Book - Open-Book Experience

‘The Open-Book Experience - Lessons from over 100 companies who successfully transformed themselves’
John Case
Perseus Books; Amazon [A]

Open-Book management is a new approach to management – the term being coined by the author John Case who is an author of 4 business books including Open-Book Management: the coming business revolution. The author is executive editor at Harvard Business School Publishing where he edits the monthly newsletter Harvard Management Update.

Open book management starts with this basic assumption: A company performs best when its people see themselves as partners in the business, rather than as hired hands. And the building blocks of an open-book system are:

1. Transparent company: You have to create a transparent company.
2. A company of businesspeople: You need a system of joint-accountability – a system where everyone is responsible for his or her part in the company’s performance.
3. A stake in success: You give a stake in success as well as pay them for their time.

The book presents examples from across industries to describe what open-book management is, how it is useful for top and bottom lines and how it is implemented in both the small or big companies. An interesting read, but readers should go deep only if they are really interested in the nitty-gritty, otherwise a quick scan will be of great help.