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Bill Gates' annual letter says that measurement is the key to innovations
In his January 2013 annual letter, Bill Gates shares a major learning from his successful private sector and philanthropic experiences that measurement is the key to driving innovations, especially in reaching development goals. What can we as public administrators and development practitioners gain from this insight? How can some of his findings be applied to any sustainable development goals that may be conceived? What leadership roles can public institutions play in measuring progress on the ground? Check out this link:
http://annualletter.gatesfoundation.org/#nav=section1&slide=0
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Tags: Bill, Foundation, Gates, SDGs
Comment
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Comment by Elia Armstrong on February 15, 2013 at 3:46pm -
Speaking of risk management. even some external auditors are seeing the risks of measuring and assessing the achievement of public policy goals too narrowly. The head of the Indian SAI is arguing that auditing should not only be about accounting but should look at accountability and effectiveness of public policies. See his recent speech at Harvard:
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Comment by Ulrich Graute on February 4, 2013 at 5:55pm -
The letter is encouraging but puts also a questions mark behind goals not accurately measurable goals:
“The success of the MDGs means that there is a lot of interest in expanding them to include a broader set of issues. But many of the potential new goals don’t have unanimous support, and adding many new goals, or goals that are not easily measurable, may sap momentum.”
What would he say about governance related goals? Bill Gate is probably not against good or democratic governance but as long as there aren’t sufficiently accurate indicators to measure progress on governance he seems to rather not propose governance related goals and so he doesn’t even use the term governance in his letter.
Obviously, as a business man he is used to externalize factors which can’t be calculated. If I translate his letter correctly into our governance discussions, this would leave two options:
- Either we find ways to measure progress in governance more accurately e.g. by further developing existing governance indices;
- Or the governance process remains an unknown factor threatening the achievement of other goals.
We certainly should prevent the later case but is the first option feasible?
Well, may be not and may be we don't have to. There might be another, a third option of just defining a bundle of enablers which mitigate the risk of governance failure and increases the chance to achieve the new development goals. I think that's what CEO do when they can't measure everything accurately: They teach their staff how to fix things, how to cross-check calculations, modify production chains and even how to change strategies if an accurately prepared business plan doesn't materialize.
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