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.
The Citizen’s Share: Reducing Inequality in the 21st Century
The idea of workers owning the businesses where they work is not new. In America’s early years, Washington, Adams, Jefferson, and Madison believed that the best economic plan for the Republic was for citizens to have some ownership stake in the land, which was the main form of productive capital. This book traces the development of that share idea in American history and brings its message to today’s economy, where business capital has replaced land as the source of wealth creation.
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.
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…
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.
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.
Amul Dairy
How could the managing director maintain the firm’s cooperative structure, address the nutritional needs of all Indians, make use of emerging technology, and navigate the country’s dairy policies in the coming years?
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….
How Entrepreneurs Get Motivated
In order to better understand what inspires employees in the workplace, three entrepreneurs share what motivates them to get in the office everyday and put in those long hours to turn their dreams into reality…
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.
Note on Motivation
This note discusses the complex topic of motivation, including the issue of contingent compensation…