The Agile Government: It's Not an Oxymoron

Carlo Durante
Eulalia Sanín-Gómez

What do you call a government that treats people like valued customers rather than numbers? How do you describe a formerly paper-laden bureaucracy that becomes a streamlined, well-run business? According to findings in a new study by A.T. Kearney and the London School of Economics, both questions can be answered in one word: Agile.

In this article, the authors discuss how and why governments are becoming more agile. They use the study findings, primarily in relation to tax and revenue agencies, to show that the same principles that work in business will work in government: Governments that are faster, more flexible and more responsive (in short, more agile) will achieve better outcomes for their citizens.

For most tax agencies, the challenge is twofold: how to make the agency help people who want to pay taxes do so more easily and quickly; and how to switch their employees from a policing function (chasing after tax evaders) to an advisory or customer service function to help tax payers.

The answer begins with a journey to the agile tax system: reduce complexity, improve customer service, promote online filing and reconfigure the process.

In the end, governments that integrate the strategy and principles of agility into their organizations will be positioned ahead of others on a path toward providing true public service.