What Stories Do People Tell About Your Company?

At the NCEO's recent annual conference, Southwest Airlines President Emeritus Colleen Barrett said that people are always lining up to her to tell her their favorite Southwest stories, usually about how employees went out of their way to help customers, make people laugh, or otherwise go well bey

What Stories Do Your Customers Tell About You?

At the NCEO/Beyster Institute's recent annual conference in Portland, Southwest President Emeritus Colleen Barrett told the attendees that airline executives can be reluctant to say what they do at a social gathering for fear of the stories people will want to tell about their terrible experience

Where Would You Like the 2013 Conference to Be?

We are now considering Seattle, Los Angeles (probably the Hollywood area), and San Francisco for the 2013 conference. Los Angeles and Seattle would offer about the same hotel prices; San Francisco would be about 15% higher. Where would you like it to be?

White House Budget and ESOPs

The Obama administration's revenue proposals include one item specific to ESOPs. The administration notes that current law is unclear about whether transfer of qualified replacement property to a spouse should trigger tax on the amount of capital gains originally deferred in an ESOP transaction.

Who Does ESOP Valuations?

In response to an informal poll conducted by the NCEO, 44 ESOP appraisers indicated that they do over 3,000 valuations annually, representing approximately one-third of active ESOPs and ESOP-equivalent plans.

Who Should Own Your Business After You? A Virtual Learning Series

Making employee ownership thrive includes increasing the number of employee-owners. As part of our mission, we produce events and disseminate information about establishing ESOPs to businesses across the U.S. We are announcing "Who Should Own Your Business After You?," a feasibility meeting series.

Why Dansko Is Employee-Owned

Writing in Forbes, Susan Adams describes the day in August 2005 when Mandy Cabot decided not to sell her company, which sells wooden clogs, to a much larger company.

Why Strong Leaders Can Make Very Bad—and Even Deadly—Decisions

One of the great paradoxes of leadership is that the very qualities that might make someone likely to become a leader of a company—or a nation—can be the very same qualities that can lead to some very bad decisions. Rising to the top usually takes a lot of self-confidence and the ability to make good decisions about a lot of things quickly. But that same self-confidence can turn to arrogance, an arrogance that may discourage those working with you to challenge your assumptions, ideas, and even what you perceive as facts.