Business meets government

The notion that business practices have useful application to government is not new. Translating lessons from the business world for the benefit of government can be beneficial—especially in any situation where leaders new to government service come with a business background. Identifying and deploying commercial insights successfully often requires a degree of “bilingualism”: the ability to translate business to government and vice versa. This translation capability is built on experience and understanding of the context, mechanics, issues, language, and perspective of both sectors.

The translation of business insights to government application can begin immediately with the presidential transition. The transition to a new administration is unique. Up to 4,000 new political appointees will assume leadership of a $4 trillion annual enterprise comprising hundreds of agencies, including seven that, in terms of budget, would rank among the 50 largest companies in the Fortune 500. Imagine the senior leadership of dozens of companies being replaced at the same time. The complexities involved would be tremendous, posing potentially serious risks to the companies as well as the economy as a whole. And further imagine that many of the new corporate leaders have never handled such responsibilities before. Now you have a sense what a presidential transition typically involves.

For those leading a transition, whether for the government as a whole or within a particular agency, the tasks can seem daunting. For many, it may be their first such experience; we’ve had only two new presidents since 2001. In the private sector, by contrast, CEO transitions occur much more often and companies are frequently undergoing drastic changes through merger and acquisition (M&A) activity. The scale of individual M&A transactions is not as great, but their greater frequency has offered a greater opportunity for learning. And this begs the question: What can those involved in a presidential transition learn from mergers and acquisitions, both the successful and the not-so-successful? A lot.

Our interviews with experts who advise, facilitate, and manage M&A transactions and post-merger integration (i.e., activities in the months following the merger), as well as with those who have advised or experienced government transitions, suggest some striking similarities. Civil servants, transition team participants, and incoming political appointees may benefit from the translation of important lessons from the hundreds of M&A transactions that have occurred.​

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