A Winter’s Destination
I’m on my retired person’s daily designated three mile walk from the Old West Side of Ann Arbor into town and back. We’ve hit full winter and the temperature hovers at 15 degrees and the snow piles up. All right, so I drive my car part of the way, park on a side street, and hike out from there wearing a funereal black down coat and black lace-up boots, topped with a gray alpaca beret and Pashmina scarf to match the winter skies. I keep my hood up for the entire trek. By the time I reach the bricked-paved Detroit Street, I’m thinking get me out of this gray stuff and take me into a different world. My destination is Zingerman’s Deli.
inside the center of the gastro-deli universe
Local Writer Takes a Trip to Zingerman’s Deli on Annarbor.com
The “Secrets” of Open Book Finanace
This week, Zingerman’s Training (aka, ZingTrain) was profiled in Crain’s Detroit Business Weekly!
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No secrets: Businesses find it pays to open books to employees
By Dustin Walsh
Private businesses have traditionally operated from the top down — executives passing along only the information deemed “safe” for employee eyes.
But that’s not the case for the nine companies in Zingerman’s Community of Businesses in Ann Arbor.
Owners Ari Weinzweig and Paul Saginaw practice open-book management, the business practice of sharing financial and decision-making duties among all employees.
“Our employees really get a chance to participate in the business,” Weinzweig said. “They are learning how to manage money and how to run a business.”
It’s the employees who manage expenses, monitor operating margins and develop new products. This opens a new realm of business transparency, one that can eliminate the “us vs. them” mentality between management and employees.
Private companies are known to hide net profits and keep books closed to protect competitive advantage, said David Brophy, finance professor and director of the Center for Venture Capital and Private Equity Finance at the University of Michigan‘s Stephen M. Ross School of Business.
“I think it’s amazing that a company is willing to do this,” he said. “It shows they have tremendous confidence in their ability and have obviously learned the positive gains exceed the potential risk of revealing trade secrets.”
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Read the rest of the article here and, to learn more about ZingTrain and our Fun, Flavorful Finance Seminar, click here.
Zingerman's is a community of eight businesses all located in the Ann Arbor, MI area. Our mission is to share the Zingerman’s experience selling food that makes you happy giving service that makes you smile in passionate pursuit of our mission showing love and caring in all our actions to enrich as many lives as we possibly can. [read more]
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