Cooperative Enterprise old

Cooperative Organization Equalizes the Relationship between Labor and Capital and
Offers Young People an Opportunity to Take Responsibility for Their Life & Work

Sustainable, Creative Profit Making  Enterprises

In the 2008 in Davos, at the World Economic Forum, Bill Gates launched a movement with an important speech. He called for an evolution of capitalism in order to address the challenges of 21st century life that are left unresolved or made worse by the limits of the current iteration of
capitalism. He called it “creative capitalism”. Along with Warren Buffet, he has spearheaded a dialogue and a movement that shows hope of finding better approaches to the global challenges that can no longer be ignored. We have paid attention to this dialogue and have studied various streams of activity, past and present, relevant to Gates’ concerns. Our internships and business activities seek to participate in this emerging experiment.  We see it as a necessary and vital experiment for the future of humanity.

The planet friendly profit making enterprise (in the initial pilot phase) takes a holistic approach to the interconnection of (1) health, (2) nutrition, (3) hospitality and (4) food production. More specifically this takes the form of (1) a local, organic farm and a series of participating farms, (2) a
restaurant, (3) an operating inn, (4) a holistic health agency focused on Eco-therapy and (5) a web presence that connects the program with the wider population and generates general and financial support by building an ongoing extended community. There are two core perspectives vital to our approach to business enterprises that move beyond sustainability. Both Re-Generative Science and a Creative Business Approach are detailed below. 

Successful Models – Encouraging Individual Initiative &  Cooperation

One model of creative capitalism, which has grown over 50 years, is the Mondragon initiative located in the Basque region of Spain. Mondragon
was founded in the 1950’s by a visionary Catholic priest named José María Arizmendiarrieta (referred to as Don José María). At that time, the Basque region was poor and its natural resources largely depleted. Don José María believed that the Basque people could meet their economic needs and sustain their cultural heritage in the face of these severe challenges through a higher level of worker participation and commitment to the success of their business activities. 
 
To test his hypothesis he established a small cooperative company to produce oil lamps and trained a cadre of initial leaders in an approach to management that integrated sound business practices with a high level of worker participation. Sixty-five years later, this venture has grown to become a complex of interrelated cooperative companies that earn roughly $20 billion annually while employing approximately 100,000 workers. Mondragon is Spain's fourth largest enterprise, conducts business worldwide and has continued to operate effectively in the midst of Spain’s economic turmoil.

What allowed Mondragon to become so successful in a relatively short period of time was its approach to worker/management participation, its cooperative principles and values and its understanding that:

   1)  the various enterprises needed to work together instead of in isolation;
   2)  in order to be successful, cooperative companies needed to operate on the basis of
sound management practices, utilize expert technical knowledge, and engage in
careful financial planning; and that,
    3)  it is necessary to experiment pragmatically in developing the organizational structures of creative enterprises while staying true to the underlying values and principles, because changes in the economic and social environments require ongoing innovation.

Other successful models of creative/cooperative enterprises exist—most notably in Quebec and northern Italy (but also in the United States) — where inter-related cooperative businesses have developed and play an important role in the regional economy. In many ways the circumstances that led to the success of these endeavors have important similarities to the situation in the Greater Berkshire region of Massachusetts and New York, as well as to Vermont. When envisioned as an interrelated component of the Creative Life Transitions Program, the factors necessary for success are multiplied.  The time is ripe for an interrelated sector of Creative/Cooperative Business Enterprise in the eastern United States.