Looking for Mr. GoodTrustee
The purpose of this brief article is to suggest an interview script that reflects a list of areas that an ESOP company should want to understand completely before handing over this extremely important role to an outsider…
Succession at Berrett-Koehler Publishers: Institutionalizing the “BK Way” and Protecting BK Values for Future Success
The Berrett-Koehler (BK) case highlights the efforts of a competitively successful, mission-driven, socially responsible publishing company to preserve its values, culture and practices while ensuring continued future success. The case provides an opportunity to cover corporate governance topics such as: ownership structures, shareholder relations, CEO and organizational succession planning, and board roles and responsibilities.
Employee Ownership and Governance: The Carris Companies Making Change Impacting the Whole
William H. (Bill) Carris set a deliberate purposeful course for the whole system change that he deeply desired for his employees. The Carris transformation, innovative in its own right, provides examples of change from being traditionally owned, managed and governed to having shared ownership, participatory management and shared governance by the whole…
Critical Mass Radio Show Featuring Keith Molchan and Martin Staubus
This Critical Mass Radio Show discusses why, when and how business owners should choose the ESOP path as the correct succession strategy…
The Fiduciary Trustee’s Role in ESOP Governance
In this issue, we close the loop on the triangular governance structure that supports ESOP companies and discuss the role of the ESOP itself as reflected in the duties and functions of the ESOP fiduciary (the trustee).
The Benefits of Outside Directors in ESOP Companies
Selling a business to an ESOP often requires significant changes to the company’s governance structure. If your board of directors has consisted solely of family members, or close friends, you may not welcome this change, but outside directors can help you run the business more judiciously and effectively…
ESOP Governance Collaborators: The Board of Directors
Many closely held company boards only meet in the virtual world of corporate counsel’s template minutes and perform their important functions without much more thought than what is required to make a signature. In ESOP-owned companies (or any structure that provides for broad ownership among employees of the company) the landscape changes, and the independent role of the board of directors as well as its oversight function become significantly more important.
Employee Ownership: A Theoretical and Empirical Investigation of Management Entrenchment vs. Reward Management
Employee ownership is often used not only as a reward management tool but also as an entrenchment mechanism. The literature suggests that good managers use employee ownership as a reward management tool, whereas bad managers implement it for entrenchment, thus suggesting the existence of an equilibrium level of employee ownership. The contributions of this paper … Read More
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 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.
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.
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.”
In Search of Employee Ownership Plans in Mexico
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….
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.
Re-booting Capitalism: The Action Agenda for Business
Capitalism is living in interesting times. Politicians, academics and activists around the world are debating the merits of the capitalist system, and how and if it could be improved…
Open Systems: Applying Diverse Employee Ownership Theories to Address Today’s Complex Challenges
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.
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.
Client Profile: Flexpak Corporation
Flexpak Corporation, has been a leader in providing thermoforming and packaging services to its clients for many years. The employee-owned company, founded in 1974 by Donald Bond is headquartered a few minutes from downtown Phoenix, Ariz.
Reimagining Capitalism
This special edition of The Nation brings together a wide range of articles on new ways to shape capitalism, and to work on economic recovery.
Bank Employee Incentives and Stock Purchase Plans Participation
We investigate which factors influence 44,649 employees’ decision to invest in a top retail banking group in France. We have two objectives: (i) to explore factors associated with the amount invested in the plan, and (ii) to explore whether these factors have same associations with the probability of investing more than the incentive pay i.e. … Read More