DRAFT STRATEGIC 

PLAN

FISCAL YEARS 2023 THROUGH 2027

March 29, 2022

Version 1.0

For Public 

Comment
GPO’s Draft 

Strategic Plan for FY 

2023–2027

This is the draft strategic 

plan for the U. S.

Government Publishing 

Office for the five year period 

2023–2027.

While this document is not in its 

final form, it represents the 

combined work product of GPO’s 

executive team, based on hours of 

discussion with our teammates 

and amongst ourselves.

This document is intended to 

generate comments from GPO’s 

stakeholders and the general 

public. The Agency will consider 

those comments as it finalizes the 

strategic plan and builds specific 

performance goals designed to 

advance these strategies.

As the Agency’s Director, I am 

excited about what this plan 

represents. It recognizes the 

progress made by GPO over the last 

five years as it moves from a printcentric enterprise to one firmly 

comfortable in our digital present.

It also is an opportunity for GPO to 

update its description of the 

Agency’s vision, mission, and 

values, modernizing and 

simplifying these statements so it’s 

easier for all of us at GPO to 

internalize these principles into 

our work every day. 

This document is not intended to 

anticipate every single possible 

outcome over the next five years. 

Rather it is intended to express our 

values and how we will manifest 

those values in the future.

I welcome your comments on our 

plans and appreciate your 

continued support for GPO.

HUGH NATHANIAL HALPERN

Director

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To comment on this document, 

please email comments@gpo.gov

by April 29, 2022.
Vision, Mission,

Values

We strive for an informed Nation and hope to realize our vision by 

accomplishing our mission —

providing convenient and reliable access to trusted information 

through GPO’s many products and services.

Our values define who we are at the GPO and simplifying 

them means they are easily and frequently called to mind in our 

daily work. Every teammate at the GPO should embody these four 

core values as they guide us to work together as a team toward a 

common goal.

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Vision, Mission, 

Values (cont.)

Vision

America Informed.

Mission

Publish trusted information 

for the Federal Government 

to the American people.

Values

Honesty

Communicate transparently with 

our colleagues and customers.

Kindness

Treat one another with respect.

Effectiveness

Innovate, collaborate, produce, and 

deliver.

Inclusiveness

Foster a diverse, supportive, and 

welcoming environment for our 

teammates and customers.

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GPO’s Strategic 

Imperatives

After an exhaustive process, 

the GPO Executive Team 

identified four key goals for 

the next five-years to 

support GPO’s continued 

growth and leadership in the 

Government information 

space:

1. Achieve Operational 

Excellence

2. Modernize and Innovate

3. Ensure Financial 

Stability

4. Develop the Workforce

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Goal 1

Achieve Operational 

Excellence

GPO’s reputation is one of 

delivering quality products under 

tight timeframes. We must 

maintain that reputation and build 

on it by delivering a first-rate 

customer experience with every 

interaction. Building on our 

reputation for quality while 

reducing the friction experienced 

by our customers sets a path for 

future growth.

With our newly adopted values in 

place, every employee can see, 

deliver, and improve the flow of 

value to our customer, whether 

that customer is external or 

internal.

1.1 Prioritize Customer 

Relationships

Everyone at GPO will focus 

on delivering a positive customer 

experience and coupling it 

with the “better buying power” 

philosophy that makes productivity 

and cost consciousness part of our 

culture.

This will require real-time 

feedback strategies so we 

can measure results and quickly 

recover when service doesn’t meet 

our standards or those of 

our customers.

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Goal 1

Achieve Operational 

Excellence (cont.)

1.2 Right-size GPO’s Workspace 

Footprint

GPO recently adopted an 

innovative policy to promote 

telework and remote work where 

possible. While GPO’s overall 

headcount may not shrink, the 

number of people in our 

headquarters and regional 

offices day-to-day will. We need 

spaces that reflect the popularity of 

these policies, recognize the hybrid 

nature of work in the future, and 

provide our teammates with an 

environment that encourages 

collaboration and flexibility. This 

may open up additional 

opportunities for leasing to 

government tenants, also 

providing another source of 

revenue.

1.3 Automate for Efficiencies

Automating manufacturing and 

administrative processes will 

allow GPO to deliver innovative 

customer solutions, freeing 

teammates to focus on the kind of 

work that continues to deliver 

results for GPO’s customers.

1.4 Promote Synergy

GPO offers a diverse set of services 

across different business units, 

and sometimes it’s too easy for 

silos to develop. We will increase 

our internal collaboration efforts to 

prevent duplication of effort and 

overlapping work. By presenting a 

unified front to the customer, we 

can complete every task efficiently 

and to the satisfaction of our 

customers.

Working across multiple business 

units, we will centralize customer 

and stakeholder interactions and 

formalize our intergovernmental 

contacts into modern customer 

relationship management 

platforms.

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Goal 2 

Modernize and 

Innovate

Over GPO’s 161-year history, we 

have transformed from a print-only 

operation to an integrated 

publishing enterprise.

With changing patterns of content 

consumption and increasingly 

diverse content delivery digital 

technologies, GPO has an 

imperative to innovate and to 

modernize how we work.

2.1. Develop and Leverage 

Powerful Software Solutions

For many of our customers, GPO 

“owns” the software behind the 

printing process. Using a 

combination of commercial, offthe-shelf (COTS) software and GPOdeveloped solutions, GPO provides 

a customized software stack for our 

customers’ unique requirements. 

By offering these solutions under a 

“software-as-a-service" (SAAS) 

model, GPO can leverage its 

expertise into new solutions for 

new customers while ensuring a 

revenue stream to support future 

development.

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Goal 2 

Modernize and 

Innovate (cont.)

2.2. Provide the Most Trusted and 

Secure Credentialing Products 

and Services

GPO worked closely with its 

customers, including the 

Departments of State and 

Homeland Security, to design and 

manufacture the world’s most 

advanced and secure credentials 

and identity documents. GPO will 

need to continue its pattern of 

innovation to ensure that the 

United States’ credentials are 

world leaders in security and anticounterfeiting technology.

2.3 Deploy New Content

Govinfo is our ISO-certified trusted 

digital repository and 

has significant potential for 

growth. Collaborating with our 

intergovernmental partners 

on increasing its content and 

functionality will bring us closer to 

an America Informed.

2.4. Transition from Paper to 

Electronic Processes

Even now, GPO relies on 

many manual, paper-based 

processes to deliver products for 

its customers. By shifting to more 

automated processes, GPO can 

improve delivery times, boost 

cost recovery, and gain insights 

into its operations, yielding future 

efficiencies.

2.5. Expand In-House Publishing 

Services

As vendor and supply chain issues 

continue to impact our customers 

and suppliers, we will explore 

opportunities to fill the gap by 

bringing some work back to our 

own facilities. With production 

under our roof, GPO will be able to 

better control the quality of 

production and respond to some of 

the market fluctuations currently 

experienced by the printing 

industry.

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Goal 2 

Modernize and 

Innovate (cont.)

2.6. Expand Digital Content and 

Preserve Historic Collections

Working with Federal Depository 

Libraries, we will continue to 

identify documents and collections 

that can be digitized and ingested 

into govinfo and focus on adding 

new collections and filling the gaps 

in existing collections. We will 

expand access to digital 

government information, while 

assisting libraries in the 

preservation of tangible historic 

materials in their collections.

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Goal 3

Ensure Financial 

Stability

Only about 12 percent of 

GPO’s funding is 

appropriated directly to the 

Agency to cover the cost of 

congressional work, the 

Federal Depository Library 

Program, and supporting 

distribution programs. 

The rest of GPO’s revenue comes 

from reimbursements by customer 

agencies for work performed or 

sales of publications to the public. 

Thus, it is critical for GPO to ensure 

that it has the resources necessary 

to cover its costs and deliver for its 

customers.

3.1. Explore Expansion of Agency 

Products and Services

One of GPO’s strengths is its ability 

to offer customized products and 

services to intergovernmental 

partners, private sector customers, 

and interested communities. By 

investing in these prospective 

areas for growth, GPO can better 

meet the needs of our stakeholders 

and provide the most efficient, 

modern, and cost-effective 

products and services.

3.2. Enhance Marketing

Our customers know that they need 

digital services. Unfortunately, 

some customers continue to think 

of GPO in terms of its historic print 

offerings and not the modern 

services we can offer. We plan to 

create an agency-level marketing 

campaign to include a catalog of 

services showcasing GPO’s ability 

to be a one-stop shop for 

intergovernmental printing and 

publishing needs. 

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Goal 3 

Ensure Financial 

Stability (cont.)

3.3. Cross-Selling

GPO is a one-stop shop for 

publishing needs across the 

Federal government. Cross-selling 

our products and services to our 

customers can be one of the most 

effective ways to increase overall 

revenue, while at the same time, 

increasing GPO’s value 

proposition.

3.4. Sunsetting Legacy Practices

Part of our continuous 

improvement process will also 

include an examination into what 

current practices and programs 

should be reduced or discontinued. 

In order to maintain efficiency and 

decrease costs whenever possible, 

new initiatives should come at the 

replacement of others. 

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Goal 4 

Develop Our 

Workforce

None of the Agency’s plans 

can be successful without a 

talented team dedicated to 

executing them. 

Strategic workforce planning will 

ensure that GPO has a first-rate 

workforce that is in line with the 

Agency’s future growth and vision. 

By investing in our teammates and 

our processes, we will secure the 

future success of the Agency. 

4.1. Recruitment, Development, 

and Retention

It is critical for the Agency’s future 

to focus on initiatives that improve 

and expand inclusive recruitment, 

development, and retention 

programs, both to replace retiring 

teammates and to expand the 

knowledgebase of the Agency. Our 

Human Capital team has laid the 

groundwork for our team to 

promote apprentice and intern 

programs that identify and attract 

talent to teach the unique and 

highly-technical skills required to 

perform our work.

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Goal 4

Develop Our 

Workforce (cont.)

4.2. Succession Planning

Succession planning starts on day 

one with each new hire, 

empowering our teammates to 

make decisions and providing 

opportunities to learn from one 

another. 

With more than half of our 

teammates achieving retirement 

eligibility within the next five 

years, it is imperative to identify 

the critical positions needed to 

support business continuity and 

create a plan for the impending 

transition. GPO has a wealth of 

institutional knowledge that 

should be captured with each 

retirement. By focusing on the 

development of these individuals, 

we are better prepared to meet our 

future business needs.

4.3. Knowledge Management

We plan to enable a culture of 

knowledge sharing and empower 

our teammates to contribute their 

ideas to ensure the Agency retains 

the know-how built up over 

decades. As is typical with any 

large organization, when 

knowledge is not easily accessible, 

it can be very costly to an 

organization to spend time seeking 

out relevant information or 

duplicating efforts. Cross 

collaboration among our 

teammates will streamline the flow 

of information and lead to more 

efficient practices. 

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Notes

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