At Fifty by Fifty we’ve been exploring ownership design. Our research has led us to conclude that enterprise design is an important lever of change, the key to building an economy that is both sustainable and equitable. In recent weeks we’ve published several posts exploring this topic.
Mission-led employee-owned firms: Best of the Best
In a new report from Fifty by Fifty, we discuss our research comparing employee-owned mission-driven firms to conventionally owned firms, and to mission-driven firms without employee ownership. The data is clear: mission-led, employee-owned firms are the best of the best. They significantly outscore their counterparts in social and environmental impact. Among the 45 US employee-owned B Corporations our research identified, 37, or 82 percent, were named by B Lab as Best for the World in 2017 or 2018. Read more.
How Ownership Shapes Purpose and Structure
How does ownership design make a difference? We looked at two similar companies, Eileen Fisher and Donna Karan International, to see how their journeys were shaped by their ownership structures. Eileen Fisher chose employee ownership to protect its sustainability mission; Donna Karan sold to investors and eventually lost control of her company. The company became an example of the most exploitative clothing design firms. Read more.
Employee Ownership Reduces Wealth Inequality
New research from the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing examines how the least valued, lowest paid workers benefit from employee ownership. When workers making $25 per hour are able to accumulate more than $200,000 in their retirement accounts, it’s time to take a good look at how we can expand this model, especially in industries employing women and people of color in low-wage jobs. Read more.
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