Sainsbury sets out a different way of operating
Peter Hoskin 12:52pm
There's much to ponder in Lord Sainsbury's interview with the Times today. Does the major Labour donor rate Gordon Brown, for instance? There's enough ambiguity in some of his answers to suggest not. And will he continue to give money to Labour ahead of the next election? Again, there's no definite answer - and that could be enough to provoke nervous jitters in Labour HQ.
But the most thought-provoking comments concern the relationship between politicians and the civil service. Sainsbury is scathing about the "out of date" civil service, which he feels could learn from private sector practices. Here are some of his key points:
"Ministers and civil servants are, he believes, too locked into their departments. 'Government isn’t joined up because it’s no one’s job to join it up,' he says. 'If you want to have a policy on low-carbon cars, that involves four departments and you end up with 100 people in a room. In business you would appoint a production director to run a project.'In his view senior civil servants should be blamed for departmental failures. 'It’s an absurdity that a minister who’s been in the department for three months is held responsible if the department loses all the high-security files. He’s probably never run any big organisation,' he says. 'I would give more power to the head of the Civil Service he then becomes accountable in a much clearer way to Parliament for running things properly.'
It is, he thinks, 'very unproductive' to keep changing departmental names and responsibilities. The Prime Minister 'puts things together in a new department on the basis that that will solve the co-ordination problem, the trouble is you open up new ones'.There are, he adds, 'far too many reshuffles. The average length of time ministers stay in post is about 18 months. In my experience it takes about a year before you really understand all the issues, whose advice to listen to. One of the real bonuses for me was that I did my job for eight years. But I went through five secretaries of state'."
Given how the Tories are working closely with Sainsbury's Institute for Government, you wonder whether they're thinking along similar lines. You'd certainly imagine so, as many of the Lord's suggestions are sensible and intuitive. But, either way, one thing's clear: if the next administration hopes to properly implement the transformative policy agenda which will be necessary to deal with Brown's debt crisis, then it will need to reform the very processes and culture of government.
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Julianlzb87
July 18th, 2009 1:03pm Report this commentCheck the Sainsbury's share price
for the period when Dave was boss.
He is Brown to John Sainsbury's Blair.
Or compare with Tesco's price
for the same period.
Nicholas
July 18th, 2009 1:21pm Report this commentPot calling the kettle black. The last thing we want is the cant from the Big Book of Last Century British Management infesting the Civil Service. If Sainsbury, the Labour promoter, thinks re-shuffles, change and territorial in-fighting are not part of the blue-chip private sector he needs to get out more. It is rife with that sort of nonsense - and virulent ageism to boot. Bit like the modern Conservative party which discriminates against older and wiser PPC's who have been around a bit.
The main problem with this country, be it public or private sector, is the power and prestige given to ruthlessly ambitious but thick-between-the-ears, thirty-something oiks and the general culling of older and wiser heads in the interests of the "we know best" generation. Production directors running projects are notoriously dogmatic and bullying in their approach, which is OK if they are right. All too often such projects end in tears because they are wrong and the value of reasoned discussion and debate to steer outcomes beyond the narrow goal of deadlines and budgets have been obliterated by the slogan and jargon ridden fascism of the meeting rooms.
The UK has been totally screwed by this rot and the blame lies with oligarchs like Sainsbury who have created the "JR structures" within hitherto sane and responsible organisations where bullying aggrandisers thrive. Don't be fooled and confuse greed and slick business practice with good management and professionalism. Having thoroughly exploited and stuffed the system the culprits responsible are now rapidly re-inventing themselves as the saviours with all the answers. More bullshit baffling brains.
Walsingham's Ghost
July 18th, 2009 2:15pm Report this commentBefore 1997, whilst the UK Civil Service may not have been the most effective organisation around, it was (generally speaking) 'A-Political'.
All that has changed over the past decade or so, to the point where it is now so politically biased that the Conservatives will find that their ability to govern through the usual Departmental channels is almost non-existent. The system will ‘leak like a sieve’ and any document likely to be embarrassing to the Conservative Administration will be in the hands of a left-leaning journalist probably before it reaches its original intended recipient.
Ironically, I fear that if the Conservatives are successful in winning the next GE, Cameron will have to (initially at least) revert to the kind of much criticised 'sofa government' that Blair employed to keep the Civil Service out of the loop and away from sensitive issues.
Not for nothing is the Civil Service currently known in Labour circles as their ‘payroll vote’...
WG
Jim
July 18th, 2009 2:38pm Report this comment@Julianlzb87
Not an entirely fair point, I worked at Sainsbury's when Mr. JD, as the house magazine said the staff called him came to visit. He didn't even talk to our manager, he spoke to his assistant who then spoke to the manager. A truly out of touch man who really didn't make anybody care about the company at all.
As for his comments on government organisation, I thought the whole purpose of hiring all the management consultants was to break up clear lines of responsibility, so they could charge more and avoid blame.
Dave B
July 18th, 2009 5:53pm Report this comment"The end game is to make sure the country is run better, not just to support the Labour Party"
Lord Sainsbury sounds like a model philanthropist. Good on him.
Susan Hill
July 18th, 2009 6:28pm Report this commentHe is totally a labour man and he will give them money till he hasn`t got any. He always wanted to have a chemistry set when he was a little boy so he gave Nulab a lot of money and they called him a chemistry set to play with only they called it Science Minister. He hadn`t a clue then and he hasn`t a clue now - he is disdainful, arrogant, rude and supercilious.. which is so utterly NuLab that he fits them like a glove.
TrevorsDen
July 18th, 2009 7:59pm Report this commentThe notion that Sainsbury has a clue about what he is talking about is surely err ... open to question.
Reshuffles happen because the minister concerned has either not pushed the government political view onto policy or is a failure in expressing that policy.
Its true that 4 defence ministers in 4 years is too many but Sainsbury makes too much of other reshuffles.
Frank P
July 18th, 2009 11:55pm Report this commentNicholas has once again synthesised perfectly the real causes of the decline of our national establishment and its reputation as a paradigm for pragmatic democracy and jurisprudence.
To boil it down to basics, he seems to be saying that our levers of power are now in the hands of a bunch of wankers and I doubt that any sane English person over the age of - say - sixty would disagree with him.
Having listened to the Weak at Westmonster this morning and the weasel words of Fraser Nelson and his leftie mate Steve Richards bigging up the Milibollox Bros by uncriticising them with faint damnation, the words of Nicholas ring even clearer. Moreover I see on another thread that Nelson puts his political telescope to his blind eye as he points it in the direction of James Purnell fervently hoping that he will one day hove-to as the Leader of the Labour Party. Ye Gods!
Somebody tell me: is there an English Magazine of conservative persuasion that I can invest the money in that I saved when I cancelled my subscription to the Speccie? Perhaps you should start one Nicholas, you have one guaranteed punter here.
Major Plonquer
July 19th, 2009 1:52am Report this commentDavid Sainsbury is a manageement dinosaur - from the same bygone era as New Labour. Centralise. That's his ONLY strategy. He wouldn't have a clue how to run a modern business as his (and Tescos) share price clearly indicates.
Just like New Labour, the man couldn't manage a fart at a baked bean eating contest.
Rhoda Klapp
July 19th, 2009 12:48pm Report this commentIf he wanted a chemistry set, why is he paying instalments on a cowboy outfit?
Nicholas
July 19th, 2009 12:53pm Report this commentThanks Frank P for your very kind response to my Daily Mail reading (I don't actually), window-licking, bed-wetting, Little Englander "rant". I still subscribe to the Speccie although I admit it is becoming more tiresome since the editorial change and perhaps reflects the lack of determined attack and warrior instinct that seems to mark conservatism these days. But I can recommend Standpoint as a genuinely conservative organ not afraid to lay into the more left-leaning excesses of the "pretend right". And of course socialists, pc do-gooders and thinly-veiled fascists of all colours, red, green, yellow or blue, get short shrift in its pages.
If Coffee House publishes this shameless plug for a rival (?) I shall be duly impressed.
TGF UKIP
July 19th, 2009 1:22pm Report this commentNicholas and Frank P, thanks for reminding me. It's long past the time I gave Standpoint a go.
I'm going straight to their website now to subscribe.
Frank P
July 19th, 2009 5:52pm Report this commentThank you Nicholas - you the editor? :-)
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