Shifting Government Spend on Consulting from Policy to Third Sector Digital Transformation

Structured as a case study, of The Government of Ontario, this research study examines the evidence both supporting and refuting the hypothesis:

If the Government of Ontario shift’s spending from consulting services in policy and program-design at the ministerial level, toward a greater proportion of spend, allocated toward management consulting services focused on digital transformation of service-delivery, at the agency and point-of-service level, it will yield a positive social return on investment.

A Literature Review is conducted triangulating the viewpoints of the three main stakeholder groups: the broader-public-sector’s writing’s on “government transformation;” consulting firms’ writing’s on “digital transformation of government;” and lastly, the “Third Sector’s” writings on the “digital skills gap” of service delivery organizations. The findings from the literature are then triangulated to the empirical, data-driven evidence, gathered from research conducted with respondents from the three main aforementioned stakeholder groups. Two primary research questions are utilized:

What are the market factors that encourage or discourage, non-profit actors and intermediaries to, or not to, pursue digital transformation?

What are the market factors that encourage and discourage, for-profit management consulting firms to provide, or not, digital capacity building services, to “community and developmental” service-delivery organizations in Ontario?

The research questions then serve as the core of the research methodology of this work. The questions were presented to two samples of respondents; one from the Third Sector and one grouping “the Big Four” consulting firms in Canada. The intention is that by understanding these “factors” at the organization-level and firm-level respectively, a set of “factors” around third sector digital transformation (mutually beneficial), may be identified and applied as evidence toward evaluating of the hypothesis. The findings of the research are analyzed, the hypothesis evaluated into scenarios, and recommendations are presented in the finished report.

#digitaltransformation #government #socialinnovation #socialimpact #corporateresponsibility #sustainability

MSV’s LPRM as a Tool for Attracting Foreign Direct Investment into Local Mining Supply-Chains:

Mining Shared Value (MSV) is an initiative of Engineers Without Borders Canada (a Canadian non-profit organization), focused on “helping the global mining sector and related stakeholders maximize local procurement of goods and services.” The flag-ship initiative of MSV is the Local Procurement Reporting Mechanism (LPRM); “a set of disclosures that seeks to standardize how the global mining industry and host countries measure and talk about local procurement.” MSV is intent to embark upon a process of internationalization.

The Sector team authored the The Local Procurement Reporting Mechanism business plan for incorporation into potentially, the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI), and other regulatory frameworks, with the goal of standardizing an established set of disclosures, influencing government policy and creating standards in corporate governance, attracting foreign direct investment in local supply-chains.

The internationalization strategy of MSV, is essentially one-in-the-same to the organization’s initiative to “internationalize” the Local Procurement Reporting Mechanism (LPRM), and to see the tool adopted as a global standard reporting practice, across the international mining industry.

The Sector has since conducted an analysis to identify the factors toward selecting the countries, and modes of entry, i.e. the factors toward the uptake of the LPRM in said geographies, upon which the internationalization strategy of MSV shall be based.

#mining #corporateresonsibility #socialinnovation #sustainability #ESG #mba #wbs #FDI #impactinvesting #blendedfinance #internationaldevelopment #sinzer

The Sector

Strategic Spending on the Digital Transformation of Social Service Delivery in Ontario

Ontario’s Government is “adopting new “digital practices and technologies that will deliver simpler, faster, better services to Ontarians.” In the 2019 Budget, the Government revealed its digital plan that includes, among other measures, the Simpler, Faster, Better Services Act.” And as per the Government’s claims, “if passed, it will significantly improve how government works and the services it delivers to the people of Ontario” (Government of Ontario, 2019).

At the same time, the organizations which largely deliver, government social services in Ontario (often coined “The Third Sector”), are experiencing an acute “digital skills gap;” the majority of reporting they are not “confident about having enough skilled staff or training to effectively use their technology for their work” (ONN, 2019).

Also, at the same time, Canada’s “Big Four” consulting firms, have been investing-in and building internal capabilities to advise “public sector organizations at the forefront of using digital technologies to transform the way they function” (Deloitte, 2019).

Over the last twenty years, the Ontario Public Service “transitioned from being an organization which provided service-delivery directly to clients, to an organization which now focuses its core operations on policy and program design,” outsourcing it’s “service delivery” to the Third Sector (Government of Ontario, 2017). It currently spends approximately $350,000,000 annually on consultants focused on technological innovation, making little additional provision to ensure these capabilities are developed in the Third Sector.

The Sector Inc has since conducted an extensive research study testing the hypothesis:

If the Government of Ontario shift’s spending from consulting services in policy and program-design at the ministerial level, toward a greater proportion of spend, allocated toward management consulting services focused on digital transformation of service-delivery, at the agency and point-of-service level, it will yield a positive social return on investment.

#digitaltransformation #governmentspending #socialimpact #ontariopublicservice #Deloitte #WarwickBusinessSchool #corporatesocialresponsibility #sustainability

The Sector
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Financial Times: MBA to Streamline Social Services; Napkin Scribbles in the Pub set up Consultancy

For MBA students, it is all about the network, or so the maxim goes. The fortunes of Bradford Turner would seem to prove the point.

The background

The 35-year-old spent most of his career raising capital for not-for-profit organisations before he decided to study for the coveted business degree. An MBA, he thought, would help him set up his own consultancy to deliver better public services while saving public money. “I had this vision that there needed to be a consultancy that could advise about how the community could collaborate.”

The business problem

The delivery of government-funded social services is carried out by a wide range of organisations, which invariably means expensive duplication. For clients, the system is equally complex. They may have housing needs, mental health needs, childcare needs and more, says Mr Turner. “They meet a different culture and different people every time they walk into an organisation. This is the problem.”

Choosing an MBA

Mr Turner felt he lacked a “cocktail of things” needed to set up his own business, specifically international experience and an MBA. To address this, he decided to apply outside his native Canada, believing that studying in Europe would give him a more diverse experience than studying in the US.

So that he could continue in his job, he chose a flexible MBA, combining online teaching with regular visits to the university campus at Warwick Business School in the heart of the UK. “It was an immediate fit,” he says.

Setting up the company

One of Mr Turner’s reasons for enrolling on an MBA was to get an all-round view of business: he knew certain aspects well but was ignorant of many of the fundamental areas of running a company. His plan was to finish his MBA then launch his consultancy. However, once on the degree course his plans changed. “The MBA being a good generalist degree gave me enough knowledge to help me know what I didn’t know and when I had to get people in to help,” he says. “I thought, ‘I don’t have to wait to do this’.”

He began working with an acquaintance who was a political economist specializing in urban infrastructure, looking at how urban planning and environmental sciences could help to solve poverty, and set up a for-profit consultancy, called The Sector. “What we’re trying to do is to clean up the [public] sector and get people to work together.”

The MBA network “I started talking about this at Warwick,” says Mr Turner, who started his MBA there in June 2014 and will finish in July. Indeed The Sector became one of the hot topics in the university bar during the week-long campus sessions for the programme. “We would all break out the notes and scribble on napkins. Before you knew it, we had pictures on the napkins and we uploaded them on to the computer,” says Mr Turner. “This all happened . . . across the pub in the UK.”

Among his peers on the programme were students from Lebanon, Germany, Russia and the UK, and they are now helping him by setting up market research activities in their own regions. The Sector has already been retained by the municipality in York, Toronto, to conduct a feasibility study for a multi-use community service centre to improve client services.

Mr Turner believes the creation of this kind of venture and networking means that the MBA is returning to its roots. “I watched the MBA become a single line on a résumé to get a management job. I hate that. It is absolutely nuts,” he says. “It used be a degree for educating entrepreneurs or the next captains of industry, not a credential.”

Source: Original Financial Times Article

#wbs #warwick #mba #socialinnovation #impactinvesting #ESG #toronto #bradfordturner