Ronald J. Gilbert, President of ESOP Services, Inc,. discusses the leveraged Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP), highlighting the mechanics, advantages, and financing sources. ESOP Services, Inc.’s professionals are experienced in preliminary analysis, plan and financial transaction design, implementation, financing, ESOP termination and litigation support.
As the baby boom approaches retirement, prospects for employee ownership are ramping up…
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…
Mid-Missouri Energy is a farmer-owned cooperative created to take advantage of the growing interest in ethanol as an automotive fuel.
This technical note explains how agricultural cooperatives are structured and financed, as well as how they form partnerships with one another and other elements of the food system.
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, 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.
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.
The way the McElhanney Group is organized has helped foster a positive, profitable culture. Forty per cent of the key staff, around 320 staff members, own 100 per cent of the shares. Mr. Newcomb says this drives the success of the company collectively.
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.
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
Protegra is a small company established in 1998 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. The company specializes in the area of computer software development and business performance consulting. Protegra features a unique organizational design, characterized by a lack of hierarchy and a collegial, professional culture centred on employee and customer values. Various information systems support Protegra’s design. In the process of expanding into foreign markets and enlarging staff, Protegra has been concerned with preserving its way.
The ESOP – Employee Stock Ownership Plan – is, slowly, on the rise. These worker-owned businesses are more productive and could benefit the American economy.
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.
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
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’
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.
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.
Curriculum material for Beyster Institute’s Employee Ownership Management Program, a seminar presented at the Rady School, UCSD.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.