Those interested in productivity improvement (such as me for writing this blog, and you for reading it) often look separately at different sectors off the economy. This is not because the principles of productivity improvement differ across industrial sectors but the context does, as often do the priorities of organisations.
This means that treating SMEs like big organisations is often a mistake. It also means that expecting public sector organisations to act and react like private sector organisations is not going to work.
Public sector productivity is often seen as a ‘priority’ for a new government – but this does not seem to be so in the case of the new UK prime minister. He is a staunch supporter (and defender) of the public sector and seems too be happiest throwing money at problems rather than tackling them.
There appears to be no hint of a coming policy framework to tackle low productivity but – worse – there appears to be no recognition that there is indeed a problem – and therefore no hint of any strategy, drive or initiative relating to productivity.
I fear for the productivity of the UK public sector.