After hearing so much about how employee stock ownership plans (ESOP) and other ownership plans in the U.S. transform companies, it seemed logical to think that other countries, like Mexico, should have similar incentive plans in place. This assumption, however, turned out to be incorrect….
We the Owners: Employees Expanding the American Dream is a documentary from the Foundation for Enterprise Development that follows three companies of different sizes in different industries and regions (New Belgium Brewing, Namaste Solar, and DPR Construction) that use employee ownership in diverse ways (an ESOP, a worker cooperative, and a phantom stock plan respectively). … Read More
Monique Leroux led a major transformation, overcoming resistance, at a large Canadian financial cooperative based in Quebec that competed with top Canadian banks…
Equal Exchange is a cooperative organization that taps into the full capacities of everyone involved in a socially responsible way. This article describes how it has used the wisdom of its multiple stakeholders to create a collaborative community, to be profitable, and to have significant positive impact on people’s lives and the environment in approximately 20 countries.
This note discusses the complex topic of motivation, including the issue of contingent compensation…
It is by now common for large corporations to employ several sustainability officers, occasionally in high-ranking positions. A less frequently used tool – employee ownership – may prove a more powerful sustainability over the long term…
Ten top tips for getting the most value from a 360-degree leadership assessment.
This film tells the little known stories of employee-owned businesses that compete successfully in today’s economy while providing secure, dignified jobs in democratic workplaces. The film highlights examples including Mondragon in the Basque Country in Spain and the Evergreen Cooperatives in Cleveland, Ohio, as well as smaller businesses including coffee shops and bakeries.
This case study describes Huawei, a Chinese telecommunications equipment company, which heavily utilizes ESOP ownership, and applies Huawei’s results to describe ESOPs as a powerful tool for achieving corporate efficiency and growth.
Why is Southwest so uniquely able to succeed where others can’t? The thing that makes Southwest employees a powerful force for success is that they are autonomous workers working toward a common goal…
Cecil Ursprung, the former CEO of Reflexite Corporation, once described his ideal organizational culture as being a permanent ‘state of mild dissatisfaction.’ You may not agree with the word ‘dissatisfaction,’ but I expect you would agree that innovation flourishes when employee owners are constantly seeking ways to improve the company and that happens when employees are not satisfied with the status quo. Creative energy flows when people refuse to walk away from situations that are ‘good enough.”
This review took evidence from a wide range of sources, covering, in particular, employee owned companies, sector representatives, professional advisers and employer and employee groups. The broad categories of obstacles to employee ownership were soon identified, and were continually reinforced as this review proceeded. They fall into the following three categories: a lack of awareness … Read More
Any business owner who evaluates their succession options without investigating the concept of an employee stock ownership plan will be making a mistake. What is an ESOP, and how does it work?
If undertaken nationwide, initiatives to support employee ownership at the state level could dramatically improve not only the welfare of prospective employee owners, but also revitalize an important source of U.S. firms’ competitive advantage in the global marketplace…
Communication benefits the employee-ownership plan of a company in many ways. A well-communicated plan and a well-planned communication campaign are much more likely to accomplish your objectives…
Dini Partners, Inc. became an S-Corporation as of Jan. 1, 2012. ‘It was clearly a way to define an ownership transition. The ESOP provided a path to an orderly transition of ownership. Also, as some of our senior members of the staff transition into retirement, we needed a vehicle to incentivize the younger, talented professionals to have a long-term stake in the firm.’
The California Center for Employee Ownership provides information and resources to promote a better understanding of employee ownership in California.
It is time to make the case that employee ownership is a solution to a lot of what is wrong with our country, and we need to continue to promote the concept until we have 30,000 or 40,000 employee-owned companies rather than the static 10,000 we have had for the last decade or more. If we can do that, we will have put a large part of the country on a much stronger footing, and moved toward solving some fundamental economic and social problems…
Designed for undergraduate students, Democratic Enterprise provides an open access, introductory-level analysis of democratic models of enterprise, namely co-operatives and employee-owned businesses.
Sundt had its share of ups and downs, but in 1992 when J. Doug Pruitt took over as the company’s COO, the company was headed toward bankruptcy. Today, the 100 percent ESOP-owned company operates out of eight offices located in Arizona, California, Texas, and North Carolina, and works on large construction projects in both the public and private sectors…
Integrating art, business and education, this documentary film captures inspiring stories of employees and founders from three companies, each structured with distinct forms of broad-based employee ownership, who share an insider’s view of shared wealth and responsibility, high involvement culture, and their approaches and challenges in creating opportunity and prosperity through ownership.
CMC Rescue became 92 percent employee owned in 2011. Jim came to the realization that employee ownership could realistically be the only way to assure continuation of CMC with its current operations and employees…
The ideas of employee ownership and various forms of profit sharing in corporations have been around for a long time. The shorthand proposition under study is this: If employees observe that they have a meaningful stake in the fortunes of the enterprise, they create value. More specifically, if they have a financial and emotional stake in the performance of the venture, then as individuals and as a workplace community they will raise the level of their performance and productivity.
This presentation and accompanying worksheet discuss ways to clarify and refine your company’s value proposition, for both employee owned and other firms. It outlines ways to position your brand both internally and externally, gives examples of existing company approaches, and focuses on customer collaboration, strategic growth, and customer development.
While the U.S. manufacturing sector has shrunk over the past 30 years, the fully worker-owned Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing (IEM) cooperative has thrived in the automated manufacturing industry.