Commercial Trading Units of Public Sector Organisations
Objective – This academic research study looked at how public sector parents can add value to their trading business units and how the parent and the business units can make the most of their unique position to grow and flourish as businesses.
The objectives for the work were:
Engagement – The research was a qualitative multi-case study underpinned by a thorough literature review. It was the first research study into this relatively new area of wholly owned companies of public sector bodies and as such drew best practice from the private sector context and analysed how this plays out in the public sector.
Phasing – The research involved the development of three in depth case studies of three very different businesses run by local authorities. Theses business were a training business, a property services business and a works business. The way they were parented was also very different, ranging from an arms length wholly owned company through to an internal unit that was also expected to trade commercially.
In depth interviews with key people from the businesses and from the corporate centres resulted in a rich data source that could then be applied to existing research from private sector multi-businesses. Result – The report identified the value that a public sector parent can derive from a well run commercial business as well as identifying the value adding or destroying factors that their parenting technique can have.
As a result of the research, Spirals are now working with many public sector organisations, helping them to make the most of their existing business units and advising them on how to set up new ones as an alternative to outsourcing.