Paul Thompson
All firms are co-operatives? That can’t be right…
When I first started studying co-operatives as a graduate student, the first article I read was a piece provocatively titled “All firms are cooperatives – and so are governments.” Its author, Yale law professor Henry Hansmann, claimed exactly what you would expect from the title: that investor-owned businesses were no different in their structure than co-operatives. Continue reading
Paul Thompson
“Chemistry is the study of matter. But I prefer to think of it as the study of change. Now just think about this: electrons, they change their energy levels; molecules change their bonds; elements, they combine and change into compounds. Well that… that’s all of life, right?”
-Walter White, Season 1 Episode 1 of Breaking Bad
Nora Russell
We’ve just completed our third annual survey of Top Co-op Issues, asking co-operative leaders across Canada to identify the most pressing concerns facing co-operative organizations today. According to CEOs, board members, managers, and academics in virtually every region and sector, the number one issue for co-op leaders remains, as it was last year, public awareness of the co-operative model. As one respondent put it succinctly: “I believe the lack of understanding of the co-operative model among the general public is still the sector’s biggest challenge.” Continue reading