Summary
The sustainability debate continues in the employee-ownership community. The fear that employee-owned companies will not be strong enough to survive without significant outside capital, which will end their employee ownership, is still very widespread. The fear that employee-owned companies will collapse under the weight of their repurchase obligations is also still very widespread. When you look at the facts, both are completely unfounded, yet they continue and even grow stronger in waves as each challenge to employee ownership is faced. We live in a time when emphatically-stated misstatements pass for the truth if they are repeated often and loudly enough. So, it is not so surprising that these ‘concerns’ about the future of employee ownership persist.