Industrial strategy is experiencing a renaissance. Getting the details right matter. Mission-oriented industrial strategy needs to be more than words if we want to avoid missions becoming part of the problem, not the solution.

This report is based on research conducted over the past several years, led by Professor Mazzucato and her team at IIPP. It offers practical insights gained from work with governments around the world – on opportunities ranging from healthy and sustainable housing estates in our local Camden Council, to the ecological transition in Brazil – that are advancing new approaches to bring economic, social, and environmental policy goals into alignment at the centre of their growth strategies. The report offers a one-stop-shop for how to design, implement, and govern mission-oriented industrial strategies and examines the tools, institutions, partnerships, and capabilities governments need to deliver transformative change.

Key recommendations include

• To address 21st century challenges like climate change, a new approach to growth is needed. Industrial strategy can be an engine for sustainable and inclusive economic growth, but only if it shifts its focus from sectors to missions.
• This requires a whole-of-government approach, with mission delivery driven from the centre of government, facilitating inter-ministerial coordination – for example, led by cross-ministerial mission boards responsible for setting direction, measuring impact (not outputs) and building delivery networks.
• A reset of the relationship between the public and private sectors is needed, to design reciprocal partnerships oriented around shared goals that produce shared value. This can be done by setting conditions on access to public sector grants, loans, equity investments, guarantees, procurement contracts, bailout packages, tax benefits and other incentives that prioritise mission goals and share risks and rewards.
• Instead of outsourcing their capacity, governments must build their internal capabilities for mission delivery, including the ability to take risks (instead of avoiding risks or 'de-risking'), embrace uncertainty and confidently design policies and partnerships that maximise public value.