Brokerage Platform Created by NCEO Allows Investors to Focus on Businesses with Shared Ownership and Inclusive Workplace CulturesT What do Southwest Airlines, Alphabet, and Etsy have in common? All are companies that have some degree of employee shared ownership and high-engagement workplace cultures. These are qualities that the National Center for Employee Ownership (NCEO) uses to determine […]
Continue ReadingScaling Employee Ownership
Historic Federal Law Gives Employee-Owned Businesses Access to SBA Loans
by Steve Dubb As we noted in NPQ [Nonprofit Quarterly] last fall, nearly half of US small business owners are baby boomers, aged 53 to 71. Collectively, they own 2.34 million businesses, employ 24.7 million people, and have combined sales of $5.14 trillion. It is estimated that 80 percent of these businesses lack a plan for what they are going […]
Continue ReadingWith 1 in 6 jobs at Risk, How do We Turn Lemons into Lemonade?
Shoring up against the silver tsunami small business crisis By Alison Lingane As employee ownership (EO) advocates search for effective ways to take EO to new heights, Project Equity in the Bay Area has pioneered a vital new method: begin in a city or region with an inventory analysis of businesses at risk of closure […]
Continue ReadingThe Divine Right of Capital
by Majorie Kelly The Sacred Texts. The Principle of Worldview. In the worldview of corporate financial statements, the aim is to pay stockholders as much as possible, and employees as little as possible. More and more people have the sense today that the economic system is rigged. In fact, according to a Marketplace and Edison poll, […]
Continue ReadingFifty by Fifty Year in Review
Strategies for Getting to 50 Million Employee Owners by 2050 By Marjorie Kelly As we wrap the second year of the Fifty by Fifty project — aimed at getting to 50 million worker owners by 2050 — we’re more convinced than ever that the time is right for strategic interventions to catalyze the employee ownership field to a much larger […]
Continue ReadingScaling Employee Ownership: Policies or Markets?
What comes first, public policies, institutions, or markets changes? By Sarah Stranahan Those of us seeking to advance employee ownership face a bewildering array of legislative initiatives and competing advocacy priorities. At last count, there were at least six Senate bills dealing with employee ownership. They range from Senate Bill 1082, which would create an […]
Continue ReadingInterview with Certified EO
Spreading the word about Employee Ownership by Erin M. Kesler Set to launch on September 5, 2017, Certified EO is a membership organization that seeks to transform the way American businesses see employee ownership. Certification is a proven tool for spreading market innovation. For example, fair trade labels help discerning consumers choose products that meet […]
Continue ReadingEmployee ownership and the next system
The Democracy Collaborative’s Research Director Thomas Hanna and Next System Project Deputy Director Dana Brown sat down with Dr. Joseph Blasi — preeminent expert on employee ownership, Distinguished Professor at Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations, and regular contributor to work around Fifty by Fifty — for a chat about the importance of employee ownership and its role in a larger […]
Continue ReadingWhat do Craft Beer and Solar Have in Common?
By Marjorie Kelly, Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow, The Democracy Collaborative When it comes to identifying low-hanging fruit for companies most ready to convert to employee ownership, the “contagion effect” can be a key strategy. One industry where this phenomenon is well known is craft beer, where the trend is poised to get a boost from […]
Continue ReadingFifty by Fifty: Taking Employee Ownership to Scale
by Jessica Rose Jessica Bonanno, Director of Employee Ownership Programs, The Democracy Collaborative and Marjorie Kelly, Executive Vice President and Senior Fellow, The Democracy Collaborative The moment is right for employee business ownership to go to scale. The models are tested and proven, the increasing struggles of American families makes the need apparent, and the […]
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