We Teach People About Business. We Give Them the Knowledge to Play the Game.
In 1983, International Harvester was in deep financial trouble. Jack Stack and 12 managers were trying to save 119 jobs at the company’s engine remanufacturing facility in Springfield, Missouri. They scraped together $100,000 in cash, borrowed $8.9 million and transformed a once failing division into one of the most successful and competitive companies in America.
"We didn’t do this by riding some hot technology or glamorous industry. Remanufacturing is a tough, loud, dirty business. Our people work with plugs in their ears and leave the factory every day covered in grease. What SRC remanufactures are engines and engine components. We take worn-out engines from cars, bulldozers, eighteen-wheelers, and we rebuild them, saving the parts that are in good shape, fixing those that are damaged, replacing the ones that are beyond repair. But in some ways engines are incidental to what we do. Our real business is education. We teach people about business. We give them the knowledge that allows them to go out and play the Game."