Vincente Fox, Ray Nagin, George W. Bush ... and Michael Bloomberg

El Presidente worked for Coca Cola. He has mixed reviews. Ray Nagin was an executive for Cox Cable. He has mixed reviews. G.W. Bush is the first president with an MBA. He has mixed reviews.

Is what's good for business, good for good or better government?

Mayor Bloomberg on the subway. Newsday photo.

Yesterday's New York Times reports in a series of articles on candidates for the mayoral election, on "The Incumbent: The Manager as Mayor", Michael Bloomberg in "Bloomberg Lives by Statistics and Gives Aides a Free Hand."

From the article:

Mr. Bloomberg exercises control over the city much like Mel Karmazin, the former Viacom chief, famously did at his company: by closely monitoring the numbers produced by a team of star department heads who are free to run their agencies as they see fit so long as they meet strict production targets...

As mayor he has tried create a similar system from which to govern. Data analysis is religion for Mr. Bloomberg, and numbers are the lifeblood of his administration. They drive policy rather than just track progress. It was in large part in the pursuit of more city data that Mr. Bloomberg created the 311 help line. It provides one-stop shopping for people seeking information about everything from parking rules to trash pickups. But perhaps more significant, residents' grievances on the line are also stored in a database so the city can immediately identify a festering problem area, and react....

Such an approach has helped drive nearly all of the city's major indices in positive directions, just in time for Mr. Bloomberg's re-election campaign. But the approach has often drawn criticism, particularly on the schools front, with educators saying the administration is obsessed with test scores at the expense of a more holistic approach to improving student performance.

And some advocacy groups have complained that Mr. Bloomberg's overall push for immediate results can be shortsighted. Paul Steely White, executive director of Transportation Alternatives, an advocacy group, credited the statistical focus with the city's improved performance in filling potholes, paving roads and reducing traffic fatalities. Still, he said, "There's just not much happening in terms of long-range planning" on improving the infrastructure of a growing city.

Mr. White, who often works closely with the Department of Transportation, said commissioners have been given "some very tight parameters: take care of business here and you'll be more or less left alone."...

Mr. Bloomberg's deputies say he invites dissenting views as he weighs options, even relishing shouting matches in the process....

Yet some of Mr. Bloomberg's peers say that perceived purity gives him exceeding confidence in his own judgment and that of his people, which they alternatively describe as admirable or bull-headed and sometimes unhelpful to his own aim....

But that emphasis on personal ties has a flip side. If the mayor feels betrayed, he will hold a grudge, say people who believe they have been on the other side of one....

Mr. Bloomberg said that he remembered the conversation differently but that he had found the negotiation process in politics much different from that of the business world. "In business, not with everybody but generally, the objective is to get something done that you're talking about," he said. "Here it's more horse trading. The issues tend to be, 'I'll vote for this if you give me something that's totally unrelated.' The discussion is not about the merits of the particular subject."

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Maybe he's not perfect but clearly there is a difference with Bloomberg and the others. It centers on setting objectives, monitoring results, and keeping officials accountable. Nationally, there isn't much happening in terms of hiring great people, setting standards, tracking results, and holding officials accountable. Locally, there are issues with hiring, setting meaningful standards, doing something with the data that is generated, and setting higher expectations.

Things to think about.