Those in the social enterprise movement who are interested in alternative enterprise models, and new “ownership architectures”, will be keen to see the award winning documentary “We the Owners” on employee owned companies and social businesses in the US, which will be screening in Melbourne, courtesy of Employee Ownership Australia.
The film will be screening on Tuesday, 21 May 2013 from 5:30 PM to 8:30 PM (EST) at the University of Melbourne. The event is free and open to the public – booking details can be seen at: http://wetheownerseoa.eventbrite.com.au/
Light refreshments for the gathering will be provided via Bankmecu.
The screening will be followed by a panel discussion featuring Loren Rodgers, CEO of the US National Center for Employee Ownership, who is in Australia for the National Employee Ownership Conference on 24th May in Sydney (http://employeeownershipconference.com.au/).
Successfully thriving in the global economy of the 21st century and beyond will require new business models and strategies to enable social enterprises to further their mission of creating economic, social, cultural, and environmental value, consistent with broader public and community benefit. One model that is an alternative is the employee-ownership model (e.g. co-operatives).
In “We the Owners”, employee owners from: New Belgium Brewing; Namasté Solar; and, DPR Construction answer the question, ‘what does it mean to be an owner?’ Namasté Solar is a social enterprise accredited as a top rating “B-Corp” which featured in the recent article “12 Companies Best for the World” (http://bestfortheworld.bcorporation.net/)
The film captures the stories from the founders and the employees on their successful transition from business start-up to wholly employee-owned enterprise, while sharing worker perspectives on shared ownership structures in highly empowering enterprise cultures that link reward and risk incentives, and ‘human-capital’ innovation models. The film follows as decisions are made on founding the company, expansion, succession, recruitment, and layoffs.
The lessons from this film will be an important contributor to social enterprise development in Australia.
The presenter, Loren Rodgers from the US NCEO writes extensively on all aspects of employee ownership in professional and academic publications. He works with companies on plan design, operational issues, assessment, governance, communications and ownership culture. He also consults internationally on employee ownership as public policy. He will be available to answer questions and discuss issues
“We the Owners” is sponsored by the Centre for Sustainable Economic Development, Employee Ownership Australia, bankmecu and the International Year of Cooperatives 2012.
Booking details can be seen at: http://wetheownerseoa.eventbrite.com.au/
(Thanks to EOA for sending Earthworker much of this information)
