co-ownership advice, support, funding and development...

are employee-owned businesses a better fit for fostering competiveness in a high-skilled, knowledge-intensive economy? a growing body of research supports the thesis — as do westjet, vancity, PLC construction, many of canada’s law firms and management consultancies, and sure, also the karma co-op. but if employee-owned businesses are better for the economy and more resilient when times get tight, how do we create more of them?

the UK’s baxi partnership has a no-nonsense solution. give employees direct access to management and governance skills, and back them up with access to a dedicated revolving fund to provide the capital for the buyout. good business, but also an idea fit for the times. with aging, enterprising baby-boomers increasingly keen to offload their firms, today's employees with the right support could be tomorrow's ready buyers.