideas
External
partners
Engaged
Employees
Adapt to local
context
Types of Partnership
Benefit from
cross- border
diffusion
Internal partners
PublicPrivate
Public–
Public
PublicNonprofit
Drive
Organizational
Change
Collaborate
Overcome
internal
constraints
4
5
Network
User Community
Look for solutions
that meet
unconscious needs
of your customers
External
partners
Local
community
Citizens report
a number of
problems
Citizen input is
necessary if new
ideas are to succeed
In-source
ideas
Specialists
Engage the creativity and
specialized skills of a
range of providers
Predict ideas
worth
pursuing
Build citizen
networks
External partners,
citizens and
employees can be
engaged in
selecting ideas
Open Source
Citizens know what
they want but may
not be able to
articulate it clearly
Open source project
Citizens
Open
source
companies
Government
agency
Create a
learning
organization
Nonprofits
Global
community
Middle and senior
managers should not be
insulated from citizen
reactions
Development
Community
Technology
experts
Private
companies
Students
Government
organizations
Test new
approaches
Tap all sources of innovation
External Partners
Partnered and networked
government
Employees
Citizens/customers
Government
Collaborative,
outcome-focused
government
Innovator
Internal Partners
Joined-up and
reinvented
government
28
The Public
Innovator’s
Playbook
Participative and
responsive
government
Culture
Cultivate – Innovation from the Edges
The Core and Edge Concept
EDGE  Growth Opportunities
EDGE
Edge Participants
EDGE TYPES
CORE
Demographic Edge
Geographic Edge
Technologic Edge
Edge Characteristics
FLOW  Connect Participants
Unmet Needs
Unexploited
Capabilities
Greater Risk
Tolerance
Lower Inertia
Increased
Collaboration
Robust
Connections
Knowledge Flow
20% Time
The Public Innovator’s
Playbook
31
Cultivate – Safe havens
Safe havens are separate units kept close to mainstream activities but away
from the line organization.
Skunk Works
Ensure that emerging ideas get the time
to develop, protected from short-term
budget constraints and premature
criticism
Permit low-risk experimentation
Motivate “renegade” thinkers -- not
people seeking to undermine authority,
but independent visionaries looking to
achieve results.
Havens of
creativity within
an organization
Intraprenuers
Employees who
act as
entrepreneurs
within an
organization
“People are very open minded about new things. As
long as they are exactly like the old ones”
- Charles Kettering
Bill Eggers
Email:
weggers@deloitte.com
Twitter:
@wdeggers
Web:
williameggers.com