Find Your Resource

It took an internship in Ukraine for me to realize how amazing US ESOPs are.

If you want an audience of people from ESOP companies, offer them new data about the repurchase obligation.

Succession planning for the CEO is one of the highest-stakes transitions a company will face. At the NCEO, we talk with a lot of companies that have gone through multiple successions.

We all know that employee ownership is a concept most of the country is not used to. It takes education and, for many people, some time simply has to pass before the idea stops feeling just a bit foreign.

The beginning of the year is a good time to assess, and it’s a pleasure to report back to you, the members of the NCEO, about the year that just ended.

In the airport today, I was chatting with a family with three young children. One of the boys said they were traveling “back to our language.” For him—and for all of us—home is where the way people speak feels natural.

As we recently reported, the most recent data on ESOPs show that there was 22% growth in the number of ESOP participants in closely held companies. A significant majority of that growth came from ESOP companies buying other companies. It’s an ongoing trend that is becoming only more prevalent.

You may know that the NCEO’s mission is to make employee ownership thrive, and at our staff retreat we talked about why that mission matters. One excellent reason is that it generates wealth for people who wouldn’t otherwise have much in the way of assets.

Working at the NCEO means that we can take the time to stay on top of new developments in employee ownership, and I believe this year is different. New developments are coming fast—from federal regulation and legislation, to state-level programs, to a bold new initiative to spread the word. Employee ownership is poised for growth, and we may, right now, be at the turning point when the trend line bends upward.

Research, when done well, often adds nuance and complexity to our picture of the world. But the results featured in this article do the opposite—they make things simple.