How a National Workforce Innovation Pilot Transformed a Small-Town Restaurant

When Jessica and Matt Borza signed their family restaurant up for a new pilot program promoting open-book management, they were searching for a way to survive.

Pondi’s, a 100-year-old restaurant in Lisbon, Ohio, had already defied the odds: weathering the COVID-19 pandemic, expanding into a second kitchen and market, and building a loyal customer base. But by 2023, even with a packed dining room, the business remained on a knife’s edge.

“It always felt like we were one bad month away from crisis,” Jessica said.

That’s when a flyer landed in her inbox. It came from the Fund for Our Economic Future, a philanthropic collaborative in Northeast Ohio, and the National Fund for Workforce Solutions. They were seeking small employers to participate in a pilot using the Great Game of Business (GGOB), a system rooted in open-book management, financial literacy, and employee empowerment.

Jessica, who also worked at the Ohio Manufacturing Association, had initially considered it for one of her manufacturing clients. Then she realized: “This is what Pondi’s needs.”

A Strategic Bet on Workforce Innovation

For the Fund for Our Economic Future and the National Fund, GGOB wasn’t just another program, it was a test of a larger hypothesis: that financial transparency, frontline training, and employee voice could drive better outcomes for workers and employers, particularly in the hospitality industry where formal career pathways are rare.

“This is workforce development,” said Tom Strong, Director of Employer Activation at the National Fund. “It’s not a buzzword. It’s an investment in training and shared accountability that turns businesses into learning labs and frontline staff into strategic contributors.”

Bishara Addison, Workforce Innovation Director at the Fund for Our Economic Future, saw GGOB as a rare middle ground. “It offers transparency, dignity, and shared problem-solving without triggering zero-sum fears from employers. It doesn’t require giving up equity. But it teaches employees to think, act, and feel like owners.”

GGOB’s coaching-intensive model made it a bold investment. The two nonprofits backstopped Pondi’s participation, recognizing that there were financial constraints. The Borzas had limited capacity and were already shouldering debt from their expansion.

“We made sure they had skin in the game,” Addison said. “But we de-risked it enough to make participation possible.”

Breaking Open the Books and the Culture

Through support provided by Anne-Claire Broughton, a certified GGOB coach, Pondi’s began holding weekly “huddles” where every employee could review the restaurant’s real financials. In the first session, team members guessed the business’s monthly profit through a game called the Dollar Exercise. Most overestimated.

“When the real numbers came out, there was no negativity,” Jessica recalled. “Just surprise, and respect.”

That moment of honesty changed everything. From the line cooks to the bartenders, employees started asking sharper questions, tracking costs, and launching “MiniGames” to improve margins. One of their first games focused on cleaning, taking its name from the Outkast song “So Fresh and So Clean.” Another focused on baked potato toppings. Over time, small decisions drove measurable savings and boosted quarterly bonuses.

“It wasn’t just clock in, clock out anymore,” said server Miranda Plumm. “We all wanted to make this place better.”

Tangible Outcomes and Proof of Concept

By the end of 2024, the results spoke for themselves:

• Profit turnaround: Pondi’s went from a projected $25,000 loss to a $280,000 profit. They used much of this profit to pay down the debt they incurred from the expansion.
• Bonus pool: In the first year, the company distributed over $78,000 in quarterly staff bonuses distributed. More than 25% of their total gain in net profits.
• Wage growth: Average compensation grew 9.9%, triple the state average. For part-time staff earning under $20,000, earnings jumped 13.9%.
• Retention: While peer restaurants in Ohio saw a 39.3% retention rate, Pondi’s held on to 64.1% of its staff.

And perhaps most impressively, the model’s impact extended far beyond the walls of the business. Line cook Brittany Daniels said it changed her life. “I used to live paycheck to paycheck. Now I have a savings plan. I paid off a credit card for the first time.”

A Model for Workforce Systems Change

For both national and regional funders, the Pondi’s story validated a theory of change. Coaching-based transparency models, like GGOB, offer a scalable way to enhance job quality in industries often overlooked by traditional workforce strategies.

“The restaurant industry is often seen as too hard, too chaotic,” Addison noted. “But if you can create this kind of culture shift here, you can do it anywhere.”

Strong pointed out that while the total cost of the coaching program was substantial, about $60,000, the burden was shared among several entities, including the National Fund, the Fund for Our Economic Future, Pondi’s, and additional help from Deaconness Foundation. This shared investment paid off considerably: between wages, bonuses, and improved job retention it produced over $300,000 in gains for workers in just its first year. “Better yet,” he said, “these gains are sustainable because Pondi’s is now in a much stronger financial position, and its team has developed valuable business skills that can help them weather other challenges in the future.”

The National Fund, Fund for Our Economic Future, and several other members of their network now aim to replicate this success across other small businesses, in hospitality, manufacturing, construction and other industries.

“Ultimately, this isn’t about a single restaurant,” said Amanda Cage, President and CEO of the National Fund. “It’s about proving that partnership-driven workforce innovation can deliver results, faster and more equitably, than many of the legacy models we’ve relied on.”