What governments can learn from CEOs

A few weeks before I was elected Thailand's prime minister one of my advisors asked me if I thought my plans to overhaul the country's government were too ambitious. He argued that they would prove unpopular at times and almost too difficult to implement. "Was it really worth the pain that lay ahead?" he asked.

Rather than agree with him I reminded him what I call the ‘apple effect'. Let me explain. When you see an apple it is a beautiful fruit to both look at and eat. Now let's say you want to make apple juice. What do you do? You slice it up into several pieces and put it into a blender. You put the blender on, hold it down and watch the apple turn to juice.

But what happens if halfway through that process somebody comes up to you and asks what you're doing? "Why have you ruined a perfectly good apple which is now spinning around in a blender looking anything but beautiful?"  Would you stop, apologise for the disruption and turn the blender off? Or would you carry on until you produce a great juice to drink? Of course you would do the latter. Change may not always be pretty but the end result is always worth waiting for. And like the apple I know that when it comes to changing the way we govern, it would not be easy.

First let us examine what the role of government actually is. There are many but central to any government's plans is looking after the poor, vulnerable and less fortunate. A government cannot and should not do everything but when it comes to issues such as poverty, it is absolutely paramount that it takes the lead.

One of the key aspects of my reforms in Thailand was streamlining the bureaucracy of modern government departments and forcing them to focus on performance and results. I created much needed new ministries such as the Social & Human Security Development, Tourism & Sports, Natural Resources & Environment, Information & Communication Technology and Culture. But most important of all - as I explained in my previous column - I introduced the concept of CEO-style governors.

In the past, government officials were the ones with the power and people had to beg for services but this is all wrong. I told my administration that our officials were civil servants whose job was to provide service to the citizens, the customers. They had to become service-minded. Very quickly they became service-oriented and started governing for the people - something that hadn't happened before.

By undertaking these reforms we managed to bring together a lot of people. The key to this change was providing the correct training for government officials. I wasn't naïve; I didn't expect these governors to become experienced CEOs overnight. So I sent my officials to train them using business practices. I told the governors that they must think like businessmen and have a clear strategy in place that include plans for expansion abroad.

Once the governors realised what they had to do they started to deliver. On several occasions provisional governors visited neighbouring countries in Asia to explore ways in which to sell products from their regions. They looked carefully at the competition they faced and examined ways in which other businesses operated.

I hugely encouraged these trips because the governors learned so much - they came back invigorated and full of new ideas. It didn't matter what their district specialised in or what products and resources it had, all of them learned to balance the books in the same way a CEO has a profit and loss account to keep track of.  The reporting structures took some time to blend in but once they did the chain of command very quickly became clear.

I have often said to people that I saw Thailand as one big public company with myself as the CEO of Thailand Plc. The many subsidiaries owned by that company were in our districts, each run by their own CEOs who ultimately had to report to me.

Although the provisional governors were the ones given the title of CEOs I did a lot to encourage business practices throughout my government and across all departments. In business, the rules are clear: you have a job to do, a target to meet and a structure to operate within. Management, training, motivation and career progression are all part of the course. It works well and has done for decades across the globe.

Structures change, people change and attitudes change - and I am glad to say all for the better.

Thaksin Shinawatra is the former prime minister of Thailand.