Audiobook9 hours
It's How We Play the Game: Build a Business. Take a Stand. Make a Difference.
Rating: 4.5 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
()
About this audiobook
Porchlight’s Best Leadership & Strategy Book of The Year
An inspiring memoir from the CEO of DICK’s Sporting Goods that is “not only entertaining but will be of great value to any entrepreneur” (Phil Knight, New York Times bestselling author of Shoe Dog), this book shows how a trailblazing business was created by giving back to the community and by taking principled, and sometimes controversial, stands—including against the type of weapons that are too often used in mass shootings and other tragedies.
It’s How We Play the Game tells the story of a complicated founder and an ambitious son—one who transformed a business by making it about more than business, conceiving it as a force for good in the communities it serves. In 1948, Ed Stack’s father started Dick’s Bait and Tackle in Binghamton, New York. Ed Stack bought the business from his father in 1984, and grew it into the largest sporting goods retailer in the country, with 800 locations and close to $9 billion in sales. The transformation Ed wrought wasn’t easy: economic headwinds nearly toppled the chain twice. But DICK’s support for embattled youth sports programs earned the stores surprising loyalty, and the company won even more attention when, in the wake of yet another school shooting—at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—it chose to become the first major retailer to pull all semi-automatic weapons from its shelves, raise the age of gun purchase to twenty-one, and, most strikingly, destroy the assault-style-type rifles then in its inventory.
With vital lessons for anyone running a business and eye-opening reflections about what a company owes the people it serves, It’s How We Play the Game is “a compelling narrative…In a genre that can frequently be staid, Mr. Stack’s corporate biography is deeply personal…[Features] surprising openness [and] interesting and humorous anecdotes” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
An inspiring memoir from the CEO of DICK’s Sporting Goods that is “not only entertaining but will be of great value to any entrepreneur” (Phil Knight, New York Times bestselling author of Shoe Dog), this book shows how a trailblazing business was created by giving back to the community and by taking principled, and sometimes controversial, stands—including against the type of weapons that are too often used in mass shootings and other tragedies.
It’s How We Play the Game tells the story of a complicated founder and an ambitious son—one who transformed a business by making it about more than business, conceiving it as a force for good in the communities it serves. In 1948, Ed Stack’s father started Dick’s Bait and Tackle in Binghamton, New York. Ed Stack bought the business from his father in 1984, and grew it into the largest sporting goods retailer in the country, with 800 locations and close to $9 billion in sales. The transformation Ed wrought wasn’t easy: economic headwinds nearly toppled the chain twice. But DICK’s support for embattled youth sports programs earned the stores surprising loyalty, and the company won even more attention when, in the wake of yet another school shooting—at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida—it chose to become the first major retailer to pull all semi-automatic weapons from its shelves, raise the age of gun purchase to twenty-one, and, most strikingly, destroy the assault-style-type rifles then in its inventory.
With vital lessons for anyone running a business and eye-opening reflections about what a company owes the people it serves, It’s How We Play the Game is “a compelling narrative…In a genre that can frequently be staid, Mr. Stack’s corporate biography is deeply personal…[Features] surprising openness [and] interesting and humorous anecdotes” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette).
Author
Ed Stack
Ed Stack is the Chairman and CEO of DICK’s Sporting Goods. Born in Binghamton, New York, he now lives in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with his wife, Donna. It’s How We Play the Game is his first book.
Related to It's How We Play the Game
Related audiobooks
Good Company Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Becoming Trader Joe: How I Did Business My Way and Still Beat the Big Guys Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5What It Takes: Lessons in the Pursuit of Excellence Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Grinding It Out: The Making of McDonald's Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Working Together: Why Great Partnerships Succeed Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5We Were Yahoo!: From Internet Pioneer to the Trillion Dollar Loss of Google and Facebook Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Up Close and All In: Life Lessons from a Wall Street Warrior Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Nothing to Lose, Everything to Gain: How I Went from Gang Member to Multimillionaire Entrepreneur Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Never Ride a Rollercoaster Upside Down: The Ups, Downs, and Reinvention of an Entrepreneur Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Italian Kid Did It: How I Turned $3K into $44B and Achieved the American Dream Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Many Lives of Michael Bloomberg: Innovation, Money, and Politics Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Made From Scratch: The Legendary Success Story of Texas Roadhouse Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Barefoot Spirit: How Hardship, Hustle, and Heart Built America's #1 Wine Brand Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Built from Scratch: How a Couple of Regular Guys Grew The Home Depot from Nothing to $30 Billion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Target Story: How the Iconic Big Box Store Hit the Bullseye and Created an Addictive Retail Experience Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Raising The Bar: The Life and Work of Gerald D. Hines Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Spanx Story: What's Underneath the Incredible success of Sara Blakely's Billion Dollar Empire Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/51,000 Dollars & an Idea: Entrepreneur to Billionaire Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Burger King: A Whopper of a Story on Life and Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Leave Something on the Table: And Other Surprising Lessons for Success in Business and in Life Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Harder You Work, the Luckier You Get: An Entrepreneur's Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Invention: A Life of Learning Through Failure Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Around the Corner to Around the World: A Dozen Lessons I Learned Running Dunkin Donuts Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Capital One Story: How the Upstart Financial Institution Charged Toward Market Leadership Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Hershey: Milton S. Hershey's Extraordinary Life of Wealth, Empire, and Utopian Dreams Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Caterpillar Way: Lessons in Leadership, Growth, and Shareholder Value Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Co-Piloting: Luck, Leadership, and Learning That It's All about Others: Our Story Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe HP Way: How Bill Hewlett and I Built Our Company Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Onward: How Starbucks Fought for Its Life Without Losing Its Soul Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Personal Memoirs For You
I'll Be Gone in the Dark: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Woman in Me Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Friends, Lovers, and the Big Terrible Thing: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5How to Stay Married Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Year of Magical Thinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Own It All: How to Stop Waiting for Change and Start Creating It. Because Your Life Belongs to You. Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5I'm Glad My Mom Died Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love, Pamela: A Memoir of Prose, Poetry, and Truth Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Night: New translation by Marion Wiesel Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5All My Knotted-Up Life: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Becoming Free Indeed: My Story of Disentangling Faith from Fear Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Yes Please Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sure, I'll Join Your Cult: A Memoir of Mental Illness and the Quest to Belong Anywhere Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pageboy: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Stolen Life: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: My Year of Psychedelics: Lessons on Better Living Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Counting the Cost Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Making It So: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Finding Me: A Memoir Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Wishful Drinking Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5While Time Remains: A North Korean Girl's Search for Freedom in America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Enough Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Too Much and Never Enough: How My Family Created the World's Most Dangerous Man Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Good Girls Don't Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Roxane Gay & Everand Originals: Built for This: The Quiet Strength of Powerlifting Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Not My Father's Son: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Glass Castle: A Memoir Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How Y'all Doing?: Misadventures and Mischief from a Life Well Lived Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Love, Lucy Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for It's How We Play the Game
Rating: 4.571428571428571 out of 5 stars
4.5/5
7 ratings1 review
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Great book about tenacity and managing a sports store. Don't agree with the approach but learned a lot about sports retail.