Press Release: Intrust IT Named an All-Star Champion

Cincinnati IT Company Crowned Champion in International Competition for Open Book Management with the Great Game of Business Award

CINCINNATI, OH. (September 30, 2019) – A deep dive into open book management practices has earned Intrust IT an All-Star Champion award from the Great Game of Business (GGOB) organization. The award, presented at GGOB’s annual Gathering of Games conference in September, recognizes Intrust’s excellence in implementing the philosophy and sharing best practices with others. Companies from around the world, including several much larger and decades older than Intrust, competed for this Great Game of Business Award.

Great Game of Business Explained

The Great Game of Business (GGOB) is an open book management philosophy that helps educate employees about the rules of business and rallies them around a common goal. Each year, the organization names All-Star Award winners based on employee engagement in the process, financial results and the story behind the numbers. Through GGOB, employees experience empowerment and engagement as they develop more “skin in the game.” By presenting employers and employees with the opportunity to win as a team, the philosophy taps into the universal drive to excel.

Intrust IT, founded by Tim Rettig, began implementing the radical management strategy in 2016. Rettig was inspired by the book The Great Game of Business by Jack Stack.

“The GGOB without a doubt has had the biggest impact on our financials as any other program we’ve done in the 27-year history of the company,” Rettig says. “Each quarter we continue to set new records in both percent and dollar amount of net profit. More than that though, I feel like everyone is pulling in the same direction.” An Intrust IT case study can be found on the GGOB website.

Open and transparent financials are now central to how Intrust operates. The company shares all financial information with all employees. Intrust staff members also receive financial literacy training so they understand what the numbers mean. The strategy is called the Great Game of Business because there are rules to follow, a score is kept and everyone has a stake in the outcome. Employees report feeling empowered both at work and at home with their finances. Because of open books, Intrust IT employees were able to participate in an employee stock ownership program (ESOP) ahead of schedule and are on track to become owners of the business in 2019.

GGOB launched the All-Star Awards recognition program in 2001 to highlight the companies on the leading edge of this innovative management practice.

“The program is not just about generating profits, cash and wealth, but also about distributing it for the good of everyone involved,” said Rich Armstrong, president of The Great Game of Business. All-Star players must embody a spirit of generosity and a willingness to openly spread the word to help each other succeed.

In September, at the annual Gathering of Games conference in Dallas, Intrust IT was honored along with six other businesses. Awards were also presented to a GGOB hall of fame company, an outstanding rookie and a deserving social enterprise company. All participants in the program have discovered the management practice has transformed the way they do business.

“I talk to a lot of other business owners who think it’s interesting that we have open book management,” Rettig said, “but they have all kinds of concerns. In reality, the benefits far outweigh the perceived risks.”

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About Intrust IT

Intrust IT is a Cincinnati IT support and cyber security partner that gets you and gets back to you. As a locally owned small business, we empathize with business owners, use our ingenuity to solve problems, and deliver service that makes our clients happy. Our company was founded in 1992 by Tim Rettig and ever since then we’ve been putting the “service” in “managed services.” For more information, visit www.intrust-it.com.