This draft outlines ideas for discussion at The Future of Equity: Silicon Valley Employee Ownership Symposium, June 28-30, Palo Alto, CA. The objective is not simply to give employees stock to enable them to save for retirement or to incentivize them to work “harder.” It is to create forms of ownership that increase participation, improve […]
Employees owning 3–20% of a public company isn’t a feel‑good fringe idea—it’s one of the most underused tools we have to boost performance and democratize capitalism. Across the best empirical studies of U.S. public firms, small but meaningful employee ownership stakes and broad‑based stock options are associated with higher valuations and, in many cases, better […]
In his recent essay, Capitalism at Its Best: America’s Next 250 Years Starts Now, Martin Whittaker, CEO of JUST Capital, offers a thoughtful, historically grounded, and forward-looking call for stakeholder capitalism. He rightly highlights the fraying social contract at the heart of American economic life, identifies the practical aspirations of working people—security, dignity, purpose—and underscores […]
The Making of a Democratic Economy: How to Build Prosperity for the Many, Not the Few by Marjorie Kelly, Ted Howard, Naomi Klein (Foreword). Buy the book. As Naomi Klein notes in the Forward, We need to know what we are for as well as what we’re against… It’s not enough to imagine that another world is […]
Laura Flanders interviews Christopher Mackin, the founder of Ownership Associates, an advisory firm for broad-based employee ownership based in Cambridge, MA. Mackin is also an Adjunct Lecturer at the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations and a member of the core faculty of the Harvard Trade Union Program based at Harvard Law School. See a previous guest post by Mackin on […]
The BBC reports Activist Ralph Nader wants you to get paid. Apparently, our Take Action: Join Nader’s Penny Brigade didn’t take hold. BBC CAPITAL: This year, you’ve taken steps to get the Penny Brigade idea off the ground. You want 15 to 20 advocates for good company behaviour to provide setting-up costs for a watchdog foundation, right? You […]
The principal-agent conflict is endemic in employer-employee and supervisor-supervisee relationships. KK Fung’s cartoon talks about ownership and being one’s boss… alignment of work and rewards. (more…)
Five years ago in Corporate Governance Whole Foods Market Inc. (WFMI) says federal securities regulators are recommending that no action be taken against the grocery chain over anonymous postings on financial-news Web sites by its chief executive. Mackey’s postings, including many to CorpGov.net publisher James McRitchie, surfaced when they were included among a trove of […]
A new U.S. Senate bill would exclude appraisers of employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) from the U.S. Department of Labor’s new definition of fiduciary. S. 1232 says, Section 3(21)(A) of the Employee Retirement Income…Security Act of 1974 (29 U.S.C. 1002(21)(A)) is amended by inserting ‘and except to the extent a person is providing an appraisal or […]
Thirty years after founding the National Center for Employee Ownership, Corey Rosen plans to retire after the NCEO’s annual conference but also plans to volunteer four days a week. In an interview in Pensions & Investments (ESOP proponent Corey Rosen still dedicated, even in retirement), Rosen predicted retiring baby-boomers will taking advantage of a capital gains […]