Welfare reform was a spectacular success in New York under Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, and surprising because of the city's history of liberal social programs and its huge, entrenched welfare system. The city reduced the number of people on welfare dramatically from 1,120,000 to 460,000. How did it achieve such success in this unlikely setting? It changed the organizational culture, insisted on work first, adopted information technology, protected against fraud, and contracted for job placement.