Transcript Australia

AM Institute
Business Strategy Forum
2012
A unique moment of
opportunity
Mervyn Wilson
Co-operative College UK
The Co-operative
College
Setting the scene
“These economic upheavals burst a period
of protracted “capitalist triumphalism” and
began to allow across the political horizon
of feasible change a far wider range of
possibilities than the established economic
and political consensus had allowed us to
previously entertain”
Setting the scene
“The credit crunch and fiscal crisis
has freed our political imagination
from the idea that this is the only
game in town”
Setting the scene
“ The world has looked into an abyss...the
market fundamentalism will inevitably be
the starting point for a new world order
and a fundamentally renewed morality”
Setting the scene
“Yet despite the dire financial situation
co-operative financial institutions report
strong performance. Many are even
experiencing unprecedented growth as
a ‘flight to safety’ phenomenon unfolds.”
Old ideas for new times
The co-operative ideal is as old as human society. It
is the idea of conflict and competition as a principle
of economic progress that is new. The development
of the ideal of Co-operation in the nineteenth century
can best be understood as an attempt to make
explicit a principle which is inherent in the
constitution of society but which had been forgotten
in the turmoil and disintegration of rapid economic
change.
AM Carr-Saunders, P Sargant Florence and Robert Peers, 1938
The Rochdale Pioneers
THE objects and plans of this
Society are to form
arrangements for the
pecuniary benefit, and the
improvement of the social
and domestic condition of its
members, by raising a sufficient
amount of capital in shares of
one pound each, to bring into
operation the following plans
and arrangements
Rochdale Pioneers Objectives
That as soon as practicable,
this society shall proceed to
arrange the powers of
production, distribution,
education, and government, or
in other words to establish a
self-supporting home-colony of
united interests, or assist other
societies in establishing such
colonies.
- To change the world!
Internatio
nal Cooperative
AllianceI
mpactI(ICA)
Impact
According to the UN, if you include
members, employees and their
dependents over half the worlds
population depends on co-operative
enterprises of one type or another
to improve their basic living
standards
Co-operatives globally
Over a billion members
The top 300 turnover
exceeds $1.6 trillion
Over 100 million jobs
Financial co-ops serve over
857 million people – 13% of
the world population
International Co-operative Alliance (ICA
In New Zealand 40% of the adult
population are members of cooperatives or mutuals. 1 in 3 families
are members of co-operatives in
Japan, whilst India has 239 million
co-operative members. 6.78 million
people – 27% of the population are
co-operative members in Malaysia
and over 50% of the population (1.6
million) are members in Singapore.
International Co-operative Alliance (ICA)
Renaissance
Renaissance
ILO Recommendation 193
The promotion of co-operatives
A framework to review and
improve co-operative
legislation, to strengthen
member democratic control,
and transparency as building
blocks of good governance.”
Renaissance
• Policy reviews as well as legislative
updates
• Co-operatives recognised as significant
actors in development
• Recognition of the role of co-operatives
and mutuals in public sector reform
• Recognition that co-operatives and
mutuals are important components of a
21st century economy
Economic strategy
• In the long term, the vision is for KZN to be a
leader in establishing and developing
sustainable cooperatives in South Africa
across all economic and social sectors.
Established cooperatives will then be able to
facilitate the pooling of resources and skills,
resulting in an effective reduction in poverty.
Renaissance – a new generation
• Environmental cooperatives
• Health co-operatives
• Tenant co-operatives
• Rural community cooperatives
• Co-operative pubs
• Co-operative schools
Renaissance
Co-operative schools
To contribute to greater diversity
in education delivery - an
alternative to emerging chains
To embed a co-operative ethos
and co-operative values in
schools
To provide a co-operative
governance model for trusts–
empowering key stakeholders
through membership
Renaissance
Housing
• “ordinary people in cooperative and mutual
housing organisations
want to do things to
tackle climate change,
volunteer as school
governors, or participate
in various other
community activities”.
Renewal
• Rebranding
• Restoring membership
benefits
• Rebuilding membership
• Rebuilding confidence in
co-operation
• Growth through acquisition
• Putting values into practice
Pride in identity
• “Co-operative
members learn from
each other, innovate
together, and by
increasing control
over their livelihoods
build up the sense
of dignity the
experience of
poverty destroys”.
Working out of Poverty - ILO
Big – but invisible!
“the idea of co-operative and mutual housing
is “Britain’s best kept secret”. Little
information is available for communities, local
authorities, housing associations or others
who are interested in exploring co-operative
and mutual housing options, and models are
hard to develop in an environment not
established to support them”
Invisibility
• “I asked them if they could tell me
how many wives Henry VIII had
and what were their names. The
majority of boys in the class could
answer that question straight away,
but when I asked if they could tell
me who was Robert Owen and
when he was born, or on what day
the British co-operative movement
was founded, they could not give
me any answer.”
A V Alexander
The lost principle?
Confidence in
co-operative
possibilities
Education training and information
Co-operatives provide education
and training for their members,
elected representatives,
managers and employees so
they can contribute effectively to
the development of their cooperatives. They inform the
general public - particularly
young people and opinion
leaders - about the nature and
benefits of co-operation.
2012 UN Year of Co-operatives
“Co-operatives provide
vital health, housing and
banking services; they
promote education and
gender equality; they
protect the environment
and workers rights.
Through these and a
range of other activities
they help people better
their lives and those of
their communities.”
Why?
• But where does all this co-operative activity
lead? What is the goal for which cooperators are aiming? Is it merely a more
efficient economic system? It is that; but it is
something more. It is a more satisfying
economic system because it is more moral
and because it solves most of the presentday problems of industry and commerce?
•
Co-operation – Hall and Watkins 1937
Why
Further information
[email protected]
www.co-op.ac.uk