building a reform team

Muiz Banire

Ref Batch
D
Ref Batch Number
4
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Graeme Blair
Name
Muiz Banire
Interviewee's Position
Commissioner for the Environment
Interviewee's Organization
Lagos State, Nigeria
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
Nigerian
Town/City
Lagos
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract
Muiz Banire discusses the reforms he implemented as Commissioner for the Environment in Lagos State as well as other government posts. Among his major advances was the execution of systematic refuse disposal. Banire hopes to improve this system even further by recycling more of Lagos’s waste. He explains that a major element of the successful reforms was educating people on the rules and alternatives to problematic behaviors. Additionally, communicating the individual benefits of alternative practices helped spread change. Banire found that interpersonal communication was the most effective method of delivering his messages. In this interview, he explains how his department prioritized their various goals, picking achievable targets despite the large quantities of improvements they sought. Banire operated at the local government level, setting up offices within Lagos State’s local governments. In four of the twenty local governments, he established zero-tolerance offices to reduce environmental nuisances. He also describes international initiatives to address climate change, including West Africa’s first International Summit. The reforms incorporated the executive, judicial, and legislative branches of government, and Banire talks about the legal process of setting up these reforms. He also describes his human resource management and how he worked with his staff. Banire stresses that he found a role for everyone. Overall, Banire says his work as Commissioner of the Environment increased the number of jobs in Lagos State.

 

Profile

 At the time of this interview, Dr. Muiz Banire was Commissioner for the Environment in Lagos State, Nigeria, a position he had held since 2007. Having been in government since the late 1990s, he had previously served as Commissioner for Special Duties in the governor’s office and Commissioner for Transportation of Lagos State. Prior to that, he had practiced law and taught law at the University of Lagos. He holds a doctorate degree in Property Law from the University of Lagos. He is the author of several publications, including numerous articles: The Nigerian Law of Trusts (2002) and co-author of The Blue Book 2004: Practical Approach to the High Court of Lagos State (Civil Procedure) Rules 2004.

Full Audio File Size
58 MB
Full Audio Title
Muiz Banire - Full Interview

Mitch Daniels, Governor

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H
Focus Area(s)
Ref Batch Number
2
Country of Reform
Interviewers
Michael Scharff and Richard Messick
Name
Mitch Daniels, Governor
Interviewee's Position
Governor,
Interviewee's Organization
State of Indiana
Language
English
Nationality of Interviewee
American
Place (Building/Street)
Office of the Governor
Town/City
Indianapolis, Indiana
Country
Date of Interview
Reform Profile
No
Abstract

Mitch Daniels discusses the changes he implemented in his office, the center of Indiana state government, during his two terms as governor of Indiana. He begins by explaining the importance of enacting reforms quickly once in office. On his first day in office, he issued an executive order creating an Office of Management and Budget, which oriented the various state agencies that dealt with fiscal issues around a common set of goals. And he created an efficiency unit in the Office of Management and Budget that identified cost saving opportunities and measured and tracked agency performance. Also on his first day in office, despite concerns that the political fall-out would distract from other reforms, he scrapped public employees’ rights to collective bargaining with the unions, thus paving the way for sweeping organizational changes. He implemented a new performance management program and tied employees’ pay to their performance. Governor Daniels discusses how he built his reform team by recruiting talented people who were excited about the transitions he sought. He describes the process for conducting fair employee evaluations to monitor performance. He notes the advantages and difficulties of applying business skills to public sector work. Finally, he considers the durability of his reforms.

Case Study:  A New Approach to Managing at the Center of Government: Governor Mitch Daniels and Indiana, 2005-2012

In 2012, Mitch Daniels spoke at Princeton University about his reform efforts while governor of Indiana. Video of his speech is posted online.

Profile

Mitch Daniels is the 49th Governor of the State of Indiana and the author of the best-selling book, “Keeping the Republic: Saving America by Trusting Americans.” Although he had served as Chief of Staff to Senator Richard Lugar, Senior Advisor to President Ronald Reagan and Director of the Office of Management and Budget under President George W. Bush, his approach was molded in the private sector.

Before his service to Indiana, he had a successful career in business, holding numerous top management positions. And his work as CEO of the Hudson Institute and President of Eli Lilly and Company's North American Pharmaceutical Operations taught him the business skills he brought to state government.

And with those skills he led Indiana to its first balanced budget in eight years and, without a tax increase, transformed a $700 million deficit into an annual surplus of $370 million. He also repaid millions of dollars the state had borrowed from its public schools, universities and local units of government in previous administrations, while presiding over record-breaking investment and job growth. Today, Indiana has a AAA credit rating (the first in state history) and ranks near the top of every national ranking of business attractiveness.

His other groundbreaking accomplishments include the 2006 lease of the Indiana Toll Road, the largest privatization of public infrastructure in the United States to date, generating nearly $4 billion for reinvestment in the state’s record breaking 10-year transportation and infrastructure program; the creation of the Healthy Indiana Plan to provide healthcare coverage for uninsured Hoosier adults; a sweeping property tax reform in 2008 resulted in the biggest tax cut in Indiana history; and an emphasis on government efficiency that has led to many state agencies, including the Bureau of Motor Vehicles, Department of Child Services, and Department of Correction winning national performance awards.  Indiana now has the fewest state employees per capita in the nation, and the fewest the state has had since 1975.

He was re-elected in 2008 to a second and final term, receiving more votes than any candidate for public office in the state’s history. Unsurprisingly, his second term has been as innovative as his first. In fact, earlier this year, under his guidance Indiana passed the most expansive education reforms in the country.  In 2012 Indiana became the first industrial northern state to adopt a Right to Work law. 

His tenure as Indiana's governor comes to an end in January 2013, when he begins the next chapter in his career as the 12th president of Purdue University. 
Full Audio File Size
61 MB
Full Audio Title
Mitch Daniels Interview