Organization Background
Founded as a turf and grounds care business in 1977, The Motz Corporation (TMC) is now recognized internationally for its thought leadership and innovation in the delivery of high performance turf systems across the sports field and landscape industries. TMC is comprised primarily of two business units: The Motz Group, which is a sports field design and construction company, and USGreentech, which focuses on the sale of progressive infills related to synthetic landscape and sports turf systems.
Challenge
Develop a long-term succession plan that would help employees become owners in the business.
Solution
Push a great company to new heights by seeking greater involvement and input from team members—specifically related to the company’s financial performance.
Results
The Great Game of Business took the company's already strong culture to yet another level. While having fun and involving all employees, GGOB techniques drive a financial awareness that help guide employee decisions.
“The financial transparency and engagement coupled with financial education is providing the base to what I ultimately hope will become a 100% employee-owned evergreen corporation,” says founder Joe Motz. “We all are working towards the same goals and it takes awareness and involvement of the entire team to achieve those goals. The Great Game of Business provides that opportunity to educate, empower and engage every single person in the organization so that every one of us can participate in a meaningful way in the decisions this company makes and how it operates.”
MiniGame™ Spotlight
Playing MiniGames—what the Motz team calls “blitzes”—has helped build camaraderie among the team while also helping improve processes and attain specific operating goals.
When confronted with a significant exercise or a project requiring significant collaboration, it isn’t unusual to hear a team member ask the question: “How can we turn this into a MiniGame?”
The team is focused on improving its MiniGame play by setting more measurable financial goals and metrics—such as incremental sales, increased customer touches or cost savings.
“Being able to gain insight on how employee decision’s impact what we generate or lose on a weekly basis has been crucial to my ongoing understanding of the scorecard. Professionally, I am now able to grasp the why and have more of a conceptual thought rather than seeing a number fluctuate. Personally knowing that GGOB can also be applied to your personal financial planning has been the most rewarding to me in my pursuit to mastering The Game.” ~ K.C. Corey, Safety and Training Coordinator
What's Next
One of the team’s goals in the coming year and beyond is to include financial goals and metrics in their MiniGames. While they have had success using MiniGames to drive sales up—and drive costs down—they’d like to get better at setting more specific goals and improving their orientation around financial data.
Another area the team aims to develop is their forecasting process. The intent is to roll in a quarterly forecast that extends to the end of the calendar/fiscal year. “With this, we expect to have better visibility when looking forward and expect to be able to make more informed decisions surrounding where resources are directed,” says Motz.
The team is also working on revising its Gainshare program in a way that rewards team members throughout the year based on the success of the organization as a whole and not just as a percent of their individual business unit. “The intent here is to drive employee engagement and transparency across the whole organization, not just the entity for which they work,” says Motz.
“I have always been one to have monthly budgets and financial goals. GGOB has brought about a new way for me to look at these items personally in my life. My wife and I regularly have “huddles” on finances and strategies; create our own MiniGames to help hit our goals. It was something we were somewhat doing previously, but GGOB has definitely put a better framework around it. Professionally, it’s identified how collectively, a group focused on improving their overall company bottom line, can take ownership of individual pieces and work endlessly to gain profits and efficiencies – all while having FUN!” ~ Ben Neff, Project Estimator
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