- 26 Sep 2015 11:12
#14603760
I fear the situation is much more complicated than that.
A true "co-op" is almost always created to be a kind of collective endeavor with an internal, not an external, focus. Co-ops of farmers who combine their grains for storage and sale, for example, or co-ops of foodies who band together to reduce their food costs by buying in bulk, or co-op day care centers that cater to working folks. In the latter two cases, volunteerism is the rule, while in the first case co-ops are often run by professionals who are accountable to the "owners".
Employee ownership is quite different, and is invariably professionally run. Here's a list of the top ones: https://www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-100. Note how small they all are. None has more than 200,000 employees, and only one has more than 30,000. In almost all cases again, the "ownership" isn't a happy band of employees who all back-slap one another at yearly meetings, but ESOPs. Few are entirely employee-owned. The model just isn't workable for large companies, and isn't even workable for many smaller ones.
Note as well that few of these are pre-eminent in their fields. Being a "part-owner" is satisfying, but it's no guarantor of success, financial or otherwise.
bug wrote:But in a cooperative the "succes" is not private, thats the whole point of it.
I didnt knew the football team was a coop, gonna research it, thnks
I fear the situation is much more complicated than that.
A true "co-op" is almost always created to be a kind of collective endeavor with an internal, not an external, focus. Co-ops of farmers who combine their grains for storage and sale, for example, or co-ops of foodies who band together to reduce their food costs by buying in bulk, or co-op day care centers that cater to working folks. In the latter two cases, volunteerism is the rule, while in the first case co-ops are often run by professionals who are accountable to the "owners".
Employee ownership is quite different, and is invariably professionally run. Here's a list of the top ones: https://www.nceo.org/articles/employee-ownership-100. Note how small they all are. None has more than 200,000 employees, and only one has more than 30,000. In almost all cases again, the "ownership" isn't a happy band of employees who all back-slap one another at yearly meetings, but ESOPs. Few are entirely employee-owned. The model just isn't workable for large companies, and isn't even workable for many smaller ones.
Note as well that few of these are pre-eminent in their fields. Being a "part-owner" is satisfying, but it's no guarantor of success, financial or otherwise.