social enterprises

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

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

Employee owned businesses deserve great leaders

Baxendale are delighted to announce the launch of a leadership programme, specifically designed for leaders in employee owned businesses.  This is very much a joint venture with Kellogg College's Centre for Mutual and Employee Owned Business based at Oxford University.  Details of the programme can be found here

Leadership is tremendously important in companies owned by their employees.  Indeed, if you look around the employee-owned community, there is a wealth of excellent leaders; Ali Parsa at Circle Health, Chris Parr at Tullis Russell,

Employee ownership offers significant economic and social benefits

There was an excellent turnout at what was a very stimulating event in Glasgow on Friday last.  The event was a business breakfast and the topic was employee ownership.  Sarah Deas, Chief Executive of Co-operative Development Scotland and one of the key drivers of the current wave of interest in employee ownership in Scotland, explained why Scottish Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise were actively promoting the business model.  The fact is employee ownership provides a stable, successful and sustainable business model which keeps jobs, skills and money in the economy.

Chris Par

The winning case for employee ownership

The case is closed and the argument that employee ownership is better for business has been won.  That was the message from last night's launch of a new report looking at research to date on employee ownership.  You can read the full report here.

The key findings are that

• Greater employee ownership could bring economic and social benefits to both the private and public sectors in the UK.
• Employee ownership improves employee engagement, innovation, sustainability and productivity

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Five reasons business owners choose employee ownership

I was very surprised at the first sentence in this article.

The Many Forms of Co - Ownership

It is great that co-ownership models are achieving such a high profile at the moment.  There are many reasons behind the attractiveness of the co-owned model for both public and private sectors.  The financial crisis, stemming largely from the fixation with short term rewards at the expense of long term prosperity has created dissatisfaction with the PLC and banking models, which are owned and controlled largely by external shareholders, whose interests are not aligned with the other business stakeholders.  In many areas of the public sector, morale is low because of perceived unfairness, inad

Co ownership in Sport - More Power to the Supporters

I had an interesting day yesterday at the Centre for Mutual and Employee-Owned Business which is based at Kellogg College, Oxford.

Employee Ownership of public services - A Success Story

Co ownership is fast becoming a hot issue in the forthcoming election.  As the parties argue over who thought of it first, what the model will be, whether the focus should be on public sector, private sector or both, they cynics are saying it can't work.  How can people run their own company, become truly involved in the strategy and direction of the business, and have real accountability in their leaders?  How can that work in the public service sector?

One company achieves all these as well as delivering an excellent service to its service users, and provides a great place to work. 

Employee Ownership: better for business, individuals and society.

Why pursuit of shareholder value is bad for business, for individuals and for society.