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05-21-2006, 07:42 PM
A lot of wannabe entrepreneurs have great ideas for businesses, but don't have the resources and support to do it themselves.
A good solution to this dilemma is to find likeminded people who can pool their talents and resources to setup a cooperative venture. A cooperative eschews the hierarchy of capitalist business models and instead uses the communal approach to business.
In a cooperative, all members share equal power and use a democratic approach to decision making. Workers meet regularly and vote upon each issue on the agenda. Ideally members should have a common outlook on the business and it's role in the larger community. This makes it much easier to agree on day-to-day issues and the general direction of the business.
All workers are paid the same and share equally in the cooperative's profits.
There are some drawbacks to this system, due to the consensus nature of decision making. Often matters don't get dealt with in a timely fashion due to disputes. In the capitalist model the executives make the decision and everyone must live with it.
At least in the cooperative model, you all share responsibility for the decisions that are made, so you feel much more involved in the whole business process, and not just a paid employee with no input.
I worked in several cooperatives in Eugene, Oregon in the 1970s, one of which is still around (a bakery), and the other, a juice cooperative recently folded after 30 years! A new Oregon law made it illegal for them to sell their fresh unpasteurized juices, their main product!
So these models can succeed, they just need to get a good start with the right people.
A good solution to this dilemma is to find likeminded people who can pool their talents and resources to setup a cooperative venture. A cooperative eschews the hierarchy of capitalist business models and instead uses the communal approach to business.
In a cooperative, all members share equal power and use a democratic approach to decision making. Workers meet regularly and vote upon each issue on the agenda. Ideally members should have a common outlook on the business and it's role in the larger community. This makes it much easier to agree on day-to-day issues and the general direction of the business.
All workers are paid the same and share equally in the cooperative's profits.
There are some drawbacks to this system, due to the consensus nature of decision making. Often matters don't get dealt with in a timely fashion due to disputes. In the capitalist model the executives make the decision and everyone must live with it.
At least in the cooperative model, you all share responsibility for the decisions that are made, so you feel much more involved in the whole business process, and not just a paid employee with no input.
I worked in several cooperatives in Eugene, Oregon in the 1970s, one of which is still around (a bakery), and the other, a juice cooperative recently folded after 30 years! A new Oregon law made it illegal for them to sell their fresh unpasteurized juices, their main product!
So these models can succeed, they just need to get a good start with the right people.