Reviews

A refreshingly sensitive and sensible guide to motivating employees, this new volume by Stack and Burlingham (The Great Game of Business) is a standout in its crowded genre. Stack is the president and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation, an employee-owned supplier of renovated engines to auto companies and a celebrated business success story. In 1983, when it looked like SRC's parent company, International Harvester, might shut down its southwestern Missouri "remanufacturing" plant, Stack and 12 other employees bought the place and fashioned a system of employee ownership that turned SRC into a corporation of 22 companies with more than $100 million in sales. Using the experiences of SRC as well as other companies with "ownership cultures" as examples, Stack and Burlingham, an editor at Inc. magazine, give the lowdown on how to keep employees energized, creative and acting like true owners of their company (beyond offering stock options). Their strategy, which is especially resonant after the Enron debacle, hinges largely on opening up the books to all employees and keeping the staff posted on financial matters. Also fascinating is the authors' idea of spinning workers off into an entirely new company as a way of stirring up new ideas from entrenched employees. This is an invigorating and surprisingly helpful text for those who want a humane but profitable way to manage their company. (Apr. 2) Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information.

"At a time when doubt shrouds the U.S. economy, Jack Stack's book is a beacon of hope. It is a little bit about technique and a lot about unleashing the good sense of the American worker." -Tom Peters
"[Jack Stack's] open-book approach is generating intense interest among businesses large and small. . . . About 1,500 companies, including many Fortune 500 concerns, have toured [SRC] to learn about the merits of disclosing everything to rank-and-file workers."
-"The Wall Street Journal
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"The results at SRC are nothing short of breathtaking. The Great Game has resulted in one of the most competitive companies I've come across in all my years at "Inc,"" -George Gendron, Editor in Chief, "Inc."

"From the Hardcover edition."