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| Bosun Tijani |
Innovation is often associated with private sector organisations where the demands for return on stakeholders’ investment and consistent organisational growth are significant impetus to successfully innovate or apply new knowledge. On the contrary, innovation in the public service organisations does not in any way appear to be a critical determinant of performance or survival – mainly due to the set of pressures, interests and demands on the public sector.
However, the dilemma is that since the public sector caters for the interest of so many and entrusted with socially important tasks; the importance of public service innovation is a no-brainer. Given innovation enables new needs to be met, and old needs to be met more effectively, it can result in greater value than the gains achieved in similar improvements in private sector.
The quotes below from Governor Fashola speaks to the importance of the issue:
“The dynamics of this time dictates that public service particularly of a city like Lagos must be responsive, efficient, proactive and an instrument of development”
“Equally, the public service that a mega city requires must imbibe the culture of innovation even in seemingly routine work” – Governor Babatunde Raji Fashola (3rd of July 2012).
