Many unhappy returns : one man's quest to turn around the most unpopular organization in America / Charles O. Rossotti.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Rossotti, Charles O., 1941-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

United States. Internal Revenue Service.

United States.

Tax administration and procedure--United States.

Tax administration and procedure.

Physical Description:

xii, 340 pages : : illustrations ; 25 cm

Place of Publication:

Boston, Mass. : Harvard Business School Press, [2005]

Summary:

Imagine that after decades of running a successful corporation, you get an offer to lead a crucial government agency of 100,000 employees serving 180 million customers. The organization is maligned by the public, beset by profound management and technology problems, and trapped in a political minefield.

This is the daunting scenario Charles O. Rossotti faced in 1997, when he became the first businessman to lead the Internal Revenue Service. People told him he was taking on a suicide mission. But Rossotti saw something beyond the antiquated technology, the demotivated work force, the angry taxpayers, and the heated political battles. He saw a leadership opportunity that, while fraught with risk, could make the IRS work more fairly for millions of Americans.

Many Unhappy Returns tells the remarkable story of how Rossotti transformed the agency's outdated bureaucracy to run more like a twenty-first-century business. Recounting high-pressure congressional hearings, meetings with frustrated taxpayers, encounters with Washington bigwigs, and discussions of turnaround strategies, Rossotti reveals how he led the IRS to improve customer service and combat serious violations of the tax law-all while collecting $2 trillion a year in revenue. From rebuilding trust in the glare of public criticism to overhauling massive but obsolete computer systems, the story shows how real change in a huge organization can be led successfully.

Showing how angry taxpayers forced the IRS to change, the book challenges taxpayers to now demand that the president and Congress fix the broader tax system. Rossotti explains how this system is becoming increasingly unfair to honest taxpayers in every tax bracket and is recklessly ignoring vast sums of uncollected taxes.

Infused with keen wit and hard-won business wisdom, Many Unhappy Returns illuminates the perils and possibilities of leading complex organizations in a world where intense public scrutiny of management is the norm.

Contents:

Prologue: Why I Wrote This Story 1

Part I From a Political Storm to a Practical Plan

1 The IRS Is Out of Control: A Growing Crisis 7

2 Operating on Good, Sound Business Principles: A Family Tradition 25

3 You're Gonna Do What? From Businessman to Taxman 37

4 Promising Everything to Everybody Will Not Get Us There: Regaining the Initiative 53

5 If You Already Have an 83,000-Page Rules Manual, Will More Rules Solve Your Problems? Legislating Change 71

6 So Many People, So Much Distrust: Rebuilding Relationships 81

Part II Fixing the Plane While Flying to a New Destination

7 Will People Always Hate the Tax Collector? Changing the Culture 103

8 When Everybody Is Your Customer and the Tax Code Is Your Bible: Providing Quality Service 127

9 When Are You Going to Fire the Management and Punish the Wrongdoers? Reconciling the Past While Focusing on the Future 149

10 Replacing the Furnace in the Basement and Calling It a Christmas Present: Reorganizing the IRS 165

11 You Want More Money After Wasting $4 Billion on Computers That Don't Work? Modernizing IRS Technology 195

12 The Cover-Up Is Worse Than the Crime: Averting and Managing Crises 221

13 Why People Think the IRS Picks on the Little Guy and Lets the Big Guy Get Away: Making the IRS Effective at Enforcing Compliance 239

14 The IRS Can't Fix the Tax Code and the Budget: What Honest Taxpayers Should Demand 269

Epilogue: What the Story Tells Us 287

Appendix IRS Budget and Productivity: How the IRS Uses Its Budget 301.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

1591394414

OCLC:

56615690