Michael D. Serlin

Michael D. Serlin is currently writing and consulting on public service change after a thirty-six year Federal career. He retired in 1994 from the U.S. Department of the Treasury's Financial Management Service. As an Assistant Commissioner, he directed innovations in electronic funds transfer and financial operations for the U.S. Government and initiated entrepreneurial administrative support across agencies.

Environmental Collaboration: Lessons Learned About Cross-Boundary Collaborations

While they find that many of the elements necessary for effective collaborative ventures are critical — such as a clear purpose, dedicated staff, and the willingness to be flexible — they conclude that a bilateral collaborative venture is often more effective when it has a formal legal structures in place that enhance its legitimacy in the eyes of various stakeholders. Informal collaborations are often useful precursors to more formal efforts. These informal

Governance Challenges and the Financial Crisis: Seven Key Questions

Under the leadership of National Academy Fellow Don Kettl and National Academy President Jennifer Dorn, the National Academy of Public Administration convened a roundtable of government leaders, business leaders, researchers and other experts to discuss governance issues related to the government's response to the financial crisis. Seven strategic questions related to governance emerged from the discussion held earlier this year, which was moderated by Don Kettl.

Innovation in E-Procurement: The Italian Experience

Italy's new public procurement system, created through Consip--a public company owned by the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance--is the focus of this report. Consip created a new information technology platform and new operational procedures for public acquisitions that included an electronic catalog, online auctions, and an electronic marketplace. Working as a public company, Consip was designed to minimize red tape, recruit a highly educated workforce, and be more responsive to clients.

Integrating Service Delivery Across Levels of Government: Case Studies of Canada and Other Countries

Public services are traditionally delivered through a number of government agencies via programs that are not connected to each other. In the midst of this decentralized fragmentation, two trends - a citizen-centric philosophy and network model of service delivery - are driving demands to integrate the delivery of citizen-oriented services across levels of government. The rapid increase in technology allows this new collaborative approach to service design and delivery to be a successful substitute for the old hierarchical approach.

The Challenge of Innovating in Government

This report develops a tool-kit of practical advice for would-be public management innovators based on the experiences of successful public management innovators in a variety of countries. Through a survey of the Commonwealth Association for Public Administration and Management (CAPAM) international innovation award winners, a series of tool-kit characteristics are generated of innovations and tactics used to build alliances of supporters and overcome obstacles.

Moving from Outputs to Outcomes: Practical Advice from Governments Around the World

Perrin’s report provides substantial evidence that countries are moving toward a results-oriented approach in a wide variety of government contexts. Until recently, the process and performance of government has been judged largely on inputs, activities, and outputs. Based on a two-day forum sponsored by the World Bank and the IBM Center involving officials from six developed and six developing countries Perrin identifies state-of-the-art practices and thinking that go beyond the current literature.Managing for Performance and Results

Global Movement Management: Securing the Global Economy

Global Movement Management (GMM) is a comprehensive and achievable framework for securing the key flows - people, goods, conveyances, money, and information - in the global economy against disruptive threats and building resiliency into the system. This framework can help overcome the key impediments to efforts to promote security in the global movement system, and motivate key stakeholders to work together to integrate security and resilience into the system.

RFID: The Right Frequency for Government

This report provides an overview of a major new technology now making great inroads in both the public and private sector - RFID technology. RFID stands for radio frequency identification. The report describes RFID technology and how it is being increasingly used. The report contains three cases of RFID application in supply chain management: (1) the Department of Defense, (2) the Food and Drug Administration and pharmaceutical industry, and (3) the Department of Agriculture's National Animal Identification System.

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