How can business work out an agreement with the authorities, and how can officials manage effectively? First of all, each leader must understand how the state machine works—what makes its mechanisms move, how fast it can operate, and how effectively it functions. Michael Barber, one of the world’s best-known experts in improving public administration performance, examines the experience of various countries. He describes how governments work from the inside, the difficulties they face, and the processes capable of raising them to a new level. The book includes 57 management rules that summarize the main ideas of the book.