ESOP Foundation Blog | ESOP Message

The ESOP Association and the Employee Ownership Foundation Release Results of the 2010 ESOP Company Survey

We wanted to share the following press release which was sent out by The ESOP Association this morning regarding the results of the 2010 ESOP Company Survey. For Immediate Release: August 11, 2010 For More Information: Amy Gwiazdowski, 202/293-2971, amy AT esopassociation.org The ESOP Association and the Employee Ownership Foundation Release Results of the 2010 ESOP Company Survey August 11, 2010 (Washington, DC) – The ESOP Association and the Employee...

ESOPs On the Air In the Air

The next time you find yourself on a plane, plug in to the in-flight radio system. Why? Well, you could find yourself listening to an interview with ESOP Association President, J. Michael Keeling. His interview, which focuses on ESOPs and employee ownership in America, can be heard on American Airlines throughout the month of July, on Delta Airlines in September and October, and on US Airways in September and October. In addition to the in-flight radio program, a small...

ESOP Outreach

Steve Sheppard is a frequent speaker to employee-owned companies and the ESOP community at large on the financial and transformational potential of employee ownership. In partnership with the Employee Ownership Foundation, Steve is scheduling speaking engagements with business leaders and opinion makers who are not aware of the transformational power of employee ownership through an ESOP for employees and companies sponsoring ESOPs. Steve, former CEO of the employee-owned Foldcraft...

Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations Announces 2010-2011 Beyster Fellows

On June 16, 2010, Rutgers University’s School of Management and Labor Relations (SMLR) announced the recipients of the 2010-2011 Beyster Fellowships to support scholars in the field of employee ownership. The annual fellowship program was established with a major gift from J. Robert Beyster and Mary Ann Beyster of La Jolla, Calif., with a grant from the Foundation for Enterprise Development in 2008. The fellowships honor Beyster’s many accomplishments in the area of employee...

Employee Ownership Takes Its Place Among New Ownership Patterns for the 21st Century

Employee-owned firms are more and more being recognized as exemplifying behavior and ownership designs that can set the tone for the 21st century corporation. One powerful example of this is a recent article from Strategy and Business magazine, "Not Just for Profit" (Spring 2009), in which author Marjorie Kelly of Boston's Tellus Institute writes about emerging alternatives to the shareholder-centric model that can help companies avoid ethical mishaps and contribute...

5 Myths About ESOPs

Even in Europe, people seem to recognize that the American media coverage of ESOPs is mostly about failures and not successes. Enron and United are always popular but we don’t hear much about the ESOPs that are thriving. Yes, there are some stories out there that are positive (We try to highlight them here when we can.) but the negative stories tend to out number the positive. We thought we’d put together a list of 5 myths about ESOPs. This is just a start. If...

Going into the arcane…when is employee ownership called employee ownership

On this blog we try to bring to light all thoughts on employee ownership even some that are not directly related to the uniquely American version of the ESOP. Today we’re talking about employee ownership in the European sense. As we know you know, the concept of employee ownership is very different in Europe than in the U.S. We tend to focus more on the ownership concept while in Europe, there is more of a participation idea. The Employee Ownership Foundation...

State Treasurer Mourdock Working to Make ESOPs a Priority in Indiana

The following article originally ran in the March 2010 issue of the ESOP Report, the newsletter of The ESOP Association. Archived issues of the ESOP Report can be found in the members only section of the Association's website. What do Indiana and ESOPs have in common? More than you think. In May 2008, Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock began an innovative program called Indiana’s ESOP Initiative (IEI). The program was created to promote and encourage the...

Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock Honored by The ESOP Association

On January 29, 2010, the Indiana Chapter of The ESOP Association awarded State Treasurer Richard Mourdock with the ESOP Advocacy Award for his work to promote ESOPs in his state. J. Michael Keeling, president of The ESOP Association, Indiana Chapter President, Tracy Woolsey, and Indiana Chapter Immediate Past President, Andy Manchir, presented the award at the Indiana Chapter event. You can read Treasurer Mourdock’s press release about the award here. “It’s...

Spreading the ESOP Message: Peer to Peer

While the Employee Ownership Foundation is involved in numerous projects to share the idea of employee ownership with the non-ESOP world (such as the Steve Sheppard Speaking Tour, the General Social Survey, and Fellowship Programs), we also recognize that ESOP advocates promoting the ESOP message at meetings and conferences of their peer groups is an important, and effective way, to spread the word. Some might call it ESOP “missionary work” with tongue in cheek, but when a lawyer,...

Economic Theories and a Pause for Thought

The Nobel Prize for Economics was recently awarded to two U.S. scholars --- Dr. Elinor Ostrom of Indiana University, Bloomington, and Dr. Oliver E. Williamson, University of California, Berkeley. No, neither of these professors have done research on employee ownership but what we found interesting in reading about their work, in particular Ostrom’s work, is the idea of a common or shared ownership. Ostrom’s work focuses on the commons which is essentially a study...

Winning Workplaces Webinar Executive Learning Series

Winning Workplaces is a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring successful small businesses with great work cultures from across the nation. Each year they manage a national competition with The Wall Street Journal entitled Top Small Workplaces and host monthly webinars featuring these inspiring business leaders who discuss timely business topics. This month they will be featuring King Arthur Flour’s CEO Steve Voigt. Steve is a former Chair of The ESOP Association...

ESOPs and Weird History?

Often we here at The ESOP Association are puzzled by two things. One, comments by some that ESOPs have no problems on Capitol Hill because everyone loves ESOPs. Two, the seemingly never ending criticism of ESOPs based on not so subtle personal degradation of both Dr. Louis Kelso, whose ideas form the basis of leveraged ESOPs, and Senator Russell B. Long, who championed the original ESOP laws, both deceased. Well, the evidence of the cynicism about the motives of Dr. Kelso, and...

Course on Equity Compensation to be Taught at University of California, San Diego

Anthony Mathews, Director of the Beyster Institute at the Rady School of Management, University of California, San Diego, will be teaching the fourth and fifth iterations of an MBA course on employee ownership this summer and fall. The course covers all aspects of equity compensation including employee ownership as we know it. The title of the course - Topics in Corporate Governance: Techniques of Equity Compensation. This is evidence of the growing awareness of employee ownership...

Abolish ESOPs?

That’s what a University of Illinois visiting professor would like to do. In a press release sent out by the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign today, visiting professor Sean Anderson states that ESOPs are the biggest threat to retirement savings and should be banned by Congress. To read the full release, follow this link - http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2009-06/uoia-otm062209.php. This is unfathomable. The 2008 Economic Performance Survey conducted...

An Overview of ESOPs

In June 2008, J. Michael Keeling, president of The ESOP Association and the Association’s affiliated foundation, the Employee Ownership Foundation (the sponsor of this blog), gave a presentation in Granada, Spain to members of Feansal, a Spanish European employee ownership group for Andalusia, Spain. If you would like more information on Feansal, please visit the website at http://www.feansal.es/. Note: the website is in Spanish. The presentation provides a good explanation...

Kelsonian Thoughts

We thought the following might be of some interest to those who think of ESOPs as good public policy. A recent presentation on the New York cable show Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer featured an interview with Louis Kelso, the father of ESOPs and the philosophical policy known as Kelsonian thought. The title of the show is - "Binary Economics as a Potential Gateway to the Economic Liberation of Humanity and Thus the Whole of the Much Wider Biosphere." It...

Too Much Us Versus Them Going On

This President’s Page column by ESOP Association President J. Michael Keeling originally ran in the March 2009 issue of the ESOP Report, the newsletter of The ESOP Association. We are reprinting the column on the blog. As I travel north and south, east and west, there is an attitude among nearly all I speak to that can make our ugly economic situation even uglier. What am I talking about? I am talking about people saying, “It is Wall Street people’s...

Employee Ownership Questions to Candidates for European Union Parliament

The European Federation of Employee Share Ownership (EFES) stated in a recent email to its members that it is asking candidates for the European Union (EU) Parliament to develop an EU employee ownership policy. [The Employee Ownership Foundation, affiliated with The ESOP Association, is a full member of EFES because the 21st Century economy is a global economy.] Such a policy would be in sync with information from several EU Parliamentary reports written by policy committees of the EU...

Mission & Vision OR Why We Do What We Do

Sometimes it pays to repeat ourselves. Our Vision We believe that employee ownership improves American competitiveness…that it increases productivity through greater employee participation in the workplace…that it strengthens our free enterprise economy and creates a broader distribution of wealth…and that it maximizes human potential by enhancing the self-worth, dignity, and well-being of our people. Therefore, we envision an America where employee...

Company to company meetings - How do you get the most out of the experience?

This post is a follow-up to one last week about reaching out to other ESOP companies. We are going to conduct an informal poll here on the blog and we want to know – If you’ve hosted a company to company meeting or have taken part in one through an ESOP Association Chapter event, what made it so special? What did you learn as part of the experience? There are so many ways to share the ESOP experience with other companies and we want to hear from you. We...

Reaching out to other ESOP companies – Do you do it?

One of the great benefits of the AACE Awards (Annual Awards for Communications Excellence, more info here - http://www.esopassociation.org/resources/resources_AACE.asp) is that they provide ideas and examples of communications practices taking place in the ESOP community. Several companies this year included in their entries information about company to company events they held as part of their ongoing communications efforts. They reached out to ESOP companies in their area...

There Is No Silver Bullet

It is human nature to look for the “big” fix, the “settled once and for all time” solution, or as they say in the software world the “killer app.” Advocates for employee ownership through ESOPs are no different. Often people submit to the discussion about how to ensure ESOPs remain favored in law that “if only we had the research, or data, that would prove once and fall that ESOP participants have more retirement income than employees in...

ESOP companies and the community

Last summer The ESOP Association’s magazine, the ESOP Report, focused on ESOP companies and how they are a part of the communities they serve. There were wonderful stories from companies about how the employee owners took chances and became involved in community projects and how they tied the work back to the company and its employee owned status. If you would like to read more, check out The ESOP Association’s website at - http://www.esopassociation.org/. Archived copies...

Employee Ownership and Morale

Times are tough for a lot of companies today and many are making radical changes to make sure they pull through. Programs are being cut back and staff members are being asked to do more with less. During these times, are you doing anything to increase morale? Are there more meetings to let employee owners know what is going on and how decisions are being made? Is management asking for ideas to help make things more efficient during the economic downturn which we seem to...

Future of ESOPs

What does the future hold for ESOPs? A recent issue of the ESOP Report magazine asked readers to share a few insights on the future. Answers were wide ranging and quite thoughtful. Here are a few: With the global economy, business practices are changing fast and companies that have an advantage over their competitors are going to flourish. An ESOP will be a competitive edge. With education of business leaders and owners, we will begin to see more ESOP companies...

Communications Programs

We’ve discussed communications programs before in this space but as a follow up to the AACE Awards posting a few weeks ago, we thought it might be a good time to bring it up again. The AACE Awards recognize the outstanding communications programs of ESOP Association members. (If you would like more information about the program, visit the Association’s website http://www.esopassociation.org/resources/resources_AACE.asp.) Every entry exemplifies the commitment...

Sustainability of ESOP Companies Debate Intensifies

When the oldest ESOP companies were ten years old at best in the mid-80s, or even 15 years old in the early 90s, the word “sustainability” was not in the lexicon of the ESOP community. Beginning about four to five years ago at The ESOP Association’s New England Chapter meetings that were retreats for Board members, or CEOs of New England ESOP companies, several participants were surprised when other business leaders put this topic on the table—why are so many ESOPs...

Does your company advertise that it is employee owned?

For many companies, every day is spent trying to decide how to properly market the company to customers, potential customers, employees, and shareholders. If you’re an employee owned company, does it change they way you describe your company? Does it change your advertising or marketing practices? In 2005, the ESOP Company Survey, which was done jointly by The ESOP Association and the Employee Ownership Foundation, asked companies if they advertise the fact they are employee...

Open Book Management – Does Your Company Practice?

In employee ownership circles, the term Open Book Management (OBM) is often discussed and there are numerous companies that incorporate the practice and theories into their workplaces. The theory behind OBM is that all employees are provided information on the financials so they can and, hopefully, will make better and more informed decisions as workers and in the case of an ESOP company, as owners. The employees are also provided with training so they can properly read and understand...

How Do You Motivate Employee Owners?

The ESOP Association recently released a new video, “Creating a High Performing Company,” and one of the topics discussed in the video is motivational techniques. Some companies offer prizes and gifts, and in the case of one company, a flat screen television for the person who suggested an improvement in a manufacturing process that saved the company money. Some companies recognize the work and contributions of employee owners at meetings, in company newsletters,...

British Parliament to Study Employee Ownership

Why aren’t we doing the same thing? According to the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership, the British Parliament has set up an “All Party Parliamentary Group on Employee Ownership” which will study employee ownership practices in the co-owned business sector. The group defines co-owned businesses as companies which own anything from a substantial minority to a controlling stake in the business. The group is seeking evidence on the following: productive...

Does Your Company Share Financial Information with Employee Owners?

It all comes down to dos and don’ts. Some do it, some don’t. But is there a happy medium? Is it important for employee owners to know the bottom line? Obviously handing a packet of financial information to a person will not help increase his or her interest level nor will it make him or her a more motivated worker. If he of she is like most people, they probably won’t have any idea as to what they are looking at. If a company is planning...

Do You Manage Your Culture?

Every company is different. It is the company and its employee owners that create and define the culture and norms of each particular company. Each culture has its own way and rate of maturing and while some are very organic, others take a bit of coaxing to get them moving. So the question before us is this – Can a culture, an ownership culture especially, be managed and should it be? You’ll probably find many different answers to this question. Many will...

Does Your Company Have a Communications Committee?

Each year the Economic Performance Survey (EPS), which is sponsored by the Employee Ownership Foundation, asks the question - Has your company created any employee participation programs since establishing the ESOP? In 2007, 53% responded no. In the employee ownership community this is a bit of a contentious question and here’s why. Some people strongly believe that in order for true ownership to take place, there needs to be a committee to help disseminate information,...

What’s Important to Your ESOP in 2008?

This time of year is rife with to do lists, and things not to miss in the New Year, so let’s add one more – What would you like to see happen in the ESOP community in 2008? Since we’re throwing out the question, it’s only right for us to start off the list: 1 – A meaningful discussion among members of Congress and the employee ownership community on how the new tax reform bill introduced by Congressman Charles Rangel, H.R. 3970, will hurt ESOPs. 2...

Media and ESOPs

Earlier this year the proposed sale of the Tribune Company to an ESOP set off a hailstorm of media activity. It ran the gamut from praise to suspicion about what an ESOP actually is. It would seem, and we’re sure this is not the first time you’ve heard this, that ESOPs have a love/hate relationship with the media. Each month there are articles discussing the fables of ESOPs, suspicions about tax dodging, and stories of employees losing everything when the company goes...

Employee Ownership Overseas – Greater Participation?

First, before we even begin this discussion, yes, we know that employee ownership schemes in foreign countries do not work as they do here at home. But for the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume they are similar. According to the European Federation of Employee Share Ownership’s (EFES) website, http://www.efesonline.org/, a recent European Commission Study found that 89% of all 2,000 widest European Groups (which encompasses 29 millions employees) have employee...

ESOP Association President Discusses Employee Ownership and ESOPs

J. Michael Keeling, President of The ESOP Association, recently appeared on Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer, a public access cable television series in New York City, to discuss employee ownership in America. Mr. Channer has been hosting Conversations for over 30 years and has interviewed both Dr. Louis O. Kelso and Former Senator Russell Long. For additional information about Conversations with Harold Hudson Channer, visit www.channer.tv. The interview has been...

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

The ESOP Association and the Employee Ownership Foundation Release Results of the 2010 ESOP Company Survey

Thursday, July 22, 2010

ESOPs On the Air In the Air

Wednesday, July 07, 2010

ESOP Outreach

Thursday, June 17, 2010

Rutgers’ School of Management and Labor Relations Announces 2010-2011 Beyster Fellows

Tuesday, June 01, 2010

Employee Ownership Takes Its Place Among New Ownership Patterns for the 21st Century

Friday, May 07, 2010

5 Myths About ESOPs

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Going into the arcane…when is employee ownership called employee ownership

Wednesday, April 07, 2010

State Treasurer Mourdock Working to Make ESOPs a Priority in Indiana

Thursday, March 18, 2010

Indiana State Treasurer Richard Mourdock Honored by The ESOP Association

Friday, December 18, 2009

Spreading the ESOP Message: Peer to Peer

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Economic Theories and a Pause for Thought

Thursday, September 10, 2009

Winning Workplaces Webinar Executive Learning Series

Friday, July 10, 2009

ESOPs and Weird History?

Friday, June 26, 2009

Course on Equity Compensation to be Taught at University of California, San Diego

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Abolish ESOPs?

Thursday, May 14, 2009

An Overview of ESOPs

Tuesday, May 12, 2009

Kelsonian Thoughts

Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Too Much Us Versus Them Going On

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Employee Ownership Questions to Candidates for European Union Parliament

Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Mission & Vision OR Why We Do What We Do

Thursday, December 11, 2008

Company to company meetings - How do you get the most out of the experience?

Wednesday, December 03, 2008

Reaching out to other ESOP companies – Do you do it?

Wednesday, October 08, 2008

There Is No Silver Bullet

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

ESOP companies and the community

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

Employee Ownership and Morale

Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Future of ESOPs

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Communications Programs

Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Sustainability of ESOP Companies Debate Intensifies

Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Does your company advertise that it is employee owned?

Thursday, March 13, 2008

Open Book Management – Does Your Company Practice?

Tuesday, March 04, 2008

How Do You Motivate Employee Owners?

Wednesday, February 27, 2008

British Parliament to Study Employee Ownership

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Does Your Company Share Financial Information with Employee Owners?

Wednesday, February 13, 2008

Do You Manage Your Culture?

Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Does Your Company Have a Communications Committee?

Wednesday, January 09, 2008

What’s Important to Your ESOP in 2008?

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

Media and ESOPs

Monday, November 12, 2007

Employee Ownership Overseas – Greater Participation?

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

ESOP Association President Discusses Employee Ownership and ESOPs

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