Today, its shares, which have split six times over the years, are worth $70.30 each.

In 1983, SRC's survival was a day-to-day question a share of the company's stock was worth ten cents. There are many reasons SRC has become a model for other businesses-not least of which is that the Great Game promises to bridge a lot of the distrust between management and labor-but the real proof of the idea is that it works financially. The other is that if you want employees to care about their jobs as if they were owners, you should make them owners. SRC, a place where sports metaphors rule, calls its distinctive brand of open book 'the Great Game of Business.' A small but passionate cult of business owners has grown up around two big ideas, which Stack has promoted in two books, The Great Game of Business and A Stake in the Outcome: One idea is that you can boost performance by making a game of tracking and improving key metrics.

It has also developed an unusual culture-a humane, Midwestern blend of quantitative management, radical transparency and practical paranoia-that has made it the flagship of what's known as the open-book-management movement. Over the years, SRC has evolved into a highly entrepreneurial miniconglomerate that has launched more than 60 companies in industries ranging from banking to medical devices to furniture. 'If it's above that, we're on fire.' Last year, SRC booked $16 million in profits on $532 million in sales to customers like General Motors, John Deere and Navistar. 'If GDP is less than 2%, we're flat,' Stack says. Since its launch in 1983, SRC's main business has been remanufacturing engines and other components for trucks, tractors and other heavy equipment, which means taking worn gear and returning it to like-new condition. Stack, 68, is the CEO and cofounder of SRC Holdings, a Springfield, Missouri, company owned entirely by its 1,600 employees.

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