Blog

Baxendale explores the world of employee ownership, examines current thinking, best practice, success stories and latest developments within the sector.

Baxi Partnership to mentor public service mutuals

It was announced today that Baxi Partnership Ltd, Baxendale's parent company, has been selected to mentor and advise the 12 "trailblazer"public services looking to put more control into how these services are delivered into the hands of the employees that work in them.

12th August 2010Read More »

Cameron's "Big Society" - Power to the people or passing the buck?

In a much heralded speech yesterday, David Cameron told us more about the "Big Society" and how this would change the nature of how public services will be delivered to the citizens of the UK. The aim was to "create communities with oomph" which would redistribute power from the Whitehall mandarins to the "man and woman in the street". It sounds great - very radical and quite "un-conservative". But what does it really mean?

20th July 2010Read More »

Creating an employee owned company - and changing the face of health care

How do you create a great employee owned company? Most companies in employee ownership start off in more traditional structures, then transfer to an employee owned model for reasons of business succession, or owner vision. One company proves that starting from scratch can produce superb results. At the recent Leadership Course run by Baxendale at Oxford University, Ali Parsa, Chief Executive and Founder of Circle Health, talked of his passion to

23rd June 2010Read More »

The Unions and Co-Ownership

The debates and discussion regarding who governs the UK continue, and as yet we still do not know who will be running the country. My intention was to provide an analysis of the winning party's track record and stated commitment to furthering the cause of employee ownership, but it's not likely that we will have that soon. The three main UK parties are all committed to increasing coownership, in both the public and private sector, and this commitment appears sincere, driven by recognition that when organisations are run and controlled by those within them, they are more successful and sustai

11th May 2010Read More »

The dangers of cosmetic mutualism

There was an excellent meeting held in Birmingham yesterday, which brought together a number of individuals interested in promoting coownership within our public services. It is a hot election topic right now, garnering support from all of the main political parties. However, there is a fear within the sector of what form this might take. As Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-ops UK, said at yesterday's meeting "Co-ops are cool" but there is a danger that the politicians jump on mutualism as a vote winner, and then go for the quick fix with a rushed implementation.

The meeting was unanimo

27th April 2010Read More »

Which party for employee ownership?

The media, both traditional and social, is buzzing with opinions on which party leader came out best in last night's debate. There is a magnetic pull, but we are in danger of being drawn to vote for the personality, with the best presentation skills rather than voting for the policies which will deliver a better, fairer society. Which party is really supporting employee ownership?

Employee ownership is one issue that enjoys cross party support. It is difficult to see the negatives.

23rd April 2010Read More »

Why Employee Ownership? Sutcliffe Play's former owner explains why

Robin Sutcliffe sent me the transcript of last Wednesday's "Canteen Talk" he delivered to the company's employees to mark their employee buy-out. I found it very inspirational and moving, and I'm delighted to have his permission to reproduce it here:

"This is the culmination of a dream that I have had since I was seventeen and possibly earlier, it is truly the beginning of the end of my life’s work.

19th April 2010Read More »

Sutcliffe Play now owned by its employees!

Last week, Robin Sutcliffe, founder and owner of Yorkshire based Sutcliffe Play, realised a dream. His dream was that the company he created would one day be owned by its employees. As of Friday last week, the employees of Sutcliffe Play own the company in which they work.

14th April 2010Read More »