STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF

REGULATORY AND ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES

WWW.HKS.HARVARD.EDU/EE/ENFORCEMENT

YOU’RE HERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.

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“Strategic Management of
Regulatory and Enforcement
Agencies was an experience
that challenged my beliefs and
made my time at Harvard
a transformational learning
experience from which I will
benefit for years to come.”
– DON RONYAK
DEPUTY HR DIRECTOR
DEPARTMENT OF REVENUE,
STATE OF COLORADO, USA
STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT OF
REGULATORY AND ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES
Roughly half of the work performed by governments today involves the provision of
societal protections or the control of harms—a type of work quite different from that
of delivering services.
Strategic Management of Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies is an intensive Harvard
Kennedy School executive education program focusing on the distinctive managerial and
operational challenges faced by professionals with roles, or who work within agencies,
that include enforcement, regulatory, security, or compliance-management responsibilities.
This one-of-a-kind program emphasizes the management and operations of such agencies
(regulatory practice) as opposed to the reform of law (regulatory policy), and it is oriented
more toward social regulation (provision of safety, health, security) rather than economic
regulation (efficient functioning of specific markets).
While here at Harvard, you and your experienced peers will be immersed in a stimulating,
intellectually rigorous learning environment led by renowned faculty and expert practitioners.
Using a combination of case studies, lectures, and small group discussions and workshops,
you will explore a range of compelling and relevant regulatory topics, including:
» In a risk-control or regulatory setting, how is success defined, and how might
it best be measured?
» How can preventive work be assessed and supported?
» What does it mean to adopt a “risk-based” approach?
» What does it mean to be vigilant with respect to novel, emerging, or invisible risks?
» How should different parts of the risk-management task be allocated among regulators,
industry, and third parties? How do such structural decisions relate to ideas about prescriptive
regulation, performance-based regulation, responsive-regulation, or self-regulation?
When should one model be preferred over another?
 » In designing regulatory, compliance, or risk-control operations, what are the fundamental
design dilemmas that need to be resolved? What are the consequences of the various design
choices available?
» As regulators pick and choose what to work on and what methods to use, what are the essential
types of discretion involved? What values count in governing the choices that have to be made?
» What type of partnerships should regulators form with diverse stakeholder groups without
compromising their regulatory mission?
» How can executives focus their agencies on specific harm-reduction objectives if the harms
don’t align with any established piece of the organizational structure and are not addressed
by existing processes?
» How should professional regulators respond to “deregulatory” winds and other political pressures?

CURRICULUM
In five extraordinary days, you and your class peers will analyze and discuss cases spanning
a variety of regulatory and enforcement domains, from the environment to public health to
crime. Each case is chosen based on its ability to provoke, illuminate, and define ubiquitous
dilemmas and emerging approaches.
A critical component of the Strategic Management of Regulatory and Enforcement Agencies
program involves each participant’s reflection upon his or her own professional experiences,
and sharing of these examples in both small group and class sessions. You will leave the
program with a better understanding of the pressures faced by regulators today, and a
broader appreciation of potential adaptations you might make in response.

YOU’RE HERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. SM

Additional topics covered include:
» The Strategic Public Management Model and its application to regulatory settings
» Fundamental design dilemmas common across all regulatory domains
» The distinctive nature of problem-centric work
» The role of analysis in supporting effective risk-control, problem-solving,
or compliance-management operations
» Special classes of risks, such as catastrophic, invisible, and those involving
adversaries, etc., that complicate the task of controlling these risks.

WHO SHOULD ATTEND

The program is designed for a global audience of national, state, and
municipal government officials who oversee, support, or run organizations TO APPLY OR LEARN ABOUT PROGRAM DATES,
that have significant regulatory or enforcement responsibilities. Participants CURRICULUM, TUITION, AND MORE, PLEASE VISIT
come from a broad range of regulatory fields including, but not limited to,
crime control, tax compliance, environment, health, customs and immigration,
WWW.HKS.HARVARD.EDU/EE/ENFORCEMENT
financial regulation, fraud and corruption control, transportation, and
occupational safety.
Admission is competitive and based on professional
Other professionals who benefit greatly from this program include nonprofit achievement and organizational responsibility. There
leaders as well as members of professional boards who want to better are no formal educational requirements; however,
understand the challenges of risk control and harm reduction. These include fluency in written and spoken English is a necessity
for participation.
senior practitioners within professions such as law and medicine who,
by virtue of their election or appointment to a board, acquire disciplinary,
compliance-management, and risk-control responsibilities.
FACULTY CHAIR

Malcolm K. Sparrow is Professor of the Practice of Public Management at Harvard Kennedy School.
A mathematician by training, Sparrow joined the British Police Service in 1977, rising to the rank of
Detective Chief Inspector. In 1988, he left police work for a faculty appointment at Harvard, where
for more than 25 years he has specialized in the challenges of regulatory practice and operational
risk management, and authored eight books. Sparrow has worked closely with a wide range of
enforcement, security, and regulatory agencies around the world, as well as with not-for-profit and
commercial entities that contribute to harm-reduction purposes.

“This program was an excellent learning opportunity that helped the regulatory community be more
successful. I greatly enjoyed the diversity of cultures that came together here, all with the same goal:
to learn from the master.”
– LIDIA M. CARRERA, PH.D.
NATIONAL COMPLIANCE AND ENFORCEMENT
SENIOR REGULATORY POLICY SPECIALIST
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE
 YOU’RE HERE TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE.
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WWW.HKS.HARVARD.EDU/EE/ENFORCEMENT

79 JFK Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA
Phone: +1-617-496-9000
Email: exed@hks.harvard.edu