Earlier this month, Primera gathered all its 325+ employees from across the country for our annual kickoff meeting and employee celebration. In its 8th year, this tradition brings together all Primera’s office and remote employees spread across 25 states to celebrate our recent accomplishments, share our end-of-year financial performance, and provide insight into the future direction of the firm.

This year’s overarching theme took employees aboard the “S.S. Ownership” with a focus on individual accountability while promoting an “All Hands on Deck” attitude. Our keynote address was provided by Vice President of The Great Game of Business, Inc., Steve Baker, where he shared the importance of individual ownership within the firm. He also highlighted how unique employee ownership is in the United States, stressing the further uniqueness of firms like Primera who combine ESOPs and open book management. A trained coach on the concept of open-book management, Steve spotlighted the enormous impact that individual leadership and employee engagement can have on an entire company.

Primera first transitioned to open-book management in the Fall of 2019 by introducing the Great Game of Business (GGOB) model to align our business with our Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP). The Game focuses on teaching all employees the basics of running a business, empowering them to think and act like owners, sharing financials in real-time, and giving all employees a stake in the outcome through transparent profit sharing. As employee-owners, all team members gather weekly in a virtual setting to review and forecast our financials and other key metrics. Since our transition to GGOB, we’ve learned that it is a great tool to keep folks motivated and engaged by helping them understand how their daily actions and decisions impact Primera’s overall health.

Following the meeting, Primera employees cruised over to Royal Palms Chicago to celebrate and participate in our first ever Primera Shuffleboard Tournament. The Florida-themed venue was the perfect setting to relax, socialize with peers, and partake in some friendly competition.

GGOB is a forward-forecasting approach to open-book management. It is a growth system designed to build healthy companies, better businesses, and better lives. Employees are first taught how to read financial statements so they can fully, actively, and proactively participate. To learn more about GGOB click here.