Owners at Work Ohio Employee Ownership Center

Guest: Gina Schaefer
SUMMARY: For 38 years, the OEOC has gathered hundreds of people from across the employee ownership community at our Annual Conference and every year, we invite a keynote speaker to address those in attendance. This year, we invited Gina Schaefer, the founder, CEO, and selling owner of A Few Cool Hardware Stores, which became 100% employee-owned in 2021. Her story of how her company came to be, her approach to building culture within the business, and her tendency to build relationships outside of it speak to the power of building community and how employee-owned companies are uniquely poised to do this. Beyond that, Gina’s address and the story of A Few Cool Hardware Stores highlight other important themes whose power we often underestimate: faking it until you make it, doing the hard thing, being curious, and telling our own stories of employee ownership, to name a few. 
Further Material
Gina’s Book Recover Hardware: https://ginaschaefer.com/book A Few Cool Hardware Stores: https://acehardwaredc.com/ Past OAW Episode featuring Gina: https://www.oeockent.org/owners-at-work-podcast/seaon-2-episode-7-a-few-cool-hardware-stores Guest INFO : 
  Gina Schaefer: https://ginaschaefer.com/about SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at oeoc@kent.edu 

SUMMARY: When we think about expanding awareness about employee ownership, we often think of the United States and how much more work we have to do. However, the movement to expand the prevalence and awareness of employee ownership goes well beyond US borders. In this episode, we highlight an international example of this effort. We speak with Rodrigo Fernandez del Valle and Gonzalo Hernandez Gutierrez about an edited book they published, which includes chapters on employee ownership contributed by practitioners, researchers, and thinkers worldwide. Their goal? Introduce students, government officials, and business leaders to employee ownership and how it can positively impact society. We talked about how the book project came to be, what the book's reception has been, and what projects they are working on now to expand employee ownership in Mexico, Latin America, and beyond. 
Free Book Copy 
Employee Ownership in the Americas: A Path to Shared Prosperity: https://cleo.rutgers.edu/articles/employee-ownership-in-the-americas-a-path-to-shared-prosperity/ 
Capital Incluyente
Co-founded by Rodrigo with the purpose of providing technical assistance to those who want to create businesses owned by employees:https://capital-incluyente.org/ 
Guest Info:
·        Gonzalo Hernandez Gutierrez: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gonzalo-hern%C3%A1ndez-guti%C3%A9rrez-phd-93a648a1/?originalSubdomain=mx
·        Rodrigo Fernandez del Valle: https://capital-incluyente.org/  
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SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going.
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at oeoc@kent.edu
 

SUMMARY: When we look into the field of employee ownership three major models come to mind, employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs), worker cooperatives, and employee-owned trusts. But practitioners are always looking to improve existing models and in some rare cases develop new ones. In this first episode of season five we speak with David Ellerman and Tej Gonza of the Institute for Economic Democracy about a new model they have developed which combines features of the ESOP and worker cooperative models – what they term the “European ESOP”. Thier hope is this model that can drive the expansion of broad-based employee ownership in Slovenia – the country where they both live – as well as the European Union more generally. We talk about what features of worker cooperatives and ESOPs were retained and why, how the model functions, and the process for getting supportive legislation passed in Slovenia to encourage the adoption of this model.  

Further Reading: 

The Institute for Economic Democracy: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/eng/  
The ESOP Coop Model Explained: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/wp-content/uploads/2023/01/European-ESOP-IED2022.pdf  

Guest INFO :  

Tej Gonza: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/eng/tej-gonza/  
David Ellerman: https://ekonomska-demokracija.si/eng/david-ellerman/ 

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going.  

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at oeoc@kent.edu  

SUMMARY
Back in 2018 the Kendeda Fund, a philanthropic foundation based in Atlanta, decided to make a series of big bets in areas that were both critical and timely. One of those areas was employee ownership and the investment made by Kendeda was historic. Over 5 years a total of $24 million dollars was provided to 4 employee owner support organizations. Those organizations include The Evergreen Cooperatives Fund for Employee Ownership, ICA Group, Nexus Community Partners, and Project Equity. The investment was made with four broad goals in mind – grow the number of employee-owned businesses, use patient capital to leverage investments, strengthen core elements of the employee ownership ecosystem, and amplify media coverage of employee ownership.  

Upon entering the 5th year of the grant, Kendeda contracted with the Ohio Employee Ownership Center to carry out a reflection process that looked back on what these four organizations where able to achieve, assess what they learned, and identify future actions that would further develop and expand employee ownership in the US. The reflection process relied on numerous forms of data collection including in-person meetings, long form one on one interviews with grantees, selling owners, and new employee owners, analysis of transition data, and comparisons of the four grantees models for transitioning companies to employee ownership. The culmination of our findings was then published in a narrative report that drew on the insights of all stakeholders involved, which we encourage you to read. 

However, like all reports, we could not include every bit of information we gathered.  But we strongly felt it necessary to provide grantee organizations with the space to explain, in their own words, how and why they do the work they do, how Kendeda’s investment helped them expand their impact, and where they see their work going in the future. 

So, this interview with Christina Nicholson and Paty Viafara of Nexus Community Partners, is one in a series of interviews we carried out with organization that received support from the Kendeda Fund.  

READ THE REPORT: www.oeockent.org/kendeda-employee-ownership-big-bet 

GRANTEE INFORMATION  

ICA Group: https://icagroup.org/  
Nexus Community Partners: https://www.nexuscp.org/  
Project Equity: https://project-equity.org/  
The Fund for Employee Ownership: https://www.evgoh.com/tfeo/
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at oeoc@kent.edu  

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going. 

SUMMARY
Back in 2018 the Kendeda Fund, a philanthropic foundation based in Atlanta, decided to make a series of big bets in areas that were both critical and timely. One of those areas was employee ownership and the investment made by Kendeda was historic. Over 5 years a total of $24 million dollars was provided to 4 employee owner support organizations. Those organizations include The Evergreen Cooperatives Fund for Employee Ownership, ICA Group, Nexus Community Partners, and Project Equity. The investment was made with four broad goals in mind – grow the number of employee-owned businesses, use patient capital to leverage investments, strengthen core elements of the employee ownership ecosystem, and amplify media coverage of employee ownership.  

Upon entering the 5th year of the grant, Kendeda contracted with the Ohio Employee Ownership Center to carry out a reflection process that looked back on what these four organizations where able to achieve, assess what they learned, and identify future actions that would further develop and expand employee ownership in the US. The reflection process relied on numerous forms of data collection including in-person meetings, long form one on one interviews with grantees, selling owners, and new employee owners, analysis of transition data, and comparisons of the four grantees models for transitioning companies to employee ownership. The culmination of our findings was then published in a narrative report that drew on the insights of all stakeholders involved, which we encourage you to read. 

However, like all reports, we could not include every bit of information we gathered.  But we strongly felt it necessary to provide grantee organizations with the space to explain, in their own words, how and why they do the work they do, how Kendeda’s investment helped them expand their impact, and where they see their work going in the future. 

So, this interview with Alison Lingane of Project Equity, is one in a series of interviews we carried out with organization that received support from the Kendeda Fund.  

READ THE REPORT: www.oeockent.org/kendeda-employee-ownership-big-bet 

GRANTEE INFORMATION  

ICA Group: https://icagroup.org/  
Nexus Community Partners: https://www.nexuscp.org/  
Project Equity: https://project-equity.org/  
The Fund for Employee Ownership: https://www.evgoh.com/tfeo/
WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at oeoc@kent.edu  

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going. 

SUMMARY  

Back in 2018 the Kendeda Fund, a philanthropic foundation based in Atlanta, decided to make a series of big bets in areas that were both critical and timely. One of those areas was employee ownership and the investment made by Kendeda was historic. Over 5 years a total of $24 million dollars was provided to 4 employee owner support organizations. Those organizations include The Evergreen Cooperatives Fund for Employee Ownership, ICA Group, Nexus Community Partners, and Project Equity. The investment was made with four broad goals in mind – grow the number of employee-owned businesses, use patient capital to leverage investments, strengthen core elements of the employee ownership ecosystem, and amplify media coverage of employee ownership.  

Upon entering the 5th year of the grant, Kendeda contracted with the Ohio Employee Ownership Center to carry out a reflection process that looked back on what these four organizations where able to achieve, assess what they learned, and identify future actions that would further develop and expand employee ownership in the US. The reflection process relied on numerous forms of data collection including in-person meetings, long form one on one interviews with grantees, selling owners, and new employee owners, analysis of transition data, and comparisons of the four grantees models for transitioning companies to employee ownership. The culmination of our findings was then published in a narrative report that drew on the insights of all stakeholders involved, which we encourage you to read. 

However, like all reports, we could not include every bit of information we gathered.  But we strongly felt it necessary to provide grantee organizations with the space to explain, in their own words, how and why they do the work they do, how Kendeda’s investment helped them expand their impact, and where they see their work going in the future. 

So, this interview with Jeanette Webster and Emma Sherrie of the Fund for Employee Ownership is one in a series of interviews we carried out with organization that received support from the Kendeda Fund.  

READ THE REPORT: www.oeockent.org/kendeda-employee-ownership-big-bet 

GRANTEE INFORMATION  

ICA Group: https://icagroup.org/  
Nexus Community Partners: https://www.nexuscp.org/  
Project Equity: https://project-equity.org/  
The Fund for Employee Ownership: https://www.evgoh.com/tfeo/  

WE WANT TO HEAR FROM YOU: We are always looking for new employee ownership stories to tell. Please contact us with your story at oeoc@kent.edu  

SUPPORT THE SHOW: We make all episodes of Owners at Work free and never place them behind a paywall. But, they take time and money to produce. Consider making a DONATION today to help keep our work going.