Officials on the hunt for burdens

MindLab has taken officials out hunting for the irritating burdens faced by Danish companies. Now the latter will have more energy left for running their businesses.

“This is pointless!” This is a common feeling in Danish companies when they describe their experience of official regulations and controls. Forms and reports have to be completed, forwarded to someone else, filled in again, then the process has to be repeated with a different authority – in sum, everything turns into a time-consuming bureacucratic spiral. The fact that official requirements from public authorities take time to comply with is fine up to a point as far as most companies are concerned. It is when their demands appear incomprehensible and unreasonable that they are experienced as being burdensome.

”All we’re trying to do is be efficient and earn more money. And so we sometimes miss the official system thinking “That’s fantastic!” That’s what we’re lacking.”

Enterprise, industry and commerce

Working together with MindLab, the three ministries therefore brought Danish businesses’ experience of public administration into focus. Officials from the ministries went out into the field with MindLab and participated in observing and interviewing Danish companies regarding their experience of administrative red tape.

“Irritant burdens would not have been on the agenda of the ministries or professional organizations without the burden-hunter project.”

Helle Venzo, project officer at the Commerce and Companies Agency

Principal results

• A number of the government’s 37 simplification initiatives in the plan known as ‘LET administration’ (‘easy administration’) have their origin in the hunt by MindLab and officials for annoying burdens unnecessary red tape.

• MindLab’s method for hunting down burdens has attracted great interest both at home and overseas, including from the Austrian Ministry of Finance, OECD and the World Bank.

What MindLab did

MindLab was responsible for developing a method to identify irritant burdens that are being suffered by companies. In addition, project managers from MindLab tested their method in an inter-ministerial project known as ‘The burden hunters’, with participation from officials from the Ministries of Economic and Business Affairs, Employment and Taxation. The project was implemented jointly with the Copenhagen Living Lab consultancy. MindLab contributed to all the phases of the project, from design methodology, training officials to use the method, making visits initially to four and then 24 more companies, as well as the analysis and generation of ideas. MindLab also conducted a test workshop in which initiatives to cut red tape were subjected to practical testing with the help of selected companies.