Should government turn everything it doesn’t want to do into a startup?
Government is understandably fed up with being blamed by society when it doesn’t handle things perfectly, so it wants to be seen to be handing at least some of the responsibility for doing things back to society, but…
The catch is, governments want society to take up this new role without being offered any incentive other than the conferring of ministerial blessings upon whatever it might be that motivates people to do things other than work in paid employment.
So, what kinds of thing fall into this category?
Government, for instance, may be prepared to contemplate the prospect of things like public libraries being allowed to fall outside of the remit of taxpayer funding.
So, if it turns out that there is a demand for libraries, but that the demand is not sufficient for there to be a ‘social imperative’ (for continued public funding) or a ‘commercial opportunity’ (for privatisation) it would seem that libraries might fall into the ‘big society remit’.
Public libraries, being seen as not likely to be ‘suited to privatisation’ would either go from the public sector to the ‘not for profit’ sector, or (more likely) into oblivion.
This would be because the government felt that current lack of demand meant that government subsidy was impossible to justify, or instead that government was unable or unsuited to run (or stipulate the provision of) libraries, at any cost.
Instead of the predictable cry of ‘any takers?’ aimed at the voluntary sector being met with a stony silence, we might ask what the startup accelerator scene (that recipient of so much recent government enthusiasm and media hubris) can offer the beleaguered ‘third way’ brigade, in terms of rescuing the service in question?
With our startup acceleration hats on, we would need to say that this situation was ripe for what Steve Blank might call a ‘business model discovery’ exercise.
This exercise would in this context be aimed at determining whether there was a new business model ‘out there’ for such things as libraries.
The term ‘business model’ in this case is (obviously?) not just restricted to ‘commercial operation’ but could also include:
(1) Standard ‘not for profit’ models
- volunteer operation (zero operational costs, including premises also provided rent-free)
- informal donation funding (minimal operational costs, covered exclusively by donors)
- grant funding (either from a private charitable foundation or from a government award, local, national or international)
(2) Standard ‘no charge to users’ commercial models
- commercial sponsorship (brand exposure)
- advertising (similar to sponsorship, except that the advertising activity and sales process may be more integrated into the operation of the service)
(3) Standard ‘augmentation’ business models
- the formerly public operation (e.g., a library) is ‘integrated’ into some other ‘for profit’ operation (either established or a startup) whilst still remaining ‘free at the point of use’ and with ‘no pressure or obligation to buy’ for any goods or services ‘provided in conjunction’ with the previously publicly funded service
In the context of ‘startup accelerator’ programs, this scheme could be run by the government (or commissioned and/or funded by the government but actually delegated to a private operator).
Considered on the grand scale, if this business model discovery approach proved successful, it could be applied as an ‘audit process’ for every government activity ‘up for reconsideration’ whether for privatisation or ‘big societisation’.
Instead of the current ‘should it be public or private?’ question (and if the answer to both options is ‘no’ then the service in question would these days have been considered as being a ‘big society’ option) the entire traditional approach to ‘public service reform’ could be scrapped.
It would instead be replaced by a requirement to ‘hand it to the public service startup accelerator’ who would subject it to a far more unfettered and imaginative business model discovery process than any government committee has ever undertaken.
Government disrupting bureaucracy instead of creating it? The very idea!
Yes, of course I can see the need for just as much (or probably even more) creativity when devising safeguards (the hungry startup investment fund wolves would soon be slavering at the accelerator’s door) but it still sounds worth exploring.
Public service startup weekend, anyone?
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This argument was around for a short time after the pre-election launch of big society, where libraries got mentioned but local government didn’t. That omission might just be worth examining – how healthy is it that we have successive governments with marked distaste for local government? It’s a little worrying that public libraries are seen as so readily detachable from local democracy.
The article seems to take ‘current lack of demand’ as accepted uncritically, leaving the subsequent suggestions a bit incomplete. ‘Lack of demand’ in whose terms? It’s obviously not about book issues, or even computer and internet use. Perhaps we could have some kind of social cost-benefit analysis that takes account of eg individual visits, repeat visits, perceived benefit, time spent within and online, opportunities created, child development, civic awareness, mental health and so on; against the actual cost of establishing and maintaining the library network. Any social assessment beyond the one-dimensional Daily-Mail-baseline would surely acknowledge extensive indirect social benefits eg in terms of informal learning, intergenerational interactions, local provision of information, mental health for people with little other public space left to occupy, and so on.
Public libraries don’t need to be ‘started up’; they need policymakers who can appreciate the social benefits of any of the scores of necessary resources that are not suited to models of private finance. And it shouldn’t be necessary for people who are capable of thinking in social, non-entrepreneurial ways – who recognise that the notion of ‘publicness’ has value including but not limited to economic value – to have to point out the massive and continuing failures of those who seem able to think ONLY in terms of private financial investment. It’s capitalism that has screwed up, after all, so ‘More Capitalism’ might not be a brilliant answer.
Hi Keith,
You raise lots of highly pertinent issues: I feel that you’re quite right to question whether innovation accelerators are just ‘yet another commercial solution’ to problems which may ultimately need to ‘transcend the limits or shortcomings of commercial solutions’ but it in fact transpires that there is no need for startup acceleration schemes to be restricted to being set up as exclusively commercial entities.
After all, such accelerators are, when stripped down to their essence, nothing more than collaborative programs aiming to pool and concentrate ‘innovation support resources’ in order to attempt to spawn new projects which might otherwise have not been able to come into existence or have any chance of being sustainable without the support or encouragement on offer.
I am in fact exploring the development of ‘social innovation accelerators’ where the emphasis, in terms of ‘return on investment’, is not necessarily measured exclusively (or even at all) in terms of ‘increase in financial valuation’ but instead in terms of ‘social impact generated’ which may be measured using either purely social, or even purely environmental criteria.
‘If it turns out there is a demand for libraries’… There is; check the stats. // In line with Keith Harris’s point, public libraries are fundamental to democracy. They are the resource that ensures voters can make informed an choice. // Libraries are key to democracy, improve social cohesion, provide social capital. Oh, and a local library will enhance the value of your house.
Efforts need to be made to explore where libraries (or whatever they ultimately develop into) fit into the future of a society in search of a ‘new local focal point’.