EMPLOYEE OWNERSHIP
COREY ROSEN
Employee ownership is a powerful way for business leaders to create a more just economy. From employee stock ownership at EILEEN FISHER to 100% employee
"Employee ownership is a means to harness the market to provide for greater equity, in the literal and fairness sense, for everyday employees."
COREY ROSEN |
ownership at King Arthur Flour, smart companies are embracing this practice for the values it represents and the added benefit of increased productivity.
The National Center for Employee Ownership, founded by Corey Rosen in 1980, helps encourage more companies to explore employee ownership by providing accurate, unbiased information and research on ESOP's, equity compensation plans such as stock options, and ownership culture. As a U.S. Senate staffer in the 1970's, Rosen helped draft legislation on ESOP's at a time when very few companies even knew what an ESOP was.
Successful clothing designer and entrepreneur Eileen Fisher developed a successful ESOP that put nearly a third of the company in the hands of her 624 employees. King Arthur Flour—America’s oldest flour company—has benefited enormously from employee ownership.
In 1996, owners Frank and Brinna Sands were looking at how best to propagate the company for the next 200 years. Seeing their employees as family and wanting to give something back to them, the Sands began to transition to an ESOP structure under the leadership of CEO Steve Voigt. In the ten years since, King Arthur Flour—now 100% employee-owned—has grown from 60 to nearly 200 employees and generates $55 million in annual sales. Voigt attributes much of this growth to the entrepreneurial employee-ownership culture.
Rosen believes employee ownership has the capacity to create drastic change in the way wealth is distributed. "Around the world, the gap between rich and poor has become increasingly wide," he says. "Employee ownership is a means to harness the market to provide for greater equity, in the literal and fairness sense, for everyday employees." Today, 25 million employees are owners in the companies they work for, including SVN member organizations like VATEX and Mal Warwick Associates.
Idea 9: FAMILY-FRIENDLY WORKPLACE →
