ESADE and PwC launch Public Sector Observatory

Under a new agreement signed by ESADE and PwC, the ESADE–PwC Public Sector Observatory will be created with the aim of encouraging training and creating knowledge on the main challenges facing the public sector (government bodies, public administrations, publicly owned companies and other state-owned enterprises). The signing ceremony featured the participation of Francisco Longo, Associate Director General at ESADE, and Jesús Díaz de la Hoz, Chair of the PwC Foundation.

This project – established at a moment in which the social, economic and business spheres are undergoing a sweeping transformation – is intended as a guide for addressing all those changes and for helping to shape a more efficient public sector that is capable of responding in an optimal way to citizens’ current demands.

The ESADE–PwC Public Sector Observatory is built upon three main aims: contributing to the training of socially responsible professionals who work in the public sector or interact with institutions; fostering debates on public-sector issues that can help to build a fairer and more prosperous society; and creating knowledge that enables public organisations to improve their functioning. With these aims in mind, the Observatory will pursue the following lines of work:

• Training, with the launch of the Executive Programme in Public-Sector Governance, designed for professionals from administrations as well as public companies and organisations; representatives of institutions, political parties, and workers’ and employers’ organisations; and private-sector executives who interact with public-sector entities and need to understand how they operate. The first edition of the programme will be developed between February and June 2017.
• Event programme, in which the main issues for the present and future of the public sector will be analysed, with a particular emphasis on civil society in general and the business community in particular. In the coming months, discussions will be held on topics such as institutional quality, modernisation of administrations, and public-private partnerships.
• Applied research on various subjects, including public leadership, institutional quality, public-private partnerships and the major areas of the administration, as well as fields related to the welfare state, education, public health and other areas.

The Centre will be headed by Isabel Linares, Senior Counsellor at PwC, with Juan Luis Manfredi acting as Academic Director. The project is a joint initiative of PwC and ESADE that will be integrated within the Center for Public Governance (ESADEgov), whose mission is to conduct research, provide training and give voice to the main challenges confronted by governments and public- and private-sector organisations in the process of creating public value.

Francisco Longo, Associate Director General of ESADE and Director of ESADEgov, commented: “Over the course of thirty years in the field of governance and public administration, more than 3,000 people from numerous administrations throughout Spain have participated in our training programmes. Through these programmes, we have supported the transition from a bureaucratic culture to a managerial culture based on results and accountability. The new Observatory will provide a new impetus to this task, at a time when the public sector must confront sweeping transformations.”

Isabel Linares, Director of the ESADE–PwC Public Sector Observatory, commented: “The transformation of the public sector is underway. Although this is a matter that has formed part of the social debate in recent years, the changes are not occurring at the necessary speed or with the necessary depth. Public-sector organisations can still improve and adopt the practices, processes and tools that have worked successfully in the private sector and which will contribute greatly to strengthening their role.”