Jenner Sales Corp., now in its 53rd year of business, is the Case IH Agriculture Application Equipment Distributor for the states of Illinois and Indiana. Business Challenges Jenner Sales Corp. was a profitable company prior to its launch of the GGOB. However, the company’s profit sharing program had started to feel, to ownership, more like an employee expectation than an earned reward. It seemed employees really didn’t understand how the company arrived at the pool of money and what employees needed to contribute to earn their share of it. Therefore, ownership believed that if employees at the front line understood how the business made profits as well as the fact that more profit would be available for sharing if they helped grow the amount, they’d want to win together.

Argent Tape & Label (ATL) is a manufacturer in Plymouth, Michigan, which produces pressure-sensitive labels used by industrial customers in the automotive, pharmaceutical and consumer industries. Business Challenges Lynn Perenic was a teacher, where she taught elementary education and then special education at the high school level for a total of 20 years, before she ever contemplated becoming an entrepreneur. But after her husband talked about closing ATL, which he had purchased back in 1995, because of its poor performance, Perenic stepped in to try and save the business. But with just three associates and virtually no customers, she had a difficult task ahead of her.

O’Connells OBM is a progressive chartered accounting firm based in Brisbane, Australia, that specializes in providing its clients with proactive tax and business advisory services. The OBM in the firm’s name is short for open-book management, which the company first embraced some 15 years ago.

“The numbers in a business are just stories about people.” - Jack Stack, CEO of SRC Holdings and author of The Great Game of Business What are your company’s numbers, and how do you use them to assign accountabilities to departments and people?

Why your company needs financial literacy training for successful open-book management. Have you ever watched a preschooler try to read a book? My youngest child has “read” me books since she was two – using only the pictures to come up with a story that might fit. My eight year old can pick up the same book and read it word-for-word. I would love to say it is because he is a super-genius, but the only difference between the two kids is education – he is literate because he has been taught to read. In business, we have to learn to read as well, except we don’t get colorful picture books. We get boring financial statements with the occasional highlighted section.

Teaching employees how to read financial statements can be a daunting task. Everyone in your company has different levels of knowledge and experience with the numbers. It can be especially difficult when you have a seasonal workforce, like we do at Amy’s Ice Creams. We’ve been practicing open-book management since 2007; through the years, we’ve found that our favorite game shows have inspired us to make financial literacy training creative and fun.

“The difference between something good and something great is attention to detail.” - Charles Swindoll An alien spacecraft lands near a mobile home park (as alien spacecraft are prone to do) and abducts an earthling. As the extraterrestrials examine the human, they’re fascinated that one toe on each foot is much bigger than the other four. Why aren’t we earthlings similarly surprised when we see another person’s foot for the first time? Because it’s the norm. Like water to a fish. Ho-hum.

If your company is currently employee owned, or you are considering it; you're probably planning to attend the 2014 Employee Ownership Conference held April 8-10, 2014 in Atlanta, Georgia which is presented by the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO).