But tackling any bureaucracy isn't easy, said the prominent businessman and entrepreneur best known for his chain of auto dealerships.

"It's way too early to tell if it's going to work or not, but it seems to me that it has the legitimate chance to bring some fresh new ideas, some new management techniques, into the fold — if they're in fact really better when we get up close to them," Miller said.

To do the work, Farbman & Hopkins recruit volunteers from local companies and universities, as well as from some of the country's most prominent consulting firms, including Bain & Co., once headed by former Utah Olympic boss Mitt Romney.

So far, among the partnership's accomplishments is creating a "Measuring for Performance" task force charged with coming up with something called a balanced scorecard, described as a way to increase accountability and efficiency.

The focus to date has been on the state Department of Administrative Services, which provides state agencies with everything from mail service to vehicles. It won't be long, though, until the partnership starts looking soon at how well other departments are doing their jobs.

Starks said the partnership's work represents "a recognition that the private sector has been able to do a phenomenal job of measuring the things that they do and tie that into their overall strategy."

In the case of administrative service, those so-called "performance metrics" are being developed through a complicated process of identifying key performance indicators that will result in the scorecard.

D'arcy Dixon Pignanelli, the executive director of administrative services and the administration's lone Democratic appointee at that level, said she welcomed the partnership's involvement.

"You do have the ability in government to get isolated," Pignanelli said. "It's such an opportunity."

Starks said he understands it's not always easy for the public sector to take advice from their private counterparts. "It's an uncomfortable thing for anyone from the outside to come into your organization and shine a light," he said.

There's one voice that is not being heard in the process of setting up a system to determine how well government is doing its job — the public. Hopkins and Starks said that's the way it should be.

"The governor is elected by the people to run government," Hopkins said. "Therefore, this isn't a process that allows a lot public input, frankly. . . . This is a support group to help the governor run the best and most efficient government that he can as part of his mandate."