Thinking Ahead: Performance-based Pioneer

On why a PBO is necessary:

The federal systems in procurement, personnel and other areas really are very rule-bound compared to most of what goes on in the private sector, particularly in the part of the private sector that's technology-driven or technology-dependent. I think the PBO provides an opportunity to transform government with technology. You need some flexibility to do that.

On the PBO's approach to technology:

We're going to buy in a modular way--a buy-a-little, test-a-little approach--where we build modules, implement them, then build on that success to go forward and execute our whole system. Speed is important. If you're going to follow a modular approach, which is much more like a private sector model, you have to be able to move quickly. The procurement flexibilities we have allow us to do that. We're going to try to engage in a much more open dialogue with the supplier community and pick people we trust and have confidence in to work with us. The private sector uses as its primary tool for judging whether to bring somebody in as a technology partner how they feel about the people in that company. Do they have trust in them? Do they have confidence that those people will deliver? What's their track record of performance? In government, where close contact has actually been discouraged, we don't have the benefit of that tool. That tool, which the private sector thinks is most important, hasn't been part of our arsenal, and I think it's in part why we've made some technology choices across government that we're not too pleased with.

On personnel flexibilities:

The key thing is the speed with which we can bring in key people to meet needs we'll have--needs in terms of the management of this organization and needs in terms of technical needs to modernize our computer systems. We can hire without the normal extended search process and comparative evaluation process. I don't know whether people who have always managed in government understand what a huge handicap they're under compared to the private sector. If the private sector makes a decision on a person, they put that person to work. Anyone who knows anything about recruiting knows that you want to close these things quickly, while people's interest is high and a deal can be struck.

On measuring PBO performance:

If you look at a company like FedEx, they judge the performance of their management team in terms of three things: the on-time delivery performance, the financial results and employee satisfaction. There's no inherent reason why we can't do exactly the same thing here. Employees who are dealing with the telephone or designing a form or processing loan consolidation applications all have a direct customer service dimension to their jobs which is measurable. The private sector measures that. There's no reason we can't measure it here.

On kinetic energy:

There's this kind of energy that's bottled up in federal organizations that have been rule-bound. There are lots of people here and in other agencies who want to make a contribution, they want to add value. The PBO turns that energy loose, for good.