employee shareholding

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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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

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. 

Tullis Russell and Inveresk - the difference in ownership.

Yesterday, I met with Eileen Jarrett who chairs the Employee Ownership Board at Tullis Russell Papermakers based in Fife, Scotland.  She was telling me that despite the challenges currently facing the paper industry, Tullis Russell continues to hold its own. 
 

Employee Ownership: better for business, individuals and society.

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

Employee owned businesses: at least as good if not better. The evidence.

Yesterday, John Lewis Partnership, the UK's largest employee owned firm, published a report based on research by CASS Business School.  The report looks at whether employee owned businesses deliver sustainable performance.  The research presents considerable evidence to support the claim that employee owned businesses are better for individual employees, do better business, and make a more valuable contribution to society.  You can read the report in full

Why employee owned businesses are better equipped to cope with recession

I attended a very interesting and stimulating event today which was arranged jointly by the Employee Ownership Association and John Lewis Partnership.  The line up of speakers was impressive - Will Davies (Reinventing the Firm), Richard Wilkinson (Spirit Level)  , Philip Blond (Respublica), Charlie Mayfield (Chairman John Lewis) Prof Joseph Lampel (CASS business school) and John Kay (Financial Times).  The purpose of the event was the launch of a new report by CASS Business School which examined the growth of employee owned firms.  More of that later when I get a chance to digest the report an

Co ownership; driving success in the public sector

On Monday, Gordon Brown kept mutuals and employee ownership as a key election issue with a commitment to put co-operatives at the heart of the Labour manifesto.

People - the best assets?

Tragic announcements yesterday about the massive job losses from Astrazeneca and Babcock, together with the anticipated losses following the Cadbury takeover really call into question how much we value labour.

The Scourge of Inequality

A small glimmer of good news is quickly extinguished by the bad.  We heard yesterday that the UK is officially out of recession.  Today we hear that the gap between the rich and poor is at its widest since World War II.  Why don't we learn?  This isn't bad news just for those unfortunate enough to be at the "have-not" end of the spectrum - it's bad news for us all.

I've been reading Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett's book "Spirit Level" which details why inequality impacts on all aspects of society: crime, physical and mental health, education, teenage pregnancy, etc.  It's a well written