Open book management is a great concept that has made a significant difference for a lot of companies, and even the U. S. Coast Guard. Stack presented the concept in his 1992 book, "The Great Game of Business" (Currency Doubleday). That book was a valuable how-to package.
"A Stake in the Outcome" is more of the story of the transformation of a remanufacturing plant owned by a large corporation into a thriving independent business. In the midst of the text, the reader will find some advice, some brief case studies of other companies, and some experience descriptions that may be instructive. But, when it all shakes out, this is the story of the growth of a business. It's an historical review with plenty of detail. It's Jack Stack's story.
If you're looking for an instruction book of how to build an employee-centered open book management company, this isn't it. If you're looking for an instructive report of what one company went through, from the leader's perspective, this book fits that description. It's Jack Stack's book, even though Bo Burlingham, an editor-at-large of Inc. Magazine, is shown as co-author. Burlingham's photo doesn't appear on the dust jacket, just Stack's.
Reading the book is like listening to Stack telling his story, with the emotion, the ego, the pride, and the rough-and-tumble. It would be interesting to hear this story shared by others. You can gain that experience by visiting SRC in Springfield, Missouri, but you can't get it from this book.
There is not one wasted word in this wonderful book, which should be mandatory reading in every business in America.
Inadvertantly, Stack addressed the issue of a "culture of ownership" just in time to face a generational shift in the work force.
"Theory X" worked for the veterans of WWII; "Theory Y" worked, to a degree, for the Baby Boomers.
"Generation X," and "Generation Y," see the cultural climate of business in an entirely different light; yet, they must find a voice in working with American business, for the good of all.
Incredibly distrustful of authority, and poorly served by the education system they have left, something new is needed to bring order out of the chaos of their perceptions.
If you are looking for silver bullets, look no further than Stack's books (and Ricardo Semler's "Maverick").
In "The Great Game of Business," Stack discussed the restructuring of Sprinfield Remanfacturing, starting with a debt/equity ratio of 89 to 1.
Success brought a new, painful awareness of two basic issues: one, growth leads to conflict arising, and must be resolved; and two, businesses do not scale very well.
A larger business requires a qualitatively different framework to resolve conflicts in; the price of the necessary knowledge is very high, indeed.
Good news!
Stack and the people at SRC Holdings Corporation - the name should give you a hint of the magnitude of change required - have done the heavy lifting for you!
The best accompaniment you can have as you try to apply his principles is a good primer on economic value added (EVA) accounting.
Incidentally, Chapter 10, "Crossing the Great Divide," includes a great story about "The Secret of the Chinese Firecracker Factory," where the issue of scaling the business model is addressed following an insight gained from the manufacturing process of Chinese firecrackers.
The same insight was expressed in Chapter 15 of "Maverick," by Ricardo Semler. Called "Divide and Prosper," Semler addresses the issue of the appropriate scale and structure of the business in the same light as Stack. Semler also addressed a good many of the issues Stack faced from an invaluable perspective, particularly management structure (see Chapter 21 of "Maverick.")
Stack has given one and all an invaluable guide to The Next Step after Open Books; keep it close to hand, give it to all of your people, and let people who wonder about "who moved their cheese," keep wondering!
