The following is quite true Biddy
'The fact is that there are successful business experiences in both
public and private sectors (and in Universities which are neither!) and
there are also abject failures. CILIP is a membership organisation -
neither public nor private - as such it can and should learn from the
best and the worst examples wherever they are found and aim be
appropriate and successful over a long time horizon.'
Also that Cilip is a Registered Charity, that is a membership
organisational and runs a profit making arm that supports it.
It isn't to say public is better than private, and we can all find good
and bad examples on both sides (Marconi was hugely successful and
innovative for many years, as was IBM etc, but there are huge risks in
the commercial world, and the bottom line is they can fail) Family firms
are an example of where in the third generation for example they tend to
start to fail for all sorts of reasons. ALL organisations have to change
and adapt to succeed, incusing Universities. However public sector
organisations tend to change much more slowly because of the nature of
the beast.
No one is advocating throwing the baby out with the bath water, but that
to succeed Cilp has to have staff who have business acumen and skills,
and in particular in identifying what it is they need to offer and do to
stay in business. ALL universities have marketing and business arms and
fund raising departments and marketing managers who look for
sponsorship, overseas students and are aware that the numbers matter.,
all in developing new courses and methods of studying to attract the
student numbers they need. They have thriving alumni departments to keep
graduates on board and supportive and offer services that will keep ex
students interested. Some succeed better than others. Univerisites are
now business and are highly competitive.
The point is a small group of already 'on-board' involved Clip
staff/council may need an influx of hard headed business person(s), to
help them develop a relevant and viable new 'business model', those last
2 words not being mine but Cilip's own
f
-----Original Message-----
From: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Fisher, Biddy M
Sent: 14 August 2006 13:25
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cilip: business model & future
I do not normally join in these discussions, my views do not necessarily
polarise in a way that lends itself to interesting reading. My
observation on the current discussion is that there is a particularly
distorted view that the public sector always has to learn from the
private and not the other way round.
There is a misplaced assumption that only the private sector (or people
with private sector experience) can be 'businesslike' and devise
successful business models - that is insulting and ignorant. The real
issue is not about better than but about how to run a successful
business - a company, a library, a university or a hospital and each of
those organisations presents a different context that negates any
wholesale application of models or techniques to another.
One key difference between managing successful operations in the public
sector rather than the private is the level of political interference,
constraint and short term policy changes. I am sure that many hospital
managers could do a much better job if they were trusted to set their
own priorities and get on with it. Another key difference is that the
private sector has demonstrated many times that business plans are often
focussed too much on short-term shareholder value at the expense of the
company (and workforce) long-term interest - use (abuse) of company
pensions by Maxwell and others is one excellent example.
The fact is that there are successful business experiences in both
public and private sectors (and in Universities which are neither!) and
there are also abject failures. CILIP is a membership organisation -
neither public nor private - as such it can and should learn from the
best and the worst examples wherever they are found and aim be
appropriate and successful over a long time horizon.
As an aside and as another "example"; Compare Marconi with the
University of Glasgow. The latter has been a moderate success for
several hundred years - the former collapsed spectacularly - who should
be learning from whom?
Biddy Fisher MLib FCLIP
Head of Information Services
Sheffield Hallam University
Learning and IT Services
City Campus
Howard Street
Sheffield S1 1WB
United Kingdom
Email [log in to unmask]
Tel. +44 (0)114 225 2103/4
Fax . +44 (0)114 225 3859
-----Original Message-----
From: Chartered Library and Information Professionals
[mailto:[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of John Briggs
Sent: 14 August 2006 12:54
To: [log in to unmask]
Subject: Re: Cilip: business model & future
Frances Hendrix wrote:
>
> People are looking for value added, they do want a slick, clever,
> smart, professional organisation to be part of and proud of. To do
> this needs people to run the place with all the skills required today
> of good businesses. Having listened to Nike Marketing people recently
> I was amazed, in many ways. They share some of the same professional
> ethos and challenges, and actually some of their challenges are very
> much the same as 'ours' and Cilips. But they have hugely professional
> people in the relevant disciplines, like marketing etc, running the
> outfit, and these people are totally committed to their organisation.
> Yes I know they make huge profits, but the skills they have, the
> buy-in to the company ethos etc are all to be admired and used as
> examples. We must stop being snotty about the business and commercial
> sector, and learn from the success some of them undoubtedly have.
You know, I think most of your critics will agree that "slick, clever,
smart" is the problem. It doesn't help your case to hold up Nike as a
beacon - their propaganda is that they have changed, but from what?
Their
exploitation of slave-labour conditions in Third-World countries is well
documented. Do we really have to "buy-in" to that sort of "company
ethos"?
John Briggs
|
