Why do public sector and quasi public sector organizations need entrepreneurialist culture?

Example:

An art museum has great difficulty raising funds. They need $1,000,000 to continue operations and to provide curatorial services for their growing collection. They raise just $30,000 of their budget from fundraisers like wine tasting and bake-offs. They are constantly on the precipice and must beg donations from reluctant governments.

It is suggested to them that they could start an outreach program modeled after the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program which not only brings graffitti artists off the streets and creates a more vibrant urban community but generates millions of dollars of donations from sponsors who have their names associated with new outdoor mural works of art. Tourists take walking tours of more than 1,200 murals in Philadelphia.

They do not take on the opportunity because they are too busy with day to day crisis management.

Example:

A University parking administration only plows their parking lots when maintenance staff are available. They are only available during the day when the parking lots are full of cars. The result is non-navigable, snowed-in lots that staff and students must nevertheless pay for.

Example:

A state prohibits billboards as "visual polution" but then licenses a monopoly provider to put up 'tourism' signs along all state highways. They forbid private land owners from putting up their own signs within 350 yards of main highways as 'safety' hazards but their monopoly provider has every burger fry joint and motel posted, for substantial fees.

Example:

A local town wants to put up signs announcing that they have achieved a big population milestone of 500,000 persons but are prohibited from doing so because of the State monopoly on signage along main highways.

Example:

Another public gallery has falling admissions and is almost unknown in its own city. A board member suggests that because they can only show less than 1% of their collection at any one time because of space limitations, they should create (and curate) a virtual museum that would allow the gallery to rotate exhibits on the web to a local, national and international audience. The Board rejects the recommendation because while the presentation was in both official languages of the country instead of being side by side as is official policy, the two languages are presented one above the other.

These are the types of situations that cry out for institutional entrepreneurs, who put the interests of their staff, their clients and the public above the interests of administration and process.


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