Stack Says Ownership Is the Key

Jack Stack, CEO of Springfield ReManufacturing Corporation (SRC) and author of The Great Game of Business, told an 800-person audience at the fifth annual "Gathering of the Games" conference (a meeting on open-book management) that sharing ownership broadly with employees was the key to making open-book management work, and might be the only way to address growing inequities in wealth worldwide. Stack related his experience with broadened ownership at SRC, one of the country's most successful and widely-imitated industrial models. He said that the most difficult challenge was providing meaningful ownership opportunities for employees coming in after the initial transaction. He noted that the share price in many start-up or buyout situations can go up rapidly, then level off to a more sustainable growth rate. Early employees get a windfall, but more recent employees may wonder what all the fuss is about. Stack suggested helping employees form their own spin-off businesses as one approach to address the problem, but said that one of the challenges for SRC was how to find other ways as well.