The economic crisis, at least is how it has been throughout history, are medium to long term elements that tighten the social fabric and that sometimes have disastrous consequences for humanity, and other times have resulted in improvements that have a positive impact on public and private organizations' better management. We trust that the second option will be the result of the 2008-2009-? crisis, and that within a few years, analysts could say that we obtained some lessons from that crisis.
In my humble opinion, I think it is possible to make a first list of things that, for the management of the public, can be learned from this crisis. I venture to translate them into these lines.
The first lesson is the essential need to give money its right value. shortages of goods, in this case of money, increases its value, or, at least, the perception of this value. shortages of goods, in this case of money, increases its value, or, at least, the perception of this value. In my opinion, Public Administrations must internalize this value, and should be established monitoring and evaluating mechanisms of investments made in the public sector. This change should lead, for example, to institutionalize evaluation, making it compulsory for all kind of programmes and public services. This will get to know the destination, result and impact every dollar of Government spending generates to the community. The goal can be nothing to find the best possible use of every available euro.
A second lesson that could be obtained from this crisis, always for public management, is the paramount importance of public interest and long-term sustainability above all. In this sense, it's extremely difficult for a politician making decisions that, at first, can be detrimental within a short term —as would have been taking actions against the spiral of growth based on the construction that has occurred in Spain in recent years— but, seeing the consequences, we should be the citizens ourselves who require and understand that, for the good of the community, these decisions must be made when circumstances require.
Finally, a third lesson we might draw from this crisis is the need to increase business competitiveness, for which i think that many actions can be implemented from the public sector, both in terms of better internal management of public institutions themselves (reducing payment delays and streamlining procurement processes), an in terms of public policies for the business sector. Within the very wide range of perfomances that include this teaching, we could highlight the the need to use public procedure as a catalyst for business competitiveness, prioritizing innovation, technology, globalization and other aspects that can make companies competitive organizations internationally.
