Our History

In 1983, International Harvester was in deep financial trouble. Jack Stack and 12 managers were trying to save 119 jobs at the company’s engine remanufacturing facility in Springfield, Missouri. They scraped together $100,000 in cash, borrowed $8.9 million and transformed a once failing division into one of the most successful and competitive companies in America.

Our Roots Are Strong

Under Mr. Stack’s leadership and open-book management approach (later coined The Great Game of Business), this formerly failing company is now SRC Holdings Corporation— a thriving company of 1,600 engaged employees operating 14 business units across a variety of industries producing $600 million in annual sales. As a shining example of what open-book can do, the company that has increased its value from 10 cents per share in 1983 to over $435. As a result, today The Great Game of Business is simply the most celebrated approach to open-book management. It’s a unique and well-proven strategy. It’s a book, a methodology, a training company and a community that has helped thousands of companies worldwide transform the way they think about business

"We didn’t do this by riding some hot technology or glamorous industry. Remanufacturing is a tough, loud, dirty business. Our people work with plugs in their ears and leave the factory every day covered in grease. What SRC remanufactures are engines and engine components. We take worn-out engines from cars, bulldozers, eighteen-wheelers, and we rebuild them, saving the parts that are in good shape, fixing those that are damaged, replacing the ones that are beyond repair. But in some ways engines are incidental to what we do. Our real business is education. We teach people about business. We give them the knowledge that allows them to go out and play the Game." 

– Jack Stack