Equity: Why Employee Ownership Is Good for Business

A new book, Equity: Why Employee Ownership Is Good For Business (Harvard Business Press, 2005) shows that when employees have an ownership stake, the attitude of their company changes-and so does its bottom line. The authors, Corey Rosen, John Case and Martin Staubus, labored long and hard on telling the captivating and motivating story of the evolution of employee ownership and how the equity model can be used to bring companies to new levels of profitability. They reveal what to do as well as how to lead and manage the process. They substantiate and document their well-balanced points and counterpoints. They have produced a spellbinding primer on how America progressed to where it is today with employee ownership, and spell out clearly, succinctly and eloquently, where to go from here.

As someone who's been active in employee ownership for over a decade, I can't think of any of book - or any other source - that does a better job of pulling together dozens of company stories, hundreds of examples, and thousands of hours of collected wisdom into a single place. This book will intrigue company leaders who want to know how to make ownership work, satisfy the prove-it-to-me crowd with up-to-date research, and even entertain the lay reader with inspiring stories and personal anecdotes. It strikes a balance between history and current events, between theory and practice, and between raw fact and the human touch. Read it to get the inside scoop on one of the most under-reported trends in the U.S. economy from three of the field's most respected thinkers.

Recently, personal ownership of various kinds in our society has been emphasized. This book addresses perhaps the most important and rewarding type of ownership--employee ownership. The book is chock full of interesting statistics and insightful research studies juxtaposed with wonderful success stories and anecdotes about how having significant and broad ownership changes (for the better)how an organization is run. Rosen, Case and Staubus bring decades of experience, observations and conclusions that will help everyone from owners looking for positive ways to perpetuate their businesses to managers wanting to improve product development, customer service, management, motivation, rewards systems and profitability to employee owners interested in learning from the experiences of folks at other organizations.This book is a must read for anyone wanting to learn the important business advantages of having people own and actively participate in making the places where they work more competitive and successful.

This is a clear, concise and very readable book that makes the case for the Equity Model of ownership and management better than anything that has been written to date. After reading this book, you will readily see why all of the management theories of the past-Theory X, Theory Y, Theory Z, Management by Objectives, Management by Walking Around, Reengineering by Downsizing, the One Minute Manager, Quality Circles, etc.-have failed. Throw out all of your existing management theory books. This is the only only one that has got it right. The Equity Model has evolved over the past 30 years and has resulted in phenomenal performance by those companies that have used it. As described by the authors, the Equity Model involves three essential components-stock ownership, an ownership culture, and employee training and involvement in the specific goals and strategies of the business in question. Unfortunately, most business owners and most ESOP consultants have overlooked the importance of the third component. Ownership by itself is not sufficient. An ownership culture by itself is not sufficient. Even combining stock ownership with an ownership culture is not sufficient. Superior results only occur if all three components are utilizied. This book traces the origins and development of each of these three components and then illustrates through numerous case examples how these components have been successfully combined to create high performance results, even in very mundane industries. This book also gives practical, easy-to-follow guidelines as to how these components can be combined to create the best results. In today's global competitive environment, following these guidelines may just make the difference between success and survival on the one hand or business failure on the other.

Rosen, Case and Staubus have done a wonderful job of making a very basic case. Having broad employee ownership of a company makes sense. It makes sense for the employees. And it makes sense for the company. The employees benefit through receiving value beyond wages. The company is better off because the employees work smarter and work harder as owners than as hired hands. Through the case studies and the analysis the authors write what historically has not been written: a book which realistically makes the case that employee ownership helps companies become stronger and more competitive. It is also very important to note that Harvard has published this book. To date, major university presses have not emphasized employee ownership among their priorities. It is to Harvard's credit that they have found a fabulous book to publish on this topic.