The U.S. General Accounting Office (GAO) has set out to become one of the world’s premiere professional services firms. In order to succeed, the agency must recruit and retain world-class talent-experts in the defense, economic, scientific, financial and social programs the federal government administers.

This challenge is especially difficult in light of GAO’s stereotypical image as a legion of accountants with green eyeshades straight out of central casting. GAO’s leadership team accepted the challenge and launched a recruiting initiative that produced results and a model for the rest of the federal government.