Ownership Does Matter, Period
The year is down to its last weeks and that brings the inevitable preparations and planning for 2012. The year has been an interesting one for us at Winds of Peace Foundation, as we have continued to work with the very poor in Nicaragua in helping to establish sustainable economic activity for their livelihoods. Of course, development comes in a great many forms and initiatives, but the sustainability dimension has been an important one for us, and for the Nicaraguans especially. Of particular note has been our work with cooperatives, many of which are coffee producers, and the relatively unique research and collaborative efforts which we have been able to forge across the many levels of participation in the coffee chain. The process has been exciting (because we can see results), scary (because it’s exploring new alliances and innovations) and frustrating (because we can’t involve every entity that should be). But it has also been an epiphany as I have been able to affirm the reality of ownership as a universal human need. The Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) community has got it right, and the U.S. and the rest of the world needs to understand why.
I’m biased, of course. I have been immersed within the ESOP community since 1985, when Foldcraft Co. completed its first ESOP transaction. I “grew up” in employee ownership, managed under employee ownership, spoke around the country on behalf of employees ownership and eventually retired from our ESOP before the Winds of Peace calling came my way. I figured then that I had experienced the realities of employee ownership from stem to stern, from inception to retirement, and that I could adequately talk about it in all of its dimensions to whatever audiences would listen. (I have been privileged to do just that as an ambassador of the Employee Ownership Foundation over the past six years, speaking to business audiences about the realities of employee ownership.) And then, I started working in Nicaragua.
I have written here previously my amazement at the similarities between high-functioning ESOP companies and the cravings of the poor in Nicaragua. (In my very first visit Foundation trip to Nicaragua in 2006, I was informed that holistic thinking, participation and ownership were the key elements for rural poor to address in improving their circumstances. ) Those similarities have continued to impress themselves upon me as I have come to better understand the context of life for the poor in Nicaragua, and have listened to what many there have said about what they need to transform themselves.
As the scope and content of our work has changed during the past six years, cooperatives have come to occupy a bigger role. Often they demonstrate the transparency and involvement which we have always felt to be critical to sustainability. In working with coops we have the opportunity to reach a larger number of people with a given amount of funding. Even the Nicaraguan government cites the importance of the cooperative model of organization, affirming our focus on coops. We have pioneered research of the cooperatives, shared our experiences from working with them, targeted funding toward them and measured the results. Rural cooperatives can and do work when the policies and practices behind them encourage full participation, transparency, and opportunity. Hm, does that sound like anything familiar here in the U.S.?
Employee ownership is not simply a progressive way to think about the transition of a company. Rather, it meets some very fundamental needs of human beings at work and in life. It speaks to the issues of belonging, of being somebody whose work matters, of believing in a reality of self-betterment, of strengthening community in the process. For those of us fortunate enough to work in an employee-owned enterprise, it can be a very rewarding experience, not only financially but emotionally, socially, intellectually, spiritually, occupationally and even physically. For cooperative members in Nicaragua, it can be the very cocoon of transforming life for self and family. In either case, it’s ownership that matters. What a life lesson….
