How 'Company Retreat' could have stuck the landing
The Ownership Economy Newsletter Vol. 152
👋 Welcome Back (to me)
From Mark/Dr. Hand: It’s good to be back! Parental leave is quite a gift, America. We should really give this some thought for our second quarter century 🇺🇸
One gift I gave myself this month: Watching Company Retreat.
The setup: An unsuspecting temp joins a company them throw a company retreat. But it’s all fake—the retreat, company, the workers, the whole thing. Imagine if Punked made Truman Show in the register of Ted Lasso.
The plot: The CEO of Rockin’ Grandma’s Hot Sauce is about to retire. He has to decide whether to hand the company over to his bumbling son or sell it to private equity. The company retreat is his self-imposed decision deadline.
The missed opportunity: Like many owners, Rockin’ Grandma’s CEO doesn’t seem to know there is a third option—or rather, a whole set of potential third options. Without giving away too much, I’ll just say that Rockin’ Grandma’s fake employees are pretty great, and the family-run company inspires instant loyalty from the show’s lovable rube of a hero.
The ask: Who do we know at Amazon Studios that could work employee ownership into its next hijinks?
🥃 Top Shelf News
Ken Baker donated $1 million to a new partnership between the Pennsylvania Center for Employee Ownership a new partnership with the Rutgers Institute
Baltimore’s next budget could include $250k for worker cooperative conversions
Andy Burnham, the likely next UK Prime Minister, advocates for cooperatives
Keith Sonderling has been nominated for Secretary of Labor
ICYMI: Dr. Hand posted a meta-newsletter this week
👉 In This Issue
Events
Coming up + Recaps + OpportunitiesEmployee Ownership
ESOPs + employee ownership trusts + worker cooperativesThe Ownership Economy
Community-owned real estate + consumer co-opsAcademic News
New papers
📅 Events + Reflections & Recaps
To see a comprehensive list of events, go to our Events page.
This Week
July 8-10: IAFEP Conference at the University of Mondragon in Spain
July 9: Project Equity’s webinar on succession planning in Chicago’s North Side
Recaps + Opportunities
The Vermont Employee Ownership Center recaps its Employee Ownership Conference
Empowered Ventures, an employee-owned holding company, is seeking external members for a new Advisory Board
Aunnie Patton Power is almost done with her next book, Brave New Capital, and asked for our help with a few finishing touches
Employee Ownership
For Impact Entrepreneur, Sandra Stewart writes that employee ownership is having a moment among impact investors
For EO Equals, J.P. Morgan executive Regina Carls speaks to the rise of interest in employee ownership
ICYMI: North Carolina Employee Ownership Center has a resource to help business owners determine what form of EO is right for them
📈 Employee stock ownership plans
🚸 Andrea Steffes-Tuttle asks whether Imagine Early Learning Centers’ employee ownership could be the answer to worker retention for childcare providers \
The National Center for Employee Ownership published the agenda for its Forum in August
Rick Haglund reports that ESOPs are gaining momentum in northern Michigan
CEO Wayne Berson reflects on the decision to transition to ESOP ownership (paywalled)
🎙️ ESOP Radio discusses what employees (should) do with the wealth gained from ESOP ownership
🎙️ Journey to an ESOP asks when to bring up an ESOP when talking to business owners
🤝 Employee ownership trusts + worker cooperatives
The NCBA opened early-bird registration for its 2026 Cooperative IMPACT Conference
🇬🇧 Churchill acquired Principle Cleaning Services, forming one of the largest employee ownership trusts in the UK
ICYMI: US Federation of Worker Co-ops holds a monthly webinar on the first Wednesday; tune in to the next one on August 5th
The Ownership Economy
Jessica Friday opened pre-orders for her two most recent books: Of Course: A New Common Sense and The Power Memo
Fran Seegull of ImpactAlpha writes about how democracy is interlinked with improved economic prosperity (paywalled)
Gallup News finds that 78% of Americans believe the American Dream is still worth striving for, but 46% feel everyone has the possibility of achieving it
ICYMI: In its February newsletter, Predistribution Initiative announced Tom Powdrill as Project Lead on their new project, Broadening Corporate Governance Participation
ICYMI: Open Markets Institute launched an Industry Spotlight on private equity (h/t Claire Everhart)
🏘️ Community-owned real estate + consumer co-ops
NIMB outlines the state of Co-ops in Puerto Rico, citing a rise in housing co-ops (h/t ICA Group)
Anne Gentry nostalgically considers the past of grocers and sees potential in food co-ops
Alisal Country Estates is bought by its residents for $12M, hoping to preserve affordable housing for workers in the community (h/t David Gray)
📚 Academic News
The academic Steward Ownership Network (StONe) has now officially launched in Europe
Iñingo Gonzales-Ricoy examines the efficiency of labor-managed firms
Isabelle Ferreras proposes mandatory worker board representation and a Corporate Democratic Development Index (check out our thoughts on that, too!)
Yu et al. find that employee ownership curbs environmental misconduct in Chinese firms, but only up to a point
Mandal and Yadav synthesized how employee voice, representation, and participation function in modern firms
Jonathan Michie and Joseph Blasi asked what it would take to move employee ownership beyond its plateau of 250-300 new plans a year
Jung et al. found that employee ownership pushes firms toward transparency
Lara Monticelli reflects on Marcelo Vieta’s book Commoning Labour and Democracy at Work
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