New from the Fortuna Partners

Act Like You
Own the Place

An Ownership Culture Sets Great Organizations Apart

By Greg Milano, Frank Hopson & Marwaan Karame

Act Like You Own the Place book cover by Greg Milano, Frank Hopson and Marwaan Karame

Drawing on decades of advising hundreds of companies and rigorous capital markets research, the Fortuna partners show how to build a high-performance culture where every employee thinks, decides and invests like a committed owner.

Sandbagged Forecasts

Target-setting that rewards low expectations teaches managers to promise less and hold back their best ideas.

Endless Meetings

Layers of review slow decisions down, diffuse accountability and leave the organization talking more than acting.

Short-Term Thinking

Hitting this quarter's number crowds out the investments in innovation and growth that create lasting value.

The Five Ownership Traits

Spend Money Like It’s Your Own

Treat every dollar of capital and expense with the care of someone whose own wealth is on the line.

Extreme Prioritization

Concentrate people and resources on the few opportunities that create the most value.

Willingness to Fail

Take smart, informed risks rather than defaulting to the safe choice that protects a budget.

More Doing, Less Talking

Move decisively and learn by doing instead of debating ideas until the opportunity has passed.

It’s About the Long and Short Term

Deliver today’s results while building the capabilities that sustain superior returns for years to come.

Who Should Read It

For CEOs, CFOs, and Boards

Planning a Transformation

How do I make change stick company-wide?
How do I reward long-term value creation?

For Managers and Executives

Looking to Stand Out

How do I make better resource decisions?
How do I lead my team like an owner?

For Business Owners

Re-engaging Their People

How do I reignite disillusioned employees?
How do I turn talk into accountable action?

What Leaders Are Saying

As a CFO, I’ve seen firsthand how ownership thinking can transform organizational performance. Milano, Hopson, and Karame show how to give people the visibility, accountability, and authority needed to make decisions that create lasting value for customers, employees, and shareholders.

Gary Bischoping

Chief Financial Officer, Thomson Reuters

Finally, a book that reveals and provides real world suggestions to alleviate one of the biggest flaws in large corporations – the structures that make it challenging to make decisions like owners. This book not only unveils the principal-agent problem with real examples but delivers a playbook for executives to adapt their organizations so all of their employees learn to think and act like owners. We’d have a lot more shareholder value creation if all companies followed this playbook.

Glenn Welling

Principal and Chief Investment Officer, Engaged Capital

The ownership principles in this book mirror what we lived at Caterpillar. When you give people a clear view on how to create value and then give them the accountability to drive it, behavior and outcomes change for the better. This book is a roadmap to getting there.

Andrew Bonfield

Former Chief Financial Officer, Caterpillar

From my roles at Dell, Varian and now Envision Healthcare, one lesson has remained constant: Organizations perform best when people act like owners. Act Like You Own the Place shows how ownership thinking helps leaders create a management system framework that builds a culture of transparency, accountability, and discipline to drive enduring value creation.

J. Michael Bruff

Chief Financial Officer, Envision Healthcare

About the Authors

Greg Milano

Founder & CEO

A three-decade veteran of value-based management, Greg was previously a partner at Stern Stewart & Co. and a managing director at Credit Suisse. He is a recognized expert in performance measurement, valuation, capital allocation and incentive design.

Frank Hopson

Partner

Frank began his career at Credit Suisse before becoming Fortuna’s first employee, where he led the firm’s early capital markets research. He helps energy, industrial and retail companies design performance measures tied to value creation.

Marwaan Karame