Its How We Play the Game, Ed Stack
Its How We Play the Game, Ed Stack
2 Rating(s)
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It's How We Play the Game
Build a Business. Take a Stand. Make a Difference.

Author: Ed Stack

Narrator: Ed Stack

Unabridged: 9 hr 58 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 10/08/2019


Synopsis

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).

It’s How We Play the Game 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.

Ed Stack’s memoir 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).

About 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.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Shellie

Seven chapters in. Interesting to see how a small business "passes the torch" to a new generation to keep up with an expanding, fast-changing new market. I've upped my rating to FOUR STARS.......more

Very interesting (and surprisingly transparent) story of a true American success story, Dick's Sporting Goods and Ed Stack. The book traces the history of Dick's Sporting Goods from the formative years of the chain's founder, Dick Stack, to his son (author / current Dick's CEO) Ed's childhood, adole......more

Goodreads review by jose

A lesson on business, but most importantly, principles Ed Stack’s story of Dick’s Sporting Goods humble beginnings is nothing short of fantastic. As a business major, I loved the detailed account of Dick’s expansion - the highs and the lows of the company, the mistakes made and the lessons learned. B......more

Goodreads review by Nancy

Much more than a book about business - it's also a book about family. Ed Stack did not plan to take over the family business, but did so out of a sense of responsibility to his father and the rest of the family. He does not sugarcoat his complicated relationship with his dad, but also gives him the......more

Goodreads review by Ryan

My interest in this came from the fact that Dick's began in Binghamton, which is my hometown. I remembered the early stores, and the one on Main Street in Vestal was the one I frequented the most. It amazes that this little store in Vestal has grown into this national retailing empire. The history o......more