In this episode of The Steward Chair, Rick Plympton, Corporate Fellow and Former CEO at Optimax Systems, Inc, shares their journey of transitioning to an employee ownership trust and empowering a local workforce, exploring how shared prosperity drives meaningful, long-term success. 

Rick and Jeff discuss open-book financial management, the math behind profit-sharing models, and creating a perpetual purpose trust that makes a business unsellable, providing actionable takeaways for leaders committed to stewardship, integrity, and impact.

Key Takeaways

• Empowering the Whole Team: Shifting away from a command-and-control hierarchy allows a company to scale at the sphere of influence of the entire workforce rather than just a few top executives, which unlocked a sustainable 20% year-over-year organic growth rate for OptiMax.
• Radical Equity and Shared Wealth: Distributing 25% of company profits equally among core team members—regardless of whether they are the CEO or the custodian—fosters a unified workspace culture where every individual values absolute precision and quality.
• Hardcoding Legacy with EOTs: Moving to an Employee Ownership Trust (or Perpetual Purpose Trust) establishes permanent corporate governance that blocks predatory corporate buyouts, protects local families, and caps executive compensation at a healthy 7x ratio to the lowest earner.

Resources Mentioned

• Visit Optimax’s website at www.Optimaxsi.com 

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