Meet the Profit & Cash® Creators

We have been in business for 26 years. We focus on Profit & Cash® financial literacy games and workshops, leadership development training, and executive coaching. Our clientele is nationwide and includes many well-known names. Our books published by John Wiley and Sons in the ‘90s put us on the map as pioneers in creating empowered workforces through the spread of financial metrics.

We have a 15-year history of creating Profit & Cash® board games for our clients. The game has traditionally been used to teach financial literacy in organizations. The game in its various industry, company and non-profit versions, such as credit unions, manufacturing, utilities, banks, not-for-profit, hair care salons, and our new church stewardship game (some 25 versions overall), have been played by an estimated 450,000 participants over the years.

Our clients include large fortune 100 companies such as Sprint, Motorola, and Harley-Davidson and many mid-sized and small-sized companies as well.

M. Patricia Kane

M. Patricia Kane is president of The Schuster Kane Alliance, Inc., a business consulting and human resource development firm she joined in 1986. Patricia assists clients in determining their business development needs, designs the process for achieving the results, administers team-building and management feedback programs, and presents financial literacy workshops. She also coaches and facilitates individuals and groups. Patricia has worked with such clients as American Century, City of Olathe, International Paper, Lockton, and Dallas-Fort Worth Airport, and has worked in the UK and Australia. She implements Business Acumen, Team Building and Communication Training.

Patricia ensures that her clients’ passions for work and life are aligned with practical goals, achievable through a doable sequence of steps. Patricia coaches and guides individuals to explore the multiple options they have. She helps people and their organizations get “bottom line results” as they move toward their heartfelt callings, aspirations and dreams. In 2005, Patricia launched her program Your Next Best Years®, a 21-hour workshop geared toward professionals who have reached that point in their lives where they ask, “How can I re-invest in my work and life?”

A significant specialty for Patricia is in business relationships, as she has coached scores of individuals through the perplexing dilemmas that arise among business partners, bosses and subordinates. Patricia draws upon her 30 years of experience and her innate emotional intelligence to help busy achievers keep the relationships that matter to them working and whole.

She is co-author of The Power of Open-Book Management and Open-Book Management Field Book published by John Wiley & Sons.

Patricia is a coach graduate of the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara, a certified facilitator from The Association of Quality and Productivity, and a certified assessment consultant with Acumen International and the Insight Institute. Patricia was awarded the first Supplier of the Year of Kansas City by Meeting Professionals International and received certification by the National Speakers Association. She has a Public Relations Associate degree from P. Stevens College in Omaha, Nebraska.

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Joseph J. Vacanti

Joe has more than thirty years experience as a Certified Public Accountant with extensive experience in public speaking, teaching, facilitating, taxation issues and financial analysis. He is highly skilled as a trainer with proven effectiveness as an instructor for a nationwide CPA Review Course. He consistently ranked in the top 10% of all US instructors for over ten years in that capacity. He also filled the role of lead marketing instructor with extensive experience in dealing with young professionals beginning with campus speeches on various college campuses. His well-developed communication skills have demonstrated sensitivity to the needs of others and the ability to develop a working rapport with diverse groups and as a seasoned professional Counselor to the accounting profession.

He is an experienced seminar leader for a hands-on course in financial concepts and business literacy basics. He is also trained as a life coach. He has worked in private industry as a Controller for a large trucking company, a marketing representative for a computer company and as a shareholder in his own CPA firm.

He received his BSBA in Accounting from Creighton University and his CPA certificate from the state of Nebraska. He is a member of the Nebraska Society of CPAs.

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John Schuster

John P. Schuster is sought by established corporations, government, nonprofits and entrepreneurs for his Executive Leadership expertise and knowledge. He is the founding partner of The Schuster Kane Alliance, Inc., a consulting firm he started in 1981. Since he founded his business over 25 years ago, John Schuster has helped enterprises in business, government and non-profit environments meet their potential. His company is known for its ability to connect soft people skills with hard business results.

Prior to starting his business, John was the Director of Human Resources for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency KC, Chicago and Washington D.C. He was voted trainer of the year by the Kansas City chapter to the American Society of Training and Development. He was a chairman for The Executive Committee, a peer-learning group for CEOs, in both Kansas City and Cincinnati. His firm pioneered the open-book management practices that tie to balanced scorecard work. The business simulation Profit and Cash® developed to support financial and business know-how in the workplace has been translated into Spanish, French, Portuguese, Mandarin and additional European languages. He is an executive coach and serves as a faculty member at the coaching certification program run by Columbia University and that of the Hudson Institute of Santa Barbara.

His books include: The Power of Open-Book Management (1996) (Wiley & Sons) translated into four languages, The Open-Book Management Field Book (1998), and Hum-Drum to Hot-Diggity on Leadership (2001). Answering Your Call: A Guide to Living Your Deepest Purpose is his latest book released in February of 2003, published by Berrett Koehler, and translated into Spanish and Flemish.

John has a passion for markets that work for everyone and specializes in leadership development and business-smart workplaces. His work has taken him to engagements on four continents. John teaches leadership and strategy in the executive MBA program at Rockhurst University in Kansas City and is former Director for the Center of Leadership for that university. He graduated summa cum laude from Xavier University and received his BA and MA in English.

He is a shareholder and mentor with Merryck and Co., the CEO mentoring firm now establishing itself in the United States and the New York metro region, after several years of operation in the UK and Australia.

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