Governance Design

Good governance design starts with understanding the relationship between organisational structure and performance. We know from long experience that for any activity to be effective, whether in business, the community or the public sector – it needs the right structure. This is not just about choosing (say) a trust over a company. It is crucially a matter of how the structure is designed, including stated purpose, rules for governance, transparency and accountability and a myriad of other aspects that affect how well governance arrangements work.

We also know that getting it right is a process of first knowing what an activity is intended to achieve and what the key relationships will be, and then designing a structure to meet these. As the old cliche has it, “form follows function”.
We can evaluate and design organisational structures, analyse and develop stakeholder relationships, assess organisational capability and performance and apply the tests of accountability. We specialise particularly in issues surrounding public ownership and stakeholder relationships.

By using us to help create, review or develop your governance arrangements you get:

• An approach to governance design drawn from our in-depth understanding of the performance characteristics of different organisational structures in the public, private and not-for-profit sectors.
• A solution that is tailored to your needs and those of your stakeholders rather than simply taken “off the shelf”.
• A team that knows how to handle the practical aspects of putting a new governance structure in place.

 

Local governance

Increasingly, and worldwide, regional and local communities play an important role in their own governance – not just through local government but through a whole series of local institutions and understandings that together help determine the future direction of the community.

Worldwide this can be seen reflected in new relationships between local government and the communities they serve, and between local and central governments. It is common now to speak of local governance, recognizing the role of local government as providing community leadership to a wide range of organisations and interests working together to determine the preferred futures for communities, and how to get there. Increasingly, central government and local governments now work collaboratively to determine how best to deliver central government services in ways which will genuinely meet the needs they are intended to serve (England's Total Place Initiative is a good example).

We have internationally recognised expertise in understanding the role and potential of local governance, focused on how regional and local communities, working with local institutions, can guide their own futures.

Included within this is our longstanding and broad-based experience working with individual local authorities and with Local Government New Zealand, and increasingly with offshore local government organisations, on a raft of issues, common to many local authorities, including economic development, community development, housing, museums, art galleries and libraries, roading, trading operations and governance.
 

By using us for advice you are able to:

• Draw on our excellent understanding of emerging local governance and local government practice nationally and internationally.
• Keep “ahead of the play” in what is rapidly becoming a central part of how things happen regionally and locally.