Dan Chenok

By using an enterprise-wide view of how the government can work, the next president may be more effective in getting large-scale initiatives underway and successfully completed, writes University of Massachusetts Distinguished Professor Jane Fountain, in a new report, being released today jointly by the IBM Center and the Partnership for Public Service.

The report offers three key recommendations to the next president’s transition team and the next White House:

The IBM Center for The Business of Government is committed to helping identify and distill the lessons learned from the past, identify current and new management initiatives and capacities that will be needed to address key challenges facing the country in the next administration, and offer ideas on implementation.

(with Joiwind Ronen Ethos Strategic Consulting)

NOTE: Today I've invited a colleague, John Bordeaux, to be a guest blogger.  Hope you enjoy his insights as much as I do!

Recently, President Obama spoke at the South by Southwest Conference (SXSW).  “We are at a moment in history where technology, globalization, and our economy is changing so fast,” he said. “Those changes offer us enormous opportunities but also are very disruptive and unsettling. They empower individuals to do things that they could have never dreamed of before, but they also empower folks who are very dangerous to spread dangerous messages.” Then he gave his pitch.  “So the reason I’m here really is to recruit all of you.”  Why is disruptive innovation on the president’s agenda?

On Monday, at an event with the Secretaries of State, Commerce, Homeland Security, the Attorney General, and the Deputy Secretary of Defense, the Obama Administration released its international strategy for cyberspace.  The strategy, described in a post from White House Cyber Coordinator Howard Schmidt, for the first time outlines a number of principles that the US will follow i

For the duration of their time in office, the president and members of the administration will seek to make smart and timely decisions that advance a presidential agenda and respond to emerging challenges.

Some decisions, such as those that inform the budget, will follow well-worn processes and timelines.  In other cases, new decision processes will address emerging challenges. How incoming leaders make decisions will significantly influence the effectiveness of their choices.

Michelle Cullen, Senior Editor within IBM, recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jason Goldman, the first Chief Digital Officer of the White House, to discuss his Office’s online engagement strategy and outreach. Jason was part of the Blogger team acquired in 2003 by Google, where he worked as a product manager until 2006. In 2007, he was on the founding team of Twitter Inc. where he was Head of Product and served on the board of directors until 2010.

Last week, President Obama signed the extension of the Patriot Act into law.  The President did so while in Europe, based on an instruction that in order to prevent the legislation from expiring, an autopen should be used to place the President's signature on the bill.

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra announced the Administration’s 25-point plan for IT reform last December.  Since that time, and much attention has focused on reviewing the plan’s elements (including in this blog), and OMB has led an active implementation agenda to achieve the milestones laid out by the plan.  Last week’s White House meeting with IT leaders added an important new component t