As part of Entrepreneurs’ Week 2017, IPAA SA hosted a forum to showcase examples of intrapreneurship in the South Australian public sector, and to explore emerging trends and challenges for achieving change, improving coordination and facilitating innovation.

Attendees gained insight into the role of intrapreneurs in pushing government forward, and were inspired by and learned from some successful SA-based initiatives.

The forum featured thinking from leading practitioners in innovation. Speakers included:

• Suzie Sosa, Co-Founder and CEO of Verb
• Dr Gemma Carey, NHMRC Research Fellow and Senior Lecturer, UNSW Canberra
• Dr Kristin Alford, Director of MOD. at the University of South Australia.
• Tom Moore, Co-Founder and Managing Director, WithYouWithMe
• Elosie Burge, Partner and Design Strategist, Portable
• Erma Ranieri, Commissioner for Public Sector Employment
• Professor John Spoehr, Director of the Australian Industrial Transformation Institute at Flinders University
• Professor Eddie Blass, Founder and CEO of Conesol
• Thomas Sadowski, Director of Conesol
• Cezanne Green, Director, Secondary Learners, Department of Education and Child Development
• Deb O’Riley, Director, Adelaide Botanic High School, Department of Education and Child Development
• Matthew Anderson, Co-Founder, Social Capital
• Kirk Drage, Co- Founder, LeapSheep
• Dr Fiona Buick, Lecturer in Public Sector Management, UNSW Canberra

IPAA SA has placed a donation to the feedback survey’s most popular charity of choice, Cancer Council Australia. Thank you to those who participated. Videos and slides will be available soon.

View the live conversation on social media by visiting the hashtag #Intra2017 #EWeek2017. You can find us on Twitter @IPAASA and Facebook @IPAASouthAustralia.

The IPAA 2016 National Conference was a provocative look at political, social, and economic reform in Australia. You can watch every plenary session below.

For 50 years Flinders University has been a focus for long term and systematic education and research in the field of public policy and administration.  Its public policy activities have always had a strong collaborative element working with government.

Over the past 50 years the public administration landscape has changed dramatically and the fundamental issues of organising our society to steer new directions, and harness our resources to deliver public value has been highly contestable.  Our public servants have very hard jobs giving policy advice and managing programs

This half day seminar provided pointers to the future, and looked at lessons we can learn from the past.

The session was chaired by Professor Adam Graycar, School of Social and Policy Studies, Flinders University. 

Our two keynote speakers brought knowledge, vision and experience

Dr Zeger van der Wal
The 21st Century Public Manager: Trends, Challenges, and Competencies

Drawing on cutting edge research, Dr van der Wal will outline how public managers, faced with volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity can face future challenges and risks.

He will show that these challenges and risks also provide unprecedented opportunities, enabling public managers to be more entrepreneurial, faster, “flatter”, responsive, and innovative in their ability to respond to citizen needs, policy challenges, and demands and assignments from political and administrative bosses.   In his outline of how to deliver “better” public management he will draw upon his forthcoming book The 21st Century Public Manager. His opening address will cover:

• Key drivers and trends affecting the operating environment of public managers in the 21st century, such as Climate Change, Aging, Ultra-urbanization, Economic Interconnectedness, and Disruptive Technological Change
• Seven clusters of demands, dilemmas, and enablers resulting from these trends, such as Managing Stakeholder Multiplicity, Managing Authority Turbulence, and Managing the New Work (Force)
• The potential of a new paradigm of 21st Century Public Management to complement Traditional Public Administration, New Public Management, and New Public Governance
• The ability of our field to stay relevant to practice amidst rapidly changing and highly dynamic environments and contexts

Mr Kym Kelly
Lessons from the past: Values to lead and Capacity to manage

Following the coffee break we heard from four people closely associated with the School, two who have been involved in teaching, and two Masters graduates

• Dr Cassandra Star,  Associate Professor in Public Policy
• Dr Jo Baulderstone, former Associate Professor in Public Policy
• Mr Phil Fagan-Schmidt,  currently Executive Director, Housing SA
• Ms Barbara Dickens currently with RenewalSA

In the final issue of Public Administration Today ideas around ‘productivity’ were explored. This edition featured articles from notable sector thought leaders on insights across performance, innovation and the relation to productivity. Articles included:

• Important to distinguish between productivity and efficiency: Terry Moran on public service productivity pg 04
• Productivity ‘product’ crisis: Doug McTaggart poses some penetrating questions about whether the public sector can
  improve its productivity without a better understanding of consumers and what they want. pg 06-07
• Productivity Paradox: Janine O’Flynn says looking more broadly to a range of measures of ‘performance’ is much
  more practical and meaningful than a never-ending quest for (the paradox of) ‘productivity’. pg 08-09
• Authentic Productivity: Renu Agarwa, Christopher Bajada,  Paul J Brown, and Roy Green examine why current productivity approaches fail us. pg 10-13

To read the full edition see below…

Edition 42 of Public Administration Today looked at Australia’s public service on the global stage, as well as how we learn from government globally. This issue included articles on topics including…

Competitiveness and productivity: Today asked the Productivity Commission to report on where Australia fits internationally

Innovate to compete internationally: Industry innovation and competitiveness remains a challenge for
Australian business, say Daniel Quinn and Mike Lawson.

International engagement means a safer world: Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development (DI&RD) Secretary, Mike Mrdak, says international engagement builds relationships and helps keep transportation – for Australians, overseas travellers and cargo – safe and secure.

Fruitful regional harvest: Australia’s trade diplomacy is on a roll. Over the past 14 months free trade agreements (FTAs) have been
struck with three major Asian trading partners.

Access the full issue below…