THE NALPEXPERIENCE EXPERIENCE
On the Same Page:Why Open-Book Management Helps
By Jill Odom
IMAGINE YOU’RE THE QUARTERBACK FOR A FOOTBALL TEAM, BUT for some reason, you’re the only one on your team who knows what the points are on the scoreboard. Some of your teammates are convinced they’re up against an unsurmountable lead and have given up while others think they are comfortably ahead and as a result aren’t trying their hardest to put more points on the board. A very frustrating way to play the game, right?
For the companies that don’t practice
open-book management, you can find yourself in a similar situation. If the whole company doesn’t understand the financial situation or how their daily actions affect the business, you’re less likely to win.
“Business is a team sport, and every company can benefit from engaging their team and working towards a common goal,” says Doug McDuff, pres- ident of Landscape America, based in Wrentham, Massachusetts. “It gets really fun when everyone is on the same page and understands the small behaviors they can do to make a big impact over the course of a year.”
McDuff says they started using open-
book management in January 2019 after spending three months gathering financial data. Previously, they were struggling with running their business in the rearview mirror. Typically, they were surprised one way or another with the results when they finally closed the books for each month. “Furthermore, we wanted more buy-in from our team, and were eager to find a way to help them understand how their
daily actions and behaviors affected the business,” McDuff says. “It’s natural for people to want to do well, and win, but if the team doesn’t know the score or even the rules, their chances of winning are drastically reduced. Lastly, we need- ed a bonus that was simple, fair, and easy to understand. We had confused our team for many years with different head-scratching bonus structures, and sometimes it resulted in frustrating them, rather than incentivizing, or thank- ing them.”
James Ulmer, owner of Back to Na- ture Landscaping & Construction, based in Blacksburg, Virginia, says he’s always been upfront with his team sharing the numbers since they started in 2015, but he had no rhyme or reason to it. He began using open-book manage- ment after meeting Ryan Markewich, owner of Creative Roots Landscaping, who did a talk on the Great Game of Business book and open-book manage- ment during GIE.
Ulmer was tired of telling his employ- ees what to or what not to do because their actions impacted the bottom line. “Nothing ever changed as much as
I would preach it and I realized it’s be- cause I’m the owner,” Ulmer says. “What if I could teach them to think and act like owners and incentivize them? What if I could teach them the numbers, and show them why?”
Ruppert Landscape, based in Lay- tonsville, Maryland, has operated with an open-book policy since they opened in the 1970s. President Phil Key says at first it was just so everyone was on the same page and profitable, but it became part of their business philosophy to empower their employees.
BENEFITS OF OPEN-BOOK MANAGEMENT Open-book management allows companies to share transparent financial information and helps educate the team on the business decisions being made.
“It’s also given us the opportunity to
teach everyone about the business, and help them learn the importance of generating a gross profit and driving waste out of an organization,” McDuff says. “Our culture improved immensely, and our team appreciates being ‘in the know’ and understanding they can make decisions that will help us hit our goals and win.” When the team feels they are a part of the decision-making, this helps with buy-in.
“Everyone is kept in the loop and no one’s blindsided or frustrated about
16 The Landscape Professional //November/December 2021
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