The Great Game of Business: How Open-Book Management Builds Ownership, Drives Profit, and Increases Enterprise Value

Imagine an online tea company where every employee — from the warehouse packer to the marketing manager — knows how their daily work contributes to the company’s profitability.
They understand how sales convert to gross margin, how packaging efficiency affects cash flow, and how customer satisfaction impacts enterprise value.
They make better decisions, innovate, and take ownership.

That’s the vision behind Jack Stack’s Great Game of Business (GGOB) — a management system that turns work into a real-life game of financial literacy, teamwork, and purpose.

In this post, we’ll explore:

What Is The Great Game of Business?

The Great Game of Business (GGOB) was pioneered by Jack Stack and his team at Springfield ReManufacturing Corporation (SRC) in the 1980s.
When Stack and his coworkers bought their struggling division from International Harvester, they couldn’t afford expensive consultants or secrecy. Instead, they did something radical: they opened the books to employees and taught everyone how the business worked.

The result?
A financially illiterate workforce turned into an ownership-minded team.
SRC went from near bankruptcy to one of America’s most successful employee-owned companies — and GGOB became a global movement in business transparency and engagement.

At its core, GGOB is open-book management with a purpose:

How The Great Game of Business Works

GGOB isn’t just about showing people the numbers — it’s about making business performance a shared game where everyone participates, understands the score, and benefits when the team wins.

Here are the key components that make GGOB work:

1. Open the Books

Transparency is the starting point.
Leaders share key financial data — revenue, cost of goods sold, gross margin, operating expenses, and profit — in a format everyone can understand. This doesn’t mean giving away trade secrets, but it does mean building trust by showing employees how the company really performs.

Case Study: The Tea Company
At “Mountain Mist Teas,” 80% of sales come from wholesale accounts and 20% from online D2C orders. Under GGOB, the leadership team holds a monthly “Tea Time with the Numbers” meeting. They share the cost per pound of imported tea, packaging costs, and marketing ROI, showing how each small improvement impacts total profit.

2. Teach Financial Literacy

Numbers are meaningless without context. GGOB requires education — teaching every team member how to read a P&L, what “gross margin” means, and how their actions move the numbers.

Training often includes simple exercises, like:

At Mountain Mist Teas, packaging staff learn how tea spoilage and damaged bags reduce gross profit. Marketing sees how customer acquisition costs affect D2C profitability. Everyone learns how to “think like an owner.”

3. Create Line of Sight

Once employees understand the numbers, they need visibility into how their work drives results. GGOB calls this line of sight.

Each department identifies key metrics that connect to company performance:

When employees see the direct cause-and-effect of their actions on these numbers, engagement and accountability rise dramatically.

4. Play Mini-Games

To keep the system lively and focused, GGOB uses short-term “mini-games.”
These are 60- to 90-day sprints designed to improve one key metric. They use themes, scoreboards, and rewards to motivate participation — just like a real game.

Examples:

Mini-games turn improvement into a fun, team-based challenge — with real financial impact.

5. Design Incentives and Share the Wins

When people win the game, they should feel it in their wallets. GGOB recommends profit-sharing or gain-sharing systems that link performance to rewards.

This isn’t about bonuses for a few executives — it’s about shared wins for the entire team.
As the company meets targets and grows profits, a percentage of earnings goes into a bonus pool. The more everyone plays the game, the more everyone wins.

At Mountain Mist Teas, hitting quarterly profit targets might mean a 10% bonus pool distributed based on tenure and contribution. The transparency of GGOB ensures employees understand exactly how that bonus is earned — and how to make it bigger.

6. Keep Score and Communicate Constantly

Every game needs a scoreboard.
GGOB relies on visible metrics, weekly huddles, and frequent updates so everyone always knows if the company is winning or losing.

The most effective companies use:

Communication keeps energy high and reinforces the culture of ownership.

7. Recognize, Celebrate, and Repeat

Finally, GGOB is a cultural loop — not a one-off project.
Regular celebration and storytelling reinforce behaviors, deepen trust, and embed the Game as “the way we do business.”

When Mountain Mist Teas hits its quarterly profit target, the leadership team throws a company-wide “Game Day.” They serve new blends, tell success stories from every department, and distribute the profit-sharing bonuses. The event reinforces the idea that everyone contributes, and everyone wins.

How to Implement GGOB in Three Years

Building an ownership culture takes time. The Great Game of Business typically unfolds over three years — starting with transparency and education, and evolving into autonomy and innovation.

Here’s a roadmap.

Year 1: Foundation — Build Trust, Teach the Game

Objective: Establish transparency and understanding.

Key Steps:

Outcome:

Year 2: Expansion — Deepen Engagement and Align Incentives

Objective: Build participation across departments and reward performance.

Key Steps:

Outcome:

At Mountain Mist Teas, Year 2 might include new scoreboards for D2C metrics (conversion rate, repeat purchases) and wholesale (fill rate, average order size), plus a company-wide game called “The Power of a Percent” — focused on improving gross margin by 1%.

Year 3: Maturity — Autonomy, Innovation, and Enterprise Value Growth

Objective: Make GGOB self-sustaining and use it to drive innovation.

Key Steps:

Outcome:

For Mountain Mist Teas, by Year 3, the business can show potential investors three years of consistent growth, high employee retention, and strong EBITDA margins — evidence that the culture is a tangible asset.

Why GGOB Increases Enterprise Value

Buyers and investors pay for predictable, profitable, and low-risk businesses.
GGOB directly enhances each of those:

In short, GGOB turns human capital into enterprise value.

Final Thoughts

The Great Game of Business isn’t just a management technique — it’s a philosophy of shared ownership and transparent leadership.

For companies like Mountain Mist Teas, it transforms ordinary employees into businesspeople, improves performance from the inside out, and makes the company far more valuable in the eyes of investors and buyers.

As Jack Stack said:

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If you’re ready to create a culture where everyone thinks and acts like an owner, let’s talk.
I help leaders implemen systems that complement the Great Game of Business in real organizations—building alignment, resilience, and measurable enterprise value.
Book a strategy conversation to explore how open-book management can transform your team and your bottom line.

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Adam Kreek and his team are on a mission to positively impact organizational cultures and leaders who make things happen.

He authored the bestselling business book, The Responsibility Ethic: 12 Strategies Exceptional People Use to Do the Work and Make Success Happen. 

Want to increase your leadership achievement? Learn more about Kreek’s coaching here.

Want to book a keynote that leaves a lasting impact? Learn more about Kreek’s live event service here.