By James Baker, a Jersey-based award-winning entrepreneur and angel investor.
Public and private sectors are often presented as two sides of the same coin – one deliberate and slow, the other fast and adaptive. Having worked in both arenas, I can say this is misleading. Speed, accountability and competition- the defining traits of private enterprise- consistently create prosperity. Government, by contrast, too often hinders progress.
Where Government Fails Business
The public sector’s bureaucracy may be designed to reduce risk but in practice it frequently encourages inefficiency and waste. Endless committees, consultations and reports slow delivery and dilute accountability. By the time a government department has analysed a problem, convened a panel and commissioned a report, a private company will have tested, iterated and deployed a working solution.
The results speak for themselves. Studies show that public-sector IT projects are more than twice as likely to suffer cost overruns as those in the private sector, with average public overruns running three times higher. High-profile failures, such as the NHS IT programme that ballooned from an expected £2.3 billion to nearly £12 billion, highlight a culture where mistakes are absorbed rather than corrected. In the private sector, such outcomes would be unacceptable.
What Businesses Get Right
Private companies cannot afford this complacency. Competition punishes inefficiency. Investors demand results. Customers expect value. This environment creates agility and the ability to adapt quickly, seize opportunity and cut waste.
Speed in business is not reckless; it is adaptive. Agility means testing, iterating and learning faster than competitors. It means getting products and services into market before trends shift. And above all it means accountability where underperformance leads to immediate consequences, not years of excuses.
This is why private enterprise continues to be the true driver of innovation; from technology and healthcare to green energy and financial services. Prosperity is never written in reports; it is built by entrepreneurs willing to take risks and deliver results.
What Government Could Learn
The public sector could improve itself if it borrowed from business practice. Adopting minimum viable product approaches, using AI and data to model policy outcomes and trialling smaller pilots before national rollouts could cut waste and improve delivery. But this requires a cultural shift: from avoiding risk at all costs, to managing it intelligently.
More importantly, government needs real accountability. In business, failure has consequences. In government, it too often does not and taxpayers are left to foot the bill.
The Takeaway
I have worked in the military, in government, in NGO’s and across multiple industries as an entrepreneur and investor. I have seen the strengths and weaknesses of each system. My conclusion is clear: the private sector’s agility, accountability and performance orientation are not just advantages they are essentials for delivery.
Government plays a role in providing stability and regulation, but it should not expect to lead. Its task is to create the conditions in which enterprise can thrive – and then step back.
Because in the end, it is not bureaucracy that delivers prosperity. It is business.
