Professional Documents
Culture Documents
co-operative
advantage
Essential Trading, a
worker owned wholesaler
operating in the UK and
internationally
Productivity
The boost from co-operation to the UK economy of
higher employee engagement is estimated to be at
least 59.4bn
Innovation
Innovation accounts for 70% of long-term economic
growth in the UK, with the most common sources of
innovation being employees and customers.
Entrepreneurship
Data on growth businesses shows that entrepreneurs are
motivated to build businesses and create change through
co-operative relationships, rather than acting as lone
entrepreneurs.
Open co-operatives
As technology has developed, so have online communities
that are together developing open software and data.
We are seeing the emergence of a new collaborative model,
open co-operatives, to address the challenges facing these
communities. The contributions that people make are rewarded
through an ownership stake. The organising model is one of
openness, with transparency on matters from rewards and
resources to ownership and taxation, software and data. Open
co-operatives are the natural business model for peer-to-peer
innovation that has shaped the online world.
Data co-operatives
The market for data generates $156 billion of revenue in
the USA alone, but the subjects of this have no direct say
in or benefit from the data that is sold about them. In Switzerland,
the Swiss Health Bank has developed as a co-operative model
for pooling personal health data. The data is better quality, with
the input and consent of those involved, and can be used across
service providers, allowing consumers to take back a measure of
control over their own personal data.
Guarantee co-ops
Around 8% of all small and medium-sized enterprises in the
European Union have secured bank lending through guarantee
co-ops. Rather than look for bank lending on their own, entrepreneurs
get together to approach banks through small business guarantee
co-ops, winning better terms in the process. The UK is one of the
few countries not to have seen them develop, primarily due to
unintentional regulatory barriers. Solve this, and new technology
platforms have the potential to see them develop at scale.
Freelancers union
Across the field of film, TV and music, for example, freelancers
are at risk from middlemen (producers, agents, third parties)
whose business model is designed to strip away their potential
income. Operating in a co-op could protect them. In the USA, the
Freelancers Union has around 100,000 members in New York State,
organized around advocacy and health insurance. A freelancers
union allows the growing numbers of people who are self-employed,
entrepreneurial but at risk to come together around shared services.
The Co-operative
Advantage
Edited by Ed Mayo
Innovation,
co-operation
and why sharing
business ownership
is good for Britain
Edited by Ed Mayo
www.uk.coop/coopadvantage
Thousands
of businesses,
one network
www.uk.coop