Action: What is the most important nonbusiness institution with which you are associated? Does it use a specific yardstick to assess performance? How successful is the organization?
Today's blog begs for a commentary on how safe I feel against the threat of a terrorist attack, in the air, by a dirty bomb, chemical bomb, WOMD, etc. So what are the most important nonbusiness institutions who are protecting me and mine. Homeland security, Transportation Safety Agency, CIA, FBI, The Military.
So, for instance let's take the most recent "almost" Christmas air bombing. I suppose the ultimate yardstick is whether or not the intended "event" happened. As you remember it was prevented by passengers.... yeah fellow frequent flyers. Or is it? The "event" didn't actually happen. So performance was successful, good, excellent? But why did the President, then come out several days later with a very thoughtful response about the lapses in "daily management" practice by a number of organizations involved in the chain of events which lead the young man onto that plane. Or was the President's commentary simply politically necessitated by the rumblings of a "has been".
So the dreaded event not happening is not enough of a performance measure. Is it then about ... how it doesn't happen? Can one even really attach performance measures to all the "agencies" actions involved with the chain of events leading up to a single event on the ground. Is it that the young, incompetent bomber could be stopped by fellow passengers, because the terrorists' recruiting infrastructure has been so weakened that only "dolts" make it on the plane (unlike 9/11)? Every time an incident happens, have our "protectors" failed, and is the consequence continued, repeated re-tooling?. Some people (Paul Pillar) say there will be failure, no matter what is done to try to prevent.
Maybe it is the cost in civil liberties, good men and women dying in far off lands, transportation slow downs, security infrastructure etc. which should be a part of the performance measure. What is the cost/benefit associated with our "war" on terror. Remember, as macabre as it sounds we do calculate the cost of a death all the time. This is the approach we as a nation have taken for other "public infrastructure" programs (most notably the Tennessee Valley Authority, and since then most public infrastructure). We measure the social "cost/benefit". If terrorism is here to stay, then. Do we need to get to a realistic long term measure which can actually be managed daily through all the noise, or are we destined to react to each incident (maybe exactly as each terrorist who straps a bomb to her chest wants us to)?
If you have a couple of hours, watch this interesting panel discussion preparing a briefing on what our President should do about the terrorist threat in the next year. http://www.c-spanvideo.org/program/291298-1 . Seems the debate is still on.
Okay, then not safety, how about our nonbusiness financial institutions and our nation's ability to generate capital for growth and continued social prosperity..... Naaah, not tonight.
By the way, all books, videos, articles referenced are ones I have read. There are probably many more on each subject, but these are the ones I knew about. Any suggestions from you are much appreciated.
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