Of Romney, Firing People and Efficiency
As Mitt Romney begins to separate himself from the pack of Republican presidential contenders, two of his quotes from the past week in New Hampshire provide some clues as to how he might manage the federal government.
The first is his now-infamous statement, "I like being able to fire people who provide services to me." The second came from his victory speech last night: "I will make the federal government simpler, smaller and smarter."
It's important to understand that the first quote came in the context of a discussion about health-care policy, and was not necessarily a statement of general enthusiasm for terminating employees. But it is indicative of a broader philosophy: Organizations run best when they strive to become as efficient as possible, and hold individuals accountable for failing to meet established standards -- up to and including firing them.
As Derek Thompson points out in The Atlantic today, during Romney's private-sector career at Bain Capital, he was in the vanguard of the corporate cult of ruthless devotion to increased efficiency and productivity. If Romney isn't aware already that the federal government stopped collecting data on its productivity back in the mid-1990s, it's likely he'll be appalled when he finds out. And as president, it's a strong bet he would at least make an effort to better track efficiency and productivity, and link employee compensation (and possibly the size of agency workforces) to such measures.
In that regard, Romney's second quote above may be more than the standard boilerplate about making government more effective. He wouldn't be the first Republican president to promise to shrink government and make it work better at the same time by bringing private-sector business practices into the federal sphere. But he would be among the few with an actual track record of demanding increased efficiency and productivity from the organizations he oversees -- even if it means eliminating jobs.
In a piece about Romney's experience in private-equity management in the December issue of The Atlantic, Megan McCardle wrote, "You can argue about whether Mitt Romney really knows how to create jobs--one prime criticism of private-equity deals is that many can lead to layoffs--but you can't dispute that he knows how to turn around a dysfunctional organization and create economic value."
Romney certainly views the federal government as dysfunctional, and has no particular attachment to the people who work for it. So you can bet he'd make an effort to bring his private-sector experience to bear in trying to turn it around.
(Flickr photo by Stephanie Greenland, WEBN-TV)