Willoway Nurseries, Inc.

Great Game of Business

Open Book Management — where every employee understands the numbers, shares in the outcome, and has a voice in how the company wins.

Implemented 2015  •  2020 GGOB All-Star Champion

2015
Program Launched
5
Core Pillars
7
Company Values
2020
All-Star Champion

Open Book Management

Running the Business Together

In 2015, Willoway Nurseries adopted the Great Game of Business — a style of Open Book Management pioneered by Jack Stack that treats every employee as a business partner, not just a worker. The philosophy is straightforward: when people understand how the business works and can see how their daily decisions affect the bottom line, they make better decisions.

GGOB educates our staff on how the business operates and why each person’s role matters to our collective success. Through consistent daily and weekly huddles at every level of the organization, we stay aligned, informed, and moving in the same direction.

The Foundation

Five Principles We Live By

The Great Game of Business is built on five foundational principles. Together, they form the framework for how Willoway operates at every level of the organization.

1
Sharing Information
Financial and operational data flows openly to everyone in the company. No hidden numbers — the same scoreboard everyone plays from.
2
Business Literacy
Every employee learns to read and understand financial statements. Knowing what the numbers mean makes every team member a more informed decision-maker.
3
Transparency
We operate with full transparency in all business aspects — strategy, performance, challenges, and wins. Trust is built when nothing is hidden.
4
Accountability
Ownership of outcomes lives at every level. When you understand the game, you can be accountable for your piece of it — and help others do the same.
5
A Stake in the Outcome
Every employee earns a share of the profits when the team hits its goals. The win is real, the reward is shared, and the motivation is genuine.

How We Play

The Game in Practice

Communication
Daily & Weekly Huddles
Consistent huddles happen at all organizational levels — daily quick-connects and weekly team meetings. Each one ties individual work back to the company’s Critical Number so nobody is operating in the dark.
The Scoreboard
Critical Number: PBT
All teams focus on a single Critical Number — Profit Before Tax. Every major decision is evaluated by asking: how does this affect PBT? It keeps the whole organization aimed at the same goal.
The Reward
Profit-Sharing Bonuses
When teams hit the Critical Number goal, bonuses are paid out directly from profits. Real stakes, real rewards. Employees don’t just work at Willoway — they have a financial interest in its success.

Core Philosophy

“People support what they help create.” Employees gain real impact by improving efficiencies and streamlining processes — and they can see exactly how those improvements affect the bottom line.

“

The best, most efficient, most profitable way to operate a business is to give everybody in the company a voice in saying how the company is run and a stake in the financial outcome, good or bad.

Jack Stack  •  Creator of the Great Game of Business

2020
All-Star Champion

National Recognition

2020 GGOB All-Star Champion

Willoway Nurseries was selected as a 2020 All-Star Champion by the Great Game of Business organization — a recognition given to companies that demonstrate exceptional commitment to Open Book Management principles and measurable results.

The award reflects five years of deep program adoption: consistent huddles, company-wide financial literacy, a culture of accountability, and a genuine stake for every employee in the business’s success.

Our Foundation

Grounded in Our Core Values

The Great Game of Business isn’t a separate program at Willoway — it’s woven into the seven core values practiced by every member of our team every day. GGOB gives our values operational teeth: it turns beliefs into behaviors and behaviors into results that we can all see on the scoreboard.

Do the Right Thing Never Sacrifice Safety Understand the Why Go the Extra Mile Support the Team Take Ownership Play to Win