Lessons learned from the start-up of non departmental public bodies
As a leading senior recruiter, we have worked to assist departments going through NDPB start-ups on an increasingly regular basis. The strength of our track record in doing so has meant that we’ve frequently been contacted for advice and guidance.
We believe that each start-up situation presents a unique and unrivalled opportunity to establish an organisation with the potential to be the best in its market. A start-up that goes well undoubtedly carries important benefits for everyone involved further down the line. However, our considerable direct experience over recent years, reinforced by some high-profile media coverage, has led us to the clear view that some start up processes work better than others.
Leaders often tell us that it’s hard for them to gain access to good practice on NDPB start-up, and that they would benefit from a toolkit. Given the frequency with which this view has been expressed to us, we decided to undertake a short study of lessons learned in start-up, with a view to disseminating practices and attitudes considered by leaders to be most common to success.
The aim of our research was to capture some of the lessons that NDPB leaders have learned over recent years and, from these, to draw out some broad themes; over the Summer we spoke to 75 Chairs, Chief Executives and Departmental sponsors to hear of their personal experience of NDPB start-up.
We are delighted to share with you the key messages from our research and have also included a toolkit, which can be found in our full report, be developed for use in your start-up situation whether you are an NDPB leader or a departmental sponsor. We hope you will find the insight valuable and, of course, we wish you the best of luck in your start-up.