Considerations on sharing business financials

Michael Hornung tells his employees, “You don’t work for me. You work with me.” The president of ValleyGreen in Sartell, Minnesota, draws a picture on the white board of a wagon wheel with spokes. The wheel is ValleyGreen. Next to each spoke, he writes the name of an employee until the entire team is represented.

“We are all a spoke in the wheel,” Hornung says to his people, relating how their efforts keep the business moving forward. When a spoke breaks or is missing, the integrity of the wheel is compromised. “When I draw this and the team looks at it, they really get it. They really do,” he says.

Hornung wants his employees to realize that their performance impacts the organization. Those who lead crews or play supervisory roles are given the budget information they need to really understand the impact of their performance.

Who gets to see the books? Which managers get the numbers and which numbers should they see? Hornung subscribes to a modified version of open book management. The books are completely open to his operations manager and office manager. “They have to know what’s going on with the income and expenses,” he says.

Read the full story from the November issue here.