In response to a recent Quora question, Jae Yang outlined five components of a successful public-private partnership initiative:
1. Tangible need and benefit to the public
Public-private partnerships that has tangible need statement that define how can public benefit from this activity. Bridge to nowhere is a public-private partnership that has no tangible benefit. The benefit of new supersonic bomber program is tenuous at best. Nation-wide public-private partnership effort to drastically reduce dental problems in Appalachian mountains (A Look at Oral Health Disparities in Appalachia - NIH) sounds like a really beneficial program to the public.
2. Well defined objective
This prevents cost overruns. A lot of programs fail or has cost overruns because policy makers themselves are very much disengaged from the program oversight and have poorly defined objective. Result of it is that oversight criteria are poorly defined. Sending a man to the Moon is a clear objective, and suppliers worked with government to make this happen. Giving money to clean tech companies in hopes that one in their portfolio succeeds lacks clear objective. A clean tech objective that would be clear might sound like... “create a energy production and transportation method that is cheaper than oil, has higher energy density, and creates American jobs.”
3. Result or contest based procurement when technology readiness is medium to high
In cases where policy makers themselves do not understand the technology well, a contest should be held and on private companies’ dimes on how well their prototypes perform, that way tax payers aren’t left with the bill. Best examples are American small arms designers prior to end of World War II.
4. Deregulated by the public because public cannot define what it is
Often public should simply get out of the way. Deregulating an industry helps free up productive private entities to create something dazzling. This is a case when the public component of the public-private partnership steps aside as a condition of the partnership. The United States risks lagging behind many nations in the field of synthetic biology because of premature bioethics discussion that borders on paranoia. Early pioneers of powered flight were allowed to conduct experiments because there was little to no regulation. Internet was able to flourish as much as it did because of lack of regulation. Internet as we know it would not exist if congress tried to preempt cyberbullying, email scams, or tried to tax it out of its existence back in the 1990s.
5. Captured the public’s imagination
Probably the most important of all is for the program to capture the public’s imagination. Boeing and Lockheed’s United Launch Alliance did not, Elon Musk’s SpaceX did. The Wright Brothers really took the powered flight to the forefront of American public interest. This takes a real consistent results. Elon Musk is widely respected for his numerous efforts but he had to prove his value. The Wright Brothers had to prove manned flight many times to many observers before earning the public’s trust.