"As the company grew and became more successful, Bob found himself fending off one offer after another–large corporations that wanted to buy Bob’s Red Mill. But even though it would be immensely profitable for himself, Bob didn’t want to go down that road. After reviewing several options, Bob debuted an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) on his 81st birthday and announced that everyone would become an employee-owner, with a goal for Bob’s Red Mill to become 100% employee owned."
I don't know anything about how these things work, but I like they way Bob's Red Mill did it.
The employee ownership model is quite different than what Patagonia has done here, but it's still a powerful and useful way to organize a company and try to make it more equitable for those who work there.
A magazine for my home state did the same thing that Bob's did, upon the founder's retirement at a similar age. [0]
The Publix supermarket chain is also employee owned, outside of the founders [1].
Mondragon is a massive employee owned conglomerate that was recently on the front page of HN [2]
It serves as a reminder that we don't need billionaires to have nice things. Any company could be organized this way; the fact that they are not is a misfeature of our systems past and present.
In fact, you could reorganize every company to be like this, today, but you would encounter a whole lot of angry billionaires and the people they train to be angry on their behalf.
"As the company grew and became more successful, Bob found himself fending off one offer after another–large corporations that wanted to buy Bob’s Red Mill. But even though it would be immensely profitable for himself, Bob didn’t want to go down that road. After reviewing several options, Bob debuted an Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) on his 81st birthday and announced that everyone would become an employee-owner, with a goal for Bob’s Red Mill to become 100% employee owned."
I don't know anything about how these things work, but I like they way Bob's Red Mill did it.