Building Community at Terra Nova Consulting
This case describes the challenges faced by the president of an engineering and environmental services consulting firm (Terra Nova Consulting) as it seeks to address deep internal cultural divisions…
SRC Holdings: Winning The Game While Sharing The Prize
SRC Holdings Corporation, formerly Springfield Remanufacturing Corp., is a well-known manufacturing enterprise comprised of numerous companies spread across 12 Business Units…
Ethics Make Us Better
Recently, I read that Dennis Kozlowski, former CEO of TYCO who has been in prison for more than six years for stealing from his former employer is eligible for parole in 2014. Kozlowski had asked the parole board for mercy (early release), which was denied. While he is serving this sentence because of criminal acts, it raised again for me the importance of practicing ethics in business and in life. I’m also reminded that being an employee-owner/owned company doesn’t make us immune to ethical problems.
ESOP and 401(k) Coordination Tips in a Post-Disclosure World
After several postponements, 401(k) fee disclosure was mandated by the Department of Labor (DOL) before July 1st of 2012. So what kind of impact have we seen in the ESOP world? Has it been successful in helping plan sponsors and participants understand the costs of their 401(k) plans?
Wunnerful, Wunnerful! The Lawrence Welk ESOP
In 1964, the famous television bandleader Lawrence Welk went for a drive in the country north of San Diego, Calif. planning to invest in a grove of orange trees. Instead he bought a motel and a nine-hole golf course. One of the keys to their business success has been their philosophy of treating their employees like family…
Can Employee-Owned Companies Reboot the Economy?
If owners of businesses are reaping the rewards of economic growth at the expense of workers, then why not just try to increase the number of workers who also own a piece of the firms that employ them?
Zingerman’s Community of Businesses: Broad-Based Ownership, Governance, & Sustainability
Inc. Magazine’s “coolest small company in America,” Zingerman’s Community of Businesses (ZCoB), is an exemplar positive organization known for its culture and award-winning food. This case covers the ZCoB’s decision in 2013 to migrate toward broad-based employee ownership and the iterative, inclusive process by which Zingerman’s Partners Group researched and crafted a new ownership design … Read More
The End of Illth: In Search of an Economy That Won’t Kill Us
In the wake of the 2010 Massey mining disaster in West Virginia, the author asks whether employee ownership could improve workplace safety, and how such cooperatives might serve as a model for an alternative form of capitalism based on the sustainable use of natural and human resources.
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…
MBC Ventures, Inc.: An Employee Stock Ownership Plan With a Union Partner
In an unusual partnership, the United Steelworkers of America union helped the firm’s new owner-managers convert to an ESOP as part of a reorganization. This effort saved jobs and the company. Since that time, the firm’s employees have proven to be its most valuable asset and a key source of its competitive advantage…
Employee Ownership 105: Sustaining Employee Ownership: Factors That Affect Its Effect and Its Future
After completing the course, students will have an understanding of the factors that affect the long and short term lifespan of an employee owned company.
Employee Ownership 106: A Culture of Ownership: What Is It, and How Is It Implemented in Modern Business?
After completing the course, students will have an understanding of the numerous techniques of information sharing and participative management which seem to define an ownership culture.
Employee Ownership 101: The Foundation of Employee Ownership: A Brief History
Employee Ownership 101 is designed as a concept exploration two unit elective course. After completing the course, students will have an understanding of the role of private capital in the development of wealth and the evolution of private capital from its earliest forms to our modern capitalist system.
Employee Ownership 102: Theories of Employee Ownership: A Look at Underpinnings and Ideas
After completing the course, students will have an understanding of the philosophical and theoretical bases for broadening access to capital among wider ranges of the population as a way of strengthening the capitalist model.
Employee Ownership 103: Business Planning, Financing, Law and Taxation in Equity Ownership
After completing the course, students will have the capacity to understand and evaluate the various tools and techniques available under current law and practice for applying corporate equity as a compensation and motivation vehicle for employees as well as a tax and cost effective vehicle for assisting in business succession and capital expansion.
Employee Ownership 104: Broad-based Ownership and Governance: Who’s Running This Company Anyway?
After completing the course, students will have an understanding of the governance structures that control modern corporations, the relationship between ownership of equity of a corporation and its control.
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…
Mini Film from We the Owners: Employees Expanding the American Dream
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: Leading Change at Desjardins
Monique Leroux led a major transformation, overcoming resistance, at a large Canadian financial cooperative based in Quebec that competed with top Canadian banks…
Collaboration That Goes beyond Co-Op-Eration: It’s Not Just ‘‘If’’ but ‘‘How’’ Sharing Occurs That Makes the Difference
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.
Employee Ownership, Incentives and Environmental Sustainability
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…
Start-ups and Compensating Employees with Equity
Before running off and launching a start-up business, one of the most important things an entrepreneur must think through is how to best handle equity in the company…
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…
Shift Change: Putting Democracy to Work
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.
Broad-Based Equity Compensation, Employee Turnover, and Unit Performance
This study, which consists of two essays, examines the performance effects of a deferred equity plan on both individual employee and business unit outcomes. The first essay investigates the effects of deferred compensation plan characteristics on voluntary turnover decisions, using detailed data on store-level employees of a large retail firm. Overall, I find that employees … Read More