Driving Growth: Helping employees think, feel and act like owners

Each year as the year wraps up, leaders of small and midsize businesses gather for learning and insights from notable experts.

Last Friday’s event — the Vistage National CEO Conference: Business Growth — included three keynote speakers to help leaders learn about new models for running a business, building a champion’s mindset and guidance on pricing to win:

• Jack Stack, President and CEO of SRC Holdings Corporation and Author of the Great Game of Business
• Dr. Jenn Welter, Founder of Grrridiron Girls
• Casey Brown of Boost Pricing

The Great Game of Business – Jack Stack

Often, companies have technical skills in their field but lack the financial skills to run a successful business. In his presentation, Jack Stack—owner of SRC Holdings and author of The Great Game of Business — highlighted the transformative power of the Great Game of Business and the process developed for open-book management.

This process helps instill an owner mindset among all employees, emphasizing financial literacy, and focusing on continuous improvement.

He shared how his company not only overcame challenges but also created a blueprint for sustainable success, which is now used by many businesses and has allowed for iteration of the process over time. The principles discussed provide valuable insights for businesses aiming for long-term security and employee engagement.

This process builds on employees’ technical skills related to products and services and creates financial skills, including identifying critical KPIs, managing balance sheets and financial discipline, which is critical for businesses seeking to secure financing and raise capital. The foundation of open-book management was a playbook that encouraged employees to think, feel, and act like owners.

Three Components of the Playbook:

Stack shared that the playbook includes three crucial components aimed at fostering an owner mindset among employees, ensuring they think, feel, and act like owners.

1. Educate employees to think like owners, with leaders knowing and teaching the rules.
2. Engage employees by providing them with a stake in the outcome.
3. Empower employees to make better decisions by following actions and keeping score.

At the center of these three components is the Critical Number. Identifying the critical number — the one thing to focus on annually for continuous improvement — is integral to the process. This helps everyone stay focused on improving systems and processes to improve that metric.

Key tenets of this process include regular communication, treating staff meetings as shareholder meetings, and emphasizing setting and managing budgets.

Financial Literacy and Employee Engagement:

The company treated employees as shareholders, keeping them informed about the business’s plans, challenges, and opportunities. A key part of this was creating a bonus pool based on the critical number to give employees a stake in the outcome. This approach broke down silos within the organization, emphasizing the impact of every individual’s actions on the company’s future.

Preparing for the Future:

The Great Game of Business not only transformed SRC Holdings and, consequently, other companies that use the process but also prepared the employees for the future. The benefits of financial literacy extend beyond the workplace, impacting employees’ personal lives as they manage household finances. Building a financially literate society is part of Jack Stack’s mission.

Related resources

• Book recommendation: Big Bets: How Large Scale Change Really Happens
• Download: Great Game of Business

Cultivating a Champion Mindset – Dr. Jen Welter

In her dynamic keynote, peppered with wisdom and personal anecdotes, Dr. Jen Welter illuminated the essence of leadership, teamwork, and continuous improvement.

The journey to success, she shared, begins with a crazy belief and a commitment to being the best version of oneself and overcoming limiting beliefs of yourself and others.

As she noted, “Everything was impossible until someone disrupted it.”

All of the opportunities she had as a player and coach never would have happened f she had not gotten out of her own way and taken each step as it came.

“Greatness comes from dusting off those failure muscles,” she shares.

As a trailblazing pioneer in her field, she translated her experience to the responsibilities and opportunities that come with being the first in any field. As the first in your field, it is important now not just to succeed in that role, but to create a narrative that paves the way for others.

Authenticity emerged as a cornerstone, with a reminder to remain true to oneself and use that authenticity as a source of strength. An example of authenticity was when she hand-wrote cards to players she was coaching before a game. This act felt authentic to her, but her staff questioned it, which made her question herself.

As one attendee noted, “Love the card example. So many times in my career I have had an idea and then talked myself out of it because it seemed too out there.”

Other lessons Dr. Jen shared include:

1. Rather than being overwhelmed by big dreams, live with the courage to try rather than wonder “What if?”
2. Learn to be a teammate without dominating the field; support your team so they can support your weaknesses.
3. Strengthen relationships through communication, trust, and love.
4. Respect is earned, not commanded.
5. Perfection exists in intention; constant improvement is key.
6. Authentic leadership involves being coachable, using empathetic communication, and choosing words wisely — building bridges with your words.
7. Empathy and communication are qualitative elements that require constant improvement.
8. Not everyone sees themselves as you see them; build relationships to align core competencies.

From Panic to Power: How To Boost Pricing For Higher Profit – Casey Brown

To help leaders navigate the complexities of pricing strategy, Casey Brown, President of Boost Pricing and Vistage speaker shared challenges and key actions CEOs should take in the current economic climate.

Challenges:

Economic Realities: As inflation slows and demand cools, CEOs face challenges in maintaining quality and availability. The power dynamic has shifted from buyer to seller.

Price Negotiation: Brown emphasizes that when customers claim they can get the same thing cheaper elsewhere, it’s a buying signal, not just a request for a discount. Leaders can encourage their teams to slow down, prepare, and introduce healthy skepticism.

Pricing from fear of losing: Shift the mindset to pricing with confidence and a goal to win. When you can recognize price pressure as a buying signal, this helps you, as sellers, maintain control and move to a more consultative approach in negotiations.

Guiding Principles for Pricing Strategies

Prepare: The formula for success goes beyond math; it’s about confidence and fear management. Establish goals for what you want to learn:

• Identify key questions to ask: What questions will move this forward?
• Plan what to say: What can I share? How should I do that?
• Prepare For objections: What objections do I expect & how will I respond?

Pause: Respond thoughtfully to price pressure, using careful urgency to avoid reactive decisions.

Probe: Ask more questions, ask better questions. Answer objections with questions – they are a salesperson’s superpower.

Brown’s advice was summed up with the advice “Spend 1 extra hour a week 5 minutes a time preparing.”

Related Resources

• Watch the keynotes and breakout sessions (My Vistage login required)

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