Professor Joseph Blasi, Director Emeritus, Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing, Rutgers University and Visiting Fellow, Kellogg College, Oxford University, explored the evidence linking EO to stronger economies and healthier democracies, while tackling the barriers that still hold growth back. Chief among them: finance.
“Buyouts of closely held firms will be slow as long as families are asked to act like banks,” said Joseph, calling for greater institutional investment in employee buyouts.
“And the more both economies [UK and US] evolve in terms of employee ownership, even if we see a lot more growth, we’re not really going to get to the heart of the economy unless we solve this problem.”
Joseph framed employee ownership as both a matter of human dignity and smart economics, highlighting three critical enablers for growth:
- Banks must provide credit for transitions
- Government must connect the dots with supportive policy
- Education – in schools, universities, and among advisers – must raise awareness of EO as a driver of social justice and growth
He called for nothing short of a societal shift: “It’s been a long-held belief that employee ownership provides a means to share ownership among an entire group of employees and offer an alternative succession option to outgoing owner-founders.
“Now, however, research has made this absolutely clear alongside undeniable evidence that employee ownership can be quickly implemented, not only in small and medium-sized businesses, but also in listed corporations, to address wealth insecurity and inequality.”
Dr Erin Gill, Global Corporate Affairs and Partnerships Leader at Arup, reflected on the company’s nearly 50 years of employee ownership:
“I am one of 19,000 people worldwide who count themselves as Arup members, which is how we refer to our employees, who all share in Arup’s successes and challenges. The company will turn eighty years old next year and for almost fifty of these years we’ve been employee owned.
“We’re pleased to sponsor this lecture in honour of Robert Oakeshott who founded the eoa, especially as Arup was one of the organisation’s founding members. We remain committed to participating in and championing this fast-growing UK sector and to advancing approaching that will mainstream employee ownership, taking it to the heart of this economy.”