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Georgia’s first COO, Robinson alum Jim Lientz (MBA '71), brings a dose of
private business to public service.
Traditionally, government doesn’t have the reputation of delivering
efficient or quick service. Layers of bureaucracy and slow
decision-making processes impede fast turnarounds on special requests
and grind services to a snail’s pace. But Georgia took a different
approach to managing government when it hired Jim Lientz from the
private sector as its first-ever COO. In the business press, he’s been
called
“the man who runs Georgia.”
Lientz, MBA71, brought 35 years of experience in financial services and
corporate management to his new job. Among his positions were Bank of
America’s head of Mid-South and leader of its national small business
unit. He had served as chair of the Metro Atlanta Chamber of Commerce,
the Georgia Chamber, the Georgia Corporation for Economic Development,
and the Woodruff Arts Center Corporate Campaign.
Lientz’s connections with the business community and his perspective
from the
private sector brought a change to the way government is delivered in
Georgia. The emphasis became “faster, friendlier, and easier.”
The orientation of Governor Sonny Perdue’s administration has been to
seek help from the business community to make essential improvements in
the way government operates, says Lientz. The Commission for a New
Georgia, for example, is a council of private-sector business and
professional leaders who participate in making Georgia one of the
best-managed states in the Union. They evaluate programs, look at
processes, and make recommendations based on business principles and
experience. More than 300 of these executives have served on task
forces for economic development, studied benefits plans for state
employees, evaluated accounting techniques, and donated pro bono
consulting time.
“They’ve gotten right down into the weeds of the organization,” Lientz
says. “It is in the fundamentals where organizations are improved.”
Help
from Higher Ed
Lientz, with his Robinson College background, also has turned to
Georgia’s higher educational community—the fourth largest in the
country—for help with process improvement, research, and testing new
ideas. The state has collaborated with the Andrew Young School of
Policy Studies to fine-tune government and with Georgia Tech to
re-engineer processes. Last year, the Governor’s office recognized
Robinson’s Global Partners MBA program with the Governor’s Award for
International Education. The state’s research universities offer an
excellent resource for improving state government, says Lientz.
And Georgia has improved. Wait times at driver’s license stations are
down from two hours to an average of six minutes. Parents’ waits on
expedition of child support orders fell from 71 days to same-day
service. Responses to taxpayer questions went from 42 days to three.
Additionally, the state has revamped its compensation system, boosting
entry-level pay for new workers and offering retirement plans similar
to those in the marketplace. It has trimmed its fleet of vehicles, sold
surplus real estate, and renegotiated telecom rates. New collection
processes have captured delinquent taxes, and new procurement practices
have leveraged the state’s purchasing power. Savings on these items
have netted Georgia approximately $183.7 million.
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