Change Management: Getting Employees on Board
Change initiatives are notorious for their failure rate…
Best Practice in Developing Best Practice
Best practice is to remember that and to never stop watching outcomes so that you can adjust your process to stay on course no matter how often the course needs to change.
Trust in the Digital Age
Trust in all organizations is a key to cultural cohesiveness and teamwork…
Three ESOP Myths, Debunked
One argument against employee stock ownership plans is that they invest primarily in a single asset, company stock, which puts too many eggs in one basket. That argument makes sense in theory, but in practice it does not apply to the vast majority of ESOPs for three reasons…
Doing Well and Doing Good: Pioneer Employers Discover Profits and Deliver Opportunity for Frontline Workers
A new study of business practices reveals powerful ways to create strategic and financial gains. Lower-wage workers, when supported by effective policies, boost productivity, quality, innovation, and revenues from new markets…
The Role of the Board in Employee-Ownership Governance
One of the common misconceptions about employee stock ownership plan companies among the general public is that they are inefficient…
Take-Aways on Employee Ownership from the Other Side of the Pond
Take-aways from an international tour featuring the documentary film, “We the Owners: Employees Expanding the American Dream.”
Overcoming Short-Termism within British Business: The Key to Sustained Economic Growth
This Review looks at ‘short-termism’ within British business: the pressure to focus on short-term results to the possible detriment of the long-term health of a company, or even a whole industry. The investigation confirmed that short-termism constrains the ambition of UK business, holding back its development and inhibiting economic growth…
The Economy: Under New Ownership
To make an economy that serves us, we need to own the jobs and the businesses—together. How cooperatives are leading the way to empowered workers and healthy communities…
Employee Stock Ownership Plans and Their Effect on Productivity: The Case of Huawei
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.
The Age of Autonomy
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…
Somewhere Between Complacency and Fear
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.”
Owning Our Future: The Emerging Ownership Revolution
Looking around at the wreckage left in the wake of the world economy’s latest crisis, veteran business journalist Marjorie Kelly noticed that some institutions were left relatively unscathed. What did they have in common? The key, Kelly realized, is seemingly obscure: ownership. Prominent among the survivors were organizations that combined the flexibility of traditional private ownership with a focus on the common good…
California Center for Employee Ownership (CCEO)
The California Center for Employee Ownership provides information and resources to promote a better understanding of employee ownership in California.
Democratic Enterprise: Ethical Business for the 21st Century
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.
Employee Ownership Companies on the Hunt – Acquisitions by ESOP Companies
With ESOPs now formed almost entirely at very healthy companies – and many of those enjoying the unique cash flow benefits of operating as ESOP-owned S corporations – a growing number of these companies have become the predators of the M&A jungle…
Worker Cooperative Case Study: Isthmus Engineering & Manufacturing
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.
Let’s Deal with Sustainability Once and for All
I think the reason we are still undecided about the sustainability of the employee-ownership model is simply that there are still significant numbers of business leaders (and, more importantly, business advisors) for whom the idea that allowing employees to earn capital as well as salary and benefits just sounds wrong.
Client Profile: n-Link Corporation
n-Link Founder Sandra Green explains that in the early days she wasn’t exactly certain what employee ownership entailed but knew intrinsically that it was a good thing for the company and the employees.
Sustaining Employee Ownership for the Long Term: The Challenge of the Mature ESOP Company
What do veteran ESOP companies have much to teach us about what it takes to sustain employee ownership over the long term?
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.
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
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
Employee Ownership: A Topic for the Entrepreneurship Curriculum
This Teaching module shows four areas in the entrepreneurship curriculum where teaching about employee ownership can 1) put a needed spotlight on this widespread and useful practice and 2) add conceptual value and rich examples for the course topics being taught…
When Workers Take Charge
It’s a unique model – the worker-owned business. Some say it sounds like socialism, but these six companies say it’s helped them tough out the recession.