Handling Expenditure Cuts In The Public Sector: Time For A Different Question
As someone who worked within the public sector for over half of my career in accounting and consulting, it is fair to say that leaders in the sector face some enormous challenges.
The traditional approach when it comes to expenditure reduction is to come up with a list of initiatives that deliver the required levels of savings.
The trouble is that these lists rarely deliver to the promised or expected levels.
Right now all of the messages are indicating that cuts in the region of 25% are going to have to be made to deal with the level of the deficit in public finances.
Given this level of challenge, there may well be a need for leaders to start asking a very different question.
Rather than asking the question what cuts can we make, perhaps the question to be answered is what level of services can we afford to provide with this level of money available.
Taking this approach will require courage from leaders, not just those employed in the public sector but also from the politicians too.
Duncan Brodie of Goals and Achievements helps accountants and health professionals to become highly effective leaders. You can sign up here for his free audio e-course.
About the Author Duncan Brodie
Since 2006 I’ve worked with in excess of 8,000 accountants and professionals in workshops, seminars and one to one helping them land their next jobs and become better leaders, presenters and business partners. Before that I spent 25 years in accountancy climbing the career ladder from Payments Clerk to FD. I’m a CIMA Fellow, Certified Professional Coach and Team Coach Facilitator.