After attending many business functions, seminars and conferences, I have found that business owners in Australia are unfamiliar with employee ownership. Even my accountant initially advised not to proceed with an employee-owned cooperative, due perhaps to a combination of inexperience and a warped perception that cooperatives were too tricky and complicated. He later told me “cooperatives were in his toolbox under dairy farmers”.
Our C-Mac experience has shown that:
- The owner rarely thinks of selling to all the employees
- Owners don’t consider that employee ownership represents another succession option
- The owner does not consider that management and employees possess the requisite skills to run the business
- Owners are concerned about losing control of their company
- Accountants do not understand employee-owned companies
- Most economists and professionals have limited knowledge or understanding of the benefits of employee ownership and don’t consider them as serious alternatives to conventional corporate structures
- Management Buy-outs often receive priority consideration
- Management is in the driver’s seat with