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, whatever your relationship to the employee-ownership community is.
***Please reach out via email: oeoc@kent.edu
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Episode 3: New Funds for Employee Ownership
In this episode we talk to Brett Jones of Evergreen Cooperatives and Ellen Vera of Co-op Cincy about each of their organization's new loan funds designed to help convert existing businesses into employee owned companies...More
Episode 2: Getting to the Other Side - One ESOP's Journey Through the Covid Crisis
Research consistently shows that employee owned companies weather economic downturns better than their conventional counterparts, but we rarely get an 'inside view' of this outcome is achieved. In this episode, we...More
Episode 1: Living the Employee Ownership Life
We talk to Anthony Mathews, Secretary of the California Center for Employee Ownership and former Director of the Beyster Institute about his decades long career in employee ownership and how it can help cure what ail us...More
Episode 14: Employee Ownership: Reducing Inequality and Building Assets
We hear a lot about the the rising level of economic inequality in our society, the precarious nature of employment, and the difficulties of saving for retirement. What we hear about much less is the how employee ownership...More
Episode 13: The Employee Ownership Trust
In this episode of OAW we sit down with Chris Michael, an attorney and professor, to discuss a lesser known model - the employee ownership trust. We dig into the history of the model, talk about its...More
Episode 12: End of Year Considerations: Valuations and Repurchase Obligations
We’re getting to the end of year, and a general theme of our upcoming programming, as well as many of our conversations with companies and advisors alike, focuses on taking stock of what’s happened...More
Episode 11: Beyond COVID - Keeping your ESOP On Track
In this episode we speak with six experts in the field of employee ownership about how to approach 'regular' operations that all ESOPs must undertake while at the same time keeping an eye on planning for...More
Episode 10: Existing ESOPs (Employee Stock Ownership Plans) in the Current Economy
It is well known within the employee ownership community that employee-owned companies do better in times of crisis compared to conventionally owned companies. However, this not a law of gravity, it is the result of...More
Episode 9: Selling Your Business to an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan)
In this episode we speak with five experts in the field of employee ownership about the process of selling a business to employees via an Employee Stock Ownership Plan. Each interview focuses on...More
Episode 8: Measuring the Employee-Ownership Difference
In this episode we talk to Nancy Wiefek of the National Center for Employee Ownership and discuss her groundbreaking research project that highlights the difference employee ownership makes for...More
Episode 7: Can Networks of Worker Cooperatives Reduce Economic Inequality?
In this episode we sit down with Kristen Barker of Coop-Cincy and Michael Peck of One Worker One Vote, to talk about how they are working to create a network of worker cooperatives with the aim... More
POP-UP Episode: Managing the Present; Planning for the Future
In this episode, we talk with two financial experts to get their views on where we are now, and how to successfully get to...More
Episode 6: Selling Your Company to An ESOP: What you need to know
For this episode we talk with attorney Avery Chenin of SES ESOP Strategies on outlining, and demystifying, a sale to an ESOP. We discuss...More
Episode 5: Building Employee Ownership
For this episode we talk to IntrustIT CEO (and selling owner) Tim Rettig, a new ESOP company in the Cincinnati area. Tim talks about why he chose...More
Episode 4: Employee Ownership in the Crisis and Beyond
For this episode we check in with Corey Rosen, Founder of the National Center of Employee Ownership (NCEO) and Kim Blaugher, Executive Director of the Beyster Institute...More
Episode 3: Communication, Culture, and COVID-19
With the outbreak of the COVID-19 epidemic, good strategies for building culture and facilitating communication are more important than ever...More
What is leadership? How do we ensure continuity in the leadership of our company? Is a concept like leadership more important in an employee owned company? ...More
There are a lot of things that create value in an employee-owned company. Some of those things are bottom line related: sales, .... More
Introducing Owners at Work (Trailer)
We introduce the show and giver you a preview of what to expect.