Jan Jewell, co-founder and co-CEO of Celebrate Express, gave a presentation on "Open Book Management and the Celebrate Express Story" at the Northwest Entrepreneur Network Venture Breakfast Meeting this Friday. Jan led off with a history of her personal and professional ups and downs with Birthday Express (which evolved into Celebrate Express). Among the themes that stood out for me were her strong perseverance and "do-it-yourself" spirit, perhaps best summarized by her oft-repeated mantra, "'No' doesn't mean 'no' unless I say it does." It's pretty clear to me that she has the material for at least one book just based on the this part of the presentation.
The second portion of the presentation, which was very brief, focused on the concept of open book management, as espoused by Jack Stack in his book "The Great Game of Business", which emphasizes three ideas:
- Know and Teach the Rules
It is tough to play a game if you don’t know the rules.
Plan the business. - Follow the Action and Keep Score
The only way to know the score is to follow the action and keep tally.
Communicate results. - Provide a Stake in the Outcome
Providing an incentive keeps the players in the game.
Reward the outcome.
Jan distilled many of her words of wisdom for entrepreneurs into one compelling concept: DROOM (Don't Run Out Of Money). She emphasized the importance of making sure that employees understand the importance of positive cash flow, develop financial literacy, and take an active part in saving money (she suggested a variety of fun and games to achieve this last goal).
She finished off her presentation with three quotes that summarize her main points:
- Once you arm people with information, your organization will take on a life of its own.
- If you create an organization of people who think and act like owners, you will unleash your organization’s financial potential.
- Birthing a dream takes years and exacts a price. Dreams cost money, sweat, frustration, tears, courage, choices, perseverance, and extraordinary patience.
But birthing a dream requires one more thing. Love.