New MFAT Chief Executive
Transtasman are tipping (via e-mail) that NZ Post CEO John Allen is likely to be named Secretary of Foreign Affairs. Incidentally I tipped this back on the 8th of April.
If they are right, then this is a radical change for MFAT. Not only has an outsider never been made CEO before – they don’t have outsiders in any of their senior management team. Every Deputy Secretary(I believe) is from within MFAT.
Most Government Departments have senior managers who have come from other Departments or God forbid even the private sector. MFAT does not. What this means is the only senior managers there are those who have spent decades within MFAT. Hence why this is about Minister McCully wanting a change culture.
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Tags: John Allen, MFAT, Transtasman
April 30th, 2009 at 1:41 pm
So the idea is to run MFAT like a business?
If the minister could elaborate on this “culture change” you speak of that would be nice.
April 30th, 2009 at 1:53 pm
This appointment is interesting. The treatment of Dr Brash over a briefing note written by an over zealous staffer means that the Government is seeking a culture change.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:04 pm
Wow, two down votes already, simply for asking questions? What is the change in culture supposed to mean? What’s the reasoning behind putting the CEO of a consumer driven agency that sells mail services in charge of New Zealand’s ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. There has to be one. I don’t think anyone is suggesting McCully is doing this randomly.
I’m a fierce critic of MFAT’s current arrangements, and would like to see change, but it’s not clear what kind of change he intends. Some clarity would be nice.
April 30th, 2009 at 2:44 pm
I had a lot of contact with MFAT over many years, including working visits to a number of its overseas Missions. They can work really hard long hours and there was never any doubt about their enthusiasm, but as an outsider I was rarely made to feel welcome and the pecking order was always very strictly observed. Status and self-interest was exceptionally important to them and there was always much maneuvering over things like the level of accommodation they were entitled to.
Almost without exception the diplomatic staff used to treat locally engaged staff like shit.
Those who are on the overseas-posting gravy train can make some serious money with the level of allowances they get and some of the longer serving senior ambassadors are millionaires, courtesy of the taxpayer.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:10 pm
Wow, two down votes already, simply for asking questions?
Quit worrying abour Karma votes – your blood preasure will drop.
April 30th, 2009 at 3:35 pm
Who do you guys think will get to be the new CEO of Post?
April 30th, 2009 at 3:42 pm
The structure of MFAT doesn’t lend itself well to a lot of senior management from outside. Three of the six Programmes are almost purely regional, foreign policy programmes, run by Dep Secs. You can’t easily have, for example, a recent treasury senior manager responsible for the Americas and Asia Divisions. There is some cross-over between skill sets in Defence and DPMC and MFAT, but that is about it.
Two of the remaining three Programmes are multilateral, and include trade negotiations on the one hand, and the UN on the other. About the only appropriate career path for somebody running the UN division is a career diplomat. There just aren’t trade policy specialists of substantial calibre in New Zealand outside of MFAT.
The sixth programme, which includes finance, audit, and IT, is the most easily transferable skill-set from outside the organisation.
There are some non-foreign policy functions across existing foreign policy programmes that could feasibly be grouped together as a separate programme and be held by a non-career diplomat.
It will be a very interesting exercise to see if a complete outsider manages to adapt to the unique culture of MFAT, and if any real changes can be brought about to its structure and culture.
April 30th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
georgedarroch, maybe you’ll find out when the people in charge are good and ready.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:02 pm
DPF,
A family member who works for MFAT tells me John Allen was not amongst the 4 people interviewed for the position. Of course, this is just inter-office gossip. But seeing as we’re simply speculating, thought it might be worth passing on.
April 30th, 2009 at 5:36 pm
I know a few people who work for or have worked for MFAT. The general view I get from talking with them is that a dose of fresh blood wouldn’t be a bad thing. That seems to ring true with what you see in other organisations too … too much “inbreeding” tends to lead to tribalism and group-think.
I don’t know if John Allen is inline for the job or not. But having dealt with John I think he’d be a good candidate. He has experience of leading a big organisation, he’s got a very discerning understanding of the world, our place in it and our opportunities, and he’s been instrumental in foreign-affairs like initiatives such as the annual trans-Tasman forums.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:05 pm
Don’t have any great insight into the workings or otherwise of MFAT but I do recall as the young and ‘innocent’ aide to a Labour Minister of Defence and on an official visit to a certain Asian country siting in the front seat of the High Commissioner’s car (well I guess that narrows it to two) and having ‘His Excellency’ wax long and eloquent to the said Minister how terrible it would be for our countries reputation if National was to ever regain the Treasury benches.
And I sat gob smacked at what was being said.
So much for an apolitical MFAT.
Clearly Minister McCully is doing a LCpl Jones and equally clearly the ‘Mandarins ‘don’t like it up em’.
April 30th, 2009 at 8:15 pm
There are a couple of candidates for that job, him among them, that would make me squirm for a stint at MFAT. Tim’s right about the culture there but good management is in part about avoiding mind-capture by experts.
May 1st, 2009 at 9:48 am
MFAT has some long-standing problems that internal candidates have simply got used to, but would be glaringly obvious to a competent external CEO.
It’s IT system is stuck in about 1985, with staff only gaining limited access to desktop internet in the last few months. Prior to this, staff had to queue for a ‘internet access terminal’, of which there is about one per twenty or thirty staff. Unbelieveable, really.
There is a total lack of transparency around internal appointments and promotions, wqith ‘advancement by intrigue’ being the time-honored practice. This leads to a lot of time spent scheming that could otherwise be taken up with something useful.
They are extraordinarily hierarchical – probably more so than any other NZ ministry. No junior ever tells the boss that he is wrong, everyone nods, says yes and complains about it afterwards.
MFAT has extremely weak policy development processes, and almost never puts meaty policy papers to Minister or Cabinet. The planned use of Winston’s $700 million funding boost was a classic example. There was a list of new posts that would be opened, but no discussion of selection criteria, weighting of different factors and a range of options. All we got was a list, that might as well have been scribbled on the back of a cocktail napkin.
All that said, the MFAT staffers I have know are very bright, and generally very motivated to work for New Zealand’s interests. But the systems isn’t well set up to always help them do this. A new broom is desperately needed at the top, with a few senior time-servers jumping ship/walking the plank shortly afterwards.
May 1st, 2009 at 10:41 am
John Allen is a superb administrator, a highly professional man who I dealt with some years ago. He has been excellent for NZ Post through both National and Labour governments, and will take on MFAT admirably.
MFAT has been a bit of a closed shop for some time, and could seriously do with someone taking the reins and looking over just how it has been run.