The Rise of Co-ops

In case you missed the announcement, 2012 is the United Nations International Year of Cooperatives. The UN defines cooperatives as:

"Cooperatives are business enterprises owned and controlled by the very members that they serve. Their member-driven nature is one of the most clearly differentiating factors of cooperative enterprises. This fact means that decisions made in cooperatives are balanced by the pursuit of profit, and the needs and interests of members and their communities."

According to The International Co-operative Alliance (a co-op trade association) there are over 1 billion global co-op members.  In the U.S., credit unions are a prominent example of co-ops.  Other highly visible U.S. co-operatives include Ace Hardware and Sun Maid Raisins.  

Co-ops are not new.  They started as grassroots organizations in Europe, the U.S. and Japan in the early to mid 1800's.  As a former midwestern farm boy my favorite early co-op is The National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry.  For obvious reasons, it's more commonly known as The Grange.  

The Grange started as a secret fraternity, but took off in the late 1800s as a way for farmers to organize in the face of low agricultural prices and the power of railroads.  It's still around today.

One of the drivers in the growth of cooperatives is their values and principles. Cooperative "are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, co-operative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others."

There are also 7 principles of cooperatives:

1. Voluntary and Open Membership
2. Democratic Member Control
3. Member Economic Participation
4. Autonomy and Independence
5. Education, Training and Information
6. Co-operation Among Co-operatives
7. Concern for Community

These sound a whole lot like the core values of coworking.  Like coworking, the co-op field even seems to have their own hyphen issue, with some hyphenating co-operative while others don't.  

We believe the use of the co-op model will continue to expand.  The co-op model provides a lot of business flexibility, but also allows for member control.  It fits well with the shift towards values-based business.

Comments

[immigration lawyers]

This blog is very informative and helpful to the reader's. For me joining in a cooperatives can help us mange our income and this is one of the good investments because you can help to others and your money can grow at the same time.

[Ester]

This is a great article, and a great topic to explore. Thanks for sharing.