With An Eye To The Future

ean O'Keefe is working to position his organization for the future. That's something that leaders of all organizations need to do, whether they're in the public or the private sector.

O'Keefe, now in charge at NASA, is not a rocket scientist, as his children have reminded him. Rocket scientists were and are important to the agency. But O'Keefe's management acumen is more essential now.

If NASA is to renew the confidence of the people in Congress who approve its expensive programs, it must rein in costs and, perhaps more important, develop and articulate a longer-range view of its goals and its promise for advancing human knowledge. O'Keefe is making a good start at that task.

The CIA is another organization that is worried about keeping up with the future. So the intelligence agency has struck out in an unprecedented direction, establishing a venture-capital fund to invest in promising new technologies. It has plucked young technology wizards-inventors of computer games-to help it search the recesses of Silicon Valley in pursuit of promising inventions. This is a new level of public-private partnership that recognizes Uncle Sam is no longer the source of most advances in information technology, as Anne Laurent reports this month.

The future viability of public services also is on the minds of federal managers who have, in a number of agencies, established small entrepreneurial initiatives that sell services to others in the government. Their businesses depend on customer satisfaction. They operate with a cost-consciousness that's unusual in federal operations and have developed a keen appreciation for the utility of marketing. Matthew Weinstock recounts their experiences this month in his article, "Building Entrepreneurs."

Just as organizations must look to the future, so must all of us as individuals. Beyond keeping on top of developments in our particular specialties, we need to have a broader view of news, trends and issues in the professional world around us. That, of course, is what Government Executive offers to 65,000 readers working throughout the huge federal establishment.

It is also a mission of the Excellence in Government conference that will be held July 15-17 at the Marriott Wardman Park Hotel in Washington. Now in its seventh year, this gathering serves as the annual meeting of government's leading change agents. Seventeen organizations devoted to improving government serve as hosts at the event, which also benefits from the sponsorship of leading American companies.

This year the conference has a specific purpose: to place the government's management improvement agenda in the context of the tough new security challenges the nation confronts. Today, policy-makers are considering sweeping organizational and budgetary changes. We'll hear from catalysts of the reforms, such as Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld. Mark Everson, who is assuming the post of deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, will answer questions about the president's management agenda during an interactive session I will run. Government's human capital crisis will be another focus for us, and we'll hear from former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, whose National Commission on the Public Service is researching the problem. Many other speakers, a large exhibit hall and the opportunity to network are all reasons to join us in July. For a complete agenda, go to www.excelgov.com. I hope to see you there.