Mid-Missouri Energy: Ethanol from Corn
Mid-Missouri Energy is a farmer-owned cooperative created to take advantage of the growing interest in ethanol as an automotive fuel.
Heavy Construction Systems Specialists, Inc. (HCSS)
Heavy Construction Systems Specialists, Inc. [HCSS] designs and sells hi-tech software to the heavy/highway construction industry. The case describes a unique corporate culture that has made HCSS a business success in a highly competitive industry.
KCI Technologies, Inc.: Engineering the Future, One Employee at a Time
KCI, a multi-disciplined engineering firm, has undergone a number of transformations over the last several decades. It started as a basement dream, was acquired and sold-off by a larger firm, and has emerged as a multi-million dollar employee-owned organization.
Starting Over in Lexington: Taking Ownership
The folks at our Lexington, Ky. plant are well on their way to becoming owners of their company, all part of our plan to turn the operation around and make it profitable again.
Jimmy Fu and Moog, Inc.: Understanding Shareholders’ Equity
The case introduces students to the concepts of employee stock options, stock-splits and buybacks, multiple share classes, and the basics of equity investment and diversification.
Namaste Solar
Should a fast-growing, employee-owned solar electric company accept a buyout offer from a private equity investor? Could it do so without sacrificing its distinctive, high-involvement culture? Namaste Solar, a 55-person firm based in Boulder, Colorado, designed and installed solar electric systems for residential, commercial, non-profit and government customers. In 2008, the company had been growing … Read More
CHART Rehabilitation of Hawaii
Frieda Takaki took a deep breath, filling her senses. She was about to make a very difficult decision. She took off her shoes, placed them next to her desk and started pacing her office barefoot as she was thinking aloud. “I can’t let this business close down,” she whispered. “I have to do something about it.” The answer was now abundantly clear: why wouldn’t the employees buy the business from the owners?
ESOP: Employee Ownership of Companies on the Rise
The ESOP – Employee Stock Ownership Plan – is, slowly, on the rise. These worker-owned businesses are more productive and could benefit the American economy.
Using an ESOP to Liquidate a Portion of the Value of a Family Business
Technically, an ESOP is a retirement plan and serves the purpose of accumulating retirement savings for the company’s employees. In practice, however, they can act as a cash buyer of private company stock, thus creating a source of liquidity for the company’s owners.
Maui Divers of Hawaii
Maui Divers established its employee ownership plan in 1997. Maui Divers store managers/employee owners embrace the business as their own. Although the final decision belongs to the company management team, store managers excel in increasing sales and they continuously come up with business plans in order to make the business better.
Equity on Demand: The Netflix Approach to Compensation
Netflix was among a small group of Silicon Valley companies to emerge from the technology bubble of the late 1990s a clear winner in terms of growth, market share, and profitability. That Netflix was able not only to prevail over this competition but also to thrive was largely attributable to the culture of freedom and … Read More
The Origin and History of the ESOP and Its Future Role as a Business Succession Tool
The first ESOP (employee stock ownership plan) came into being in 1956. This article describes the origin and history of the ESOP and explains why ESOPs will increasingly become the business succession tool of choice for many owners of privately held businesses.
The Foundation for Enterprise Development
The FED was established to promote the concept of broad-based, participative employee ownership and entrepreneurism and actively funds inter-disciplinary research and development of business school and engineering curricula.
Breaking The Mold
What is workplace democracy? Workplace democracy is generally understood as the application of democratic practices, such as voting, debate and participatory decision-making systems, to the workplace.
Client Profile: Coast Citrus Distributors
At Coast Citrus, the employees are eligible to participate in the ESOP after completing 500 hours and/or three months of service. Currently the company is 70 percent employee owned.
Beyster Institute’s Employee Ownership Management Program, 2010
Curriculum material for Beyster Institute’s Employee Ownership Management Program, a seminar presented at the Rady School, UCSD.
Vermont Employee Ownership Center
The Vermont Employee Ownership Center works to promote and foster employee ownership of Vermont businesses. We provide information and resources to owners interested in selling their business to their employees, employee groups interested in purchasing a business, and entrepreneurs who wish to start up a company with broadly shared ownership.
Center for Economic and Social Justice
The Center for Economic and Social Justice is a non-profit, non-partisan education and research organization dedicated to promoting economic justice on a global scale by expanding capital ownership to a broader segment of society.
Building a System of Trust: Ten Hidden Secrets of Success in Employee-Owned Companies
The great potential of employee ownership to improve business performance lies in its capacity to bring people together to work as a team toward shared success.
The Kelso Institute
Louis O. Kelso (1913-91) was a political economist in the classical tradition of Smith, Marx and Keynes. He was also a corporate and financial lawyer, author, lecturer and merchant banker who is chiefly remembered today as the inventor and pioneer of the Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), the prototype of the leveraged buy-out which Kelso invented to enable working people without savings to buy stock in their employer company and pay for it out of its future dividend yield.
Employee Ownership as Creative Capitalism
Employee ownership plans transform a company’s culture, because employees adopt the mentality of owners; they work harder and become more involved in process improvement and cost management, causing their company’s net income to increase at a faster rate.
The Beyster Institute
The Beyster Institute at UC San Diego’s Rady School of Management works to advance the understanding and practice of employee ownership as an effective and responsible business model. We focus on education, research and consulting to promote employee ownership and the creation of effective ownership cultures.
Managing an Employee-Owned Company. It’s Different. It’s Better.
Ask Don about what it’s like to run a company where the employees are stockholders, and he can wax warm and fuzzy.
The National Center for Employee Ownership
The National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) is a private, nonprofit membership and research organization that serves as the leading source of information on employee stock ownership plans, equity compensation plans such as stock options, and ownership culture.
Privately Held Employee Owned Socially Responsible Business, Sustaining Inspiration: The Challenges & Opportunities of Running a Privately Held, Employee Owned, Socially Responsible Business
Kevin Cleary, President and COO of Emeryville, California based Clif Bar & Company, explores how this privately held, employee owned company is also socially responsible. Series: ‘UC Davis Graduate School of Management’s Dean’s Distinguished Speaker Series’