In the run up to the General Election which looks like being in May this year, all the main political parties are currently sharpening their knives in order to see where cuts in public spending will need to be made in order to stem the increase in the UK's mountain of debt. And an easy target for cuts in public expenditure are quangoes.

I was having lunch earlier this week at Portculis House opposite the Palace of Westminster with Sally Muggeridge who's CEO of the Industry & Parliament Trust (IPT) and we were discussing what life would look like for many quasi-autonomous non-governmental organisations (quite a mouthful!) after the General Election.

Now many of these quangos - let's call them by their real name, Arms Length Bodies (ALBS) - carry out essential services such as training teachers, protecting the evironment and leading research into new medicines. In fact there are 752 ALBs as diverse as the Driving Standards Agency, Highways Agency, Office for National Statistics, Queen Elizabeth II Conference Centre, Royal Parks, UK Hydrographic Office, UK Intellectual Property Office and Veterninary Laboratories Agency, to name a few!

The Pre-Budget Report (PBR) identified £10bn in savings that will need to be made in public finances and the Government has stated its intention to abolish 123 ALBs with an estimated saving of £500m. This will of course cause alarm amongst many CEOs of ALBs that feel they have an important function to perform.

But putting your head in the sand and hoping your organisation won't be "quangoed" isn't a viable option, is it?

Our view - shared by many including the IPT - is that now is the time for forward thinking CEOs of ALBs to seize the initiative and lay out their own manifesto for how they intend to deliver more for less.

We believe that many ALBs need to rewire their thinking on this issue by putting the customer at the centre of their thinking.

It sounds simple enough, but in practice it requires not just the CEO and the senior management team to be committed to doing this but the whole organisation needs to be committed in delivering more for less.

That's the challenge right now and it's where training is such an important piece in this future strategy.

We'd like to hear from CEOs of ALBs that want to learn more about how we can work with them to help navigate their thinking around the importance of customer service so that they can present a viable picture of themselves to any future government and deliver more for less.

And it's those CEOs with vision and leadership that will survive and prosper under the new regime that will take its seats after the General Election.

 

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