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Dear Reader,
This blog is now an archive. John Abrams (Founder of South Mountain, author of this blog, and a book of the same name) retired on December 31, 2022. All posts published up until this date are preserved below.

For updates on John's next chapter, visit abramsangell.com.

For updates on South Mountain's second act, subscribe to our newsletter using the form below.

Are We Different Enough??

By John Abrams | August 12, 2009

At the recent conference of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center (VEOC) in Burlington, VEOC board president Paul Millman asked an important question to the attendees, who represented some of the many remarkably progressive companies in the Green Mountain State. “Are we different enough?” he wondered.

Good question.  I wonder about that often when I think about South Mountain.  Are we promoting a system that would, if widespread, create fundamental change in our broken economic system?  Or are we just avoiding one avalanche chute by traversing to another with a slightly more gradual incline?

Hard to say.

In 1987 I re-structured my company from a sole proprietorship under my ownership to an employee owned co-operative corporation.  It was a dramatic hinge point in the history of the company.  Ownership became available to all employees, enabling people to own and guide their workplace.  The responsibility, the power, and the profits all belong to the group of owners.  There are no outside investors and no non-employee owners.

That’s different.

Profits are essential , but our cooperative ownership structure assigns the wealth we make to those who make it. Our democratic system of decision making offers everyone a voice.  Our employees, who live in the community, and are raising their children here, and are part of the civic landscape, are making the decisions; therefore, community accountability is woven into the fabric of our system.

That’s different too.

Low environmental impact and principled corporate behavior share the same status as profits.

That’s different too.

But principles aren’t really principles until they cost something.  And this year some of our principles began to cost something.  Last fall, as we considered the re-building of our decimated work backlog, we re-considered some of those principles. Many of them.  Here’s just one.

We have had a long-standing policy of only doing work on the Vineyard, the place that we know. That one flew the coop when we had the opportunity to do an extraordinary project across the water, for the Woods Hole Research Center, at a time when our future workload was less secure than usual.  It wasn’t the first time we had such an opportunity, but this was the first time we forced ourselves – due to circumstances – to confront the logistical hurdles and  internal complications we are faced with.  I’ll talk more about this project – and its implications – in future posts.

As a company, we express many ideals.  One that we express less often might be the most important of all – to assure that at all times the 30 families (and other associated individuals and companies) that rely on us for their incomes are secure in the knowledge that the work – and the income – will be there.  Not so lofty.  But this is the real deal, the rubber on the road, and other principles must work in service to that one.

That may be less different, but our democratic structure ensures that we will struggle, at least, to uphold our principles while we keep our business healthy.  And struggle to be different  enough, even when there is genuine conflict between our principles and the practical matters of doing business successfully.

The beginning of the Obama era is frustratingly slow; it’s not different enough. Each of us can have only a minor impact on the political process. Meanwhile, however, our democracy offers other choices. We have the liberty to invent the corporation of the future right now. We can make whatever kinds of companies we want.

Nothing stands in our way, except us.  But we are a significant obstacle.  It’s easy to say that we knew all the things the economic crisis, climate change, and the approach of peak oil are teaching us.  We did, in a way, but it’s not different enough just to know these things.  We have to act, to make fundamental change in the way we work, to learn these things in our hearts and in our guts.

The patterns that we had established over three decades no longer work, and the challenge is to do the work that we must – better service, tighter finances, deeper energy makeovers, higher performance buildings, new forms of old crafts – in this new economic climate.   Maybe, eventually, we can be different enough to actually make a difference. Different enough to uphold our principles, even when it costs something.

It shouldn’t be so hard, I sometimes say.  But it is.  And we have only begun to scratch the surface of change.  That’s scary.

But there’s an old Chinese saying that “Man stands for long time with mouth open before roast duck flies in.”   We have to roast the duck.

Categories: South Mountain Company Tags: Climate change, Deep Energy, Economic Crisis, Employee ownership, Martha's Vineyard, peak oil, South Mountain Company, Worker Cooperatives, Workplace Democracy

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jay

    August 12, 2009 at 1:39 pm

    Nice post. I often think along similar terms when thinking about worker cooperatives. This question of being “different enough” to me is really a question of whether our model has the potential to deeply transform society. You definitely pick up on that same idea, which is great to see.

    Excellent blog.

    Reply
  2. Rodney North

    August 13, 2009 at 11:32 am

    John,
    Here at Equal Exchange we’ve, too, have asked ourselves “Are we still different” – though for us the impetus was that some of once-unique traits (importing Fair Trade and organic foods) were, thankfully, being adopted more and more often by our peers in the marketplace.

    Consequently we realized that our worker co-op structure, and how we combined it with our Fair Trade and advocacy goals, was our most distinct feature.

    And though it’s not eloquent like your post today, we did draw up a pretty long list of what is still “different:” about our co-op.
    Folks can read it at http://www.equalexchange.coop/not-business-as-usual

    Also, I wanted to share two resources with you and your readers.
    The NCBA will be doing an introductory webinar on Oct. 1st on worker co-operatives. see: https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/114461235

    And I’d encourage folks to check out http://www.community-wealth.org/ —
    (from the site: “Our goal is to provide you with the web’s most comprehensive and up-to-date information resource on state-of-the-art strategies for democratic, community-based economic development. “)

    It was created by Gar Alperovitz, author of “American Beyond Capitalism”.

    Reply
    • jabrams

      August 15, 2009 at 8:09 am

      Rodney,
      Thanks for the Equal Exchange “different list” – it’s mighty impressive. I doubt there are many companies who have ventured so far into the rich territory of democracy in the workplace and social responsibility. EE sets the bar high, and doesn’t flinch. Thanks also for the Community Wealth site – I wasn’t aware of this treasure.

      Reply
  3. Paul Millman

    August 13, 2009 at 4:28 pm

    Thanks for keeping the discussion going.

    Reply

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