For 38 years, the OEOC has gathered hundreds of people from across the employee ownership community at our Annual Conference and every year, we invite a keynote speaker to address those in attendance. This year, we invited Gina Schaefer, who is the founder and selling owner of A Few Cool Hardware Stores, which became 100% employee-owned in 2021. Her story of how her company came to be, her approach to building culture within the business, and her tendency to build relationships outside of it speak to the power of building community and how employee-owned companies are uniquely poised to do this. Beyond that, Gina’s address and the story of A Few Cool Hardware Stores highlight other important themes whose power we often underestimate: faking it until you make it, doing the hard thing, being curious, and telling our own stories of employee ownership to name a few.
This episode of the Owners At Work is sponsored by Blue Ridge ESOP Associates, Blue Ridge is the largest independent ESOP and 401(k) Third Party Administration and Recordkeeping firm. Blue Ridge ESOP Associates employs the finest professionals in the business and has over 30 years of experience providing quality third party administration services
The Owners at Work Podcast is a continuation of the biannual Owners at Work Newsletter which ran for 19 years (1990-2019). We are hoping to continue the same conversations and focus on providing updates on everything employee ownership. We plan to interview practitioners with expertise in different facets of employee ownership, academics doing new and interesting research, and most importantly, individuals who have a personal experience with employee ownership, including current and former employee-owners, mid-level to C suite management, and selling owners.
We want to produce a show that engages with relevant questions and provides practical lessons and information. We want this podcast to include the voices of those who practice employee-ownership each and every day. To that end we want to hear from you! We want to highlight what you are doing, whether you are an employee-owned company, a practitioner, or researcher.
***Please reach out via email: oeoc@kent.edu
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