What kind of efficiencies could Washington state government achieve if it got a nonpartisan assist from a group of business executives intent on helping it develop and implement a goal-oriented strategic plan?

That's what the 18-month-old Washington Business Alliance aims to find out.

The mission-driven organization was founded by two wealthy entrepreneurs—Howard Behar, former president of Starbucks Coffee Co., and David Giuliani, CEO and co-founder of Pacific Bioscience Laboratories—with the goal of using business skills and knowledge to improve state government processes.

Part of the intent is to reduce political gridlock and promote the kind of decision making that can help lead to long-term prosperity.

Alliance representatives have spent time in the Spokane area in recent months to build awareness of what it's striving to accomplish and to recruit new members. It has slightly more than 100 dues-paying members currently—one of them is Spokane-based Sterling Bank, which has Behar as one of its board members—and it hopes to boost that to about 500 members during the next three years, says Roz Solomon, its CEO.

Its members, Solomon says, range from sole proprietors to Fortune 500 companies, all committed to promoting the well-being of the state and to improving its business climate, without partisan quibbling.

"I think the ultimate thing we're trying to do is create a different—or a better—relationship between business and government," Solomon told me during a recent interview. "We need government to be as nimble a partner as possible. We think we have some skills that can help."

The alliance currently has four committees, covering fiscal governance, health, education, and the environment, with two more currently forming, she says. In a nutshell, the organization wants first to develop an understanding of the metrics, or measurable benchmarks, the state would like to achieve in each area, and then assist it in selecting and implementing the best strategies for reaching those goals, both short and long term.

As it implements early phases of that ambitious initiative, its representatives have met with legislators and state agency leaders to foster relationships, and Solomon says, "We're a little bit of an odd animal because we're going to Olympia and not asking for anything. We're offering our help."

So how is the whole effort going so far? Paul Bridge, a Spokane-based audit partner with BDO USA LLP who is serving on the alliance's fiscal governance committee, says, "It's moving along very, very nicely."

He got involved in the alliance's early stages at the urging of a friend, Alan Crane, CFO at Seattle Bank, who heads up that committee. Crane, he says, was aware of his involvement with a national organization called No Labels that's frustrated with federal government dysfunction and hyper-partisan divisiveness.

Bridge says a part of the Washington Business Alliance's focus is "to help bring more transparency" to the legislative process, including by engaging students, and to help lawmakers address state issues "from a top-down approach rather than a general-fund-up approach."

Part of the alliance's effort to attract more members from this side of the Cascades clearly is intended to help bolster its desired image as a statewide entity unfettered by stereotypes that the West Side is too liberal and the East Side too conservative.

Bridge says, "If we get that unifying voice from across the state, that's going to send a powerful message to the Legislature."

It clearly faces a huge challenge, though, not only in seeking to budge the tradition-bound state government mindset and culture, but also in keeping partisanship from contaminating its own ranks, thus marginalizing its message. I wish it luck.