{"id":5392,"date":"2021-10-15T13:22:00","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T13:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/?p=5392"},"modified":"2023-07-21T16:08:25","modified_gmt":"2023-07-21T16:08:25","slug":"steward-ownership-redefining-ownership-for-mission-driven-ventures","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/steward-ownership-redefining-ownership-for-mission-driven-ventures\/","title":{"rendered":"Steward-ownership: Redefining ownership for mission-driven ventures"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<style type=\"text\/css\" data-created_by=\"avia_inline_auto\" id=\"style-css-av-l5mh8b20-092d170c7a893cf7bfb3aca8120a81c4\">\n#top .av_textblock_section.av-l5mh8b20-092d170c7a893cf7bfb3aca8120a81c4 .avia_textblock{\nfont-size:18px;\n}\n<\/style>\n<section  class='av_textblock_section av-l5mh8b20-092d170c7a893cf7bfb3aca8120a81c4 '   itemscope=\"itemscope\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/BlogPosting\" itemprop=\"blogPost\" ><div class='avia_textblock'  itemprop=\"text\" ><p data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">\n<p data-selectable-paragraph=\"\"><a href=\"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us.jpg\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-medium wp-image-9994\" src=\"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us-1030x579.jpg 1030w, https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us-1536x864.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us-1500x844.jpg 1500w, https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us-705x397.jpg 705w, https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/07\/zeiss_tor_about-us.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">\n<p id=\"ce44\" class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl me kn ko kp mf kr ks kt mg kv kw kx mh kz la lb mi ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Many modern technology companies are created by teams of young, idealistic founders who truly want to make the world a better place. Their business ideas are often born from a genuine desire to fix a certain societal problem. In an ideal scenario, they can align their purpose and their profits: every dollar they make also advances their cause. Think of a company that produces solar panels or makes an app to buy food that would otherwise go to waste. On the surface, this sounds like a perfect equation: as the company\u2019s business scales, so does its positive impact.<\/p>\n<p id=\"8020\" class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb lc ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Unfortunately, this genuine willingness to be mission-driven is not enough. The world is complicated. What sounds like a business model that generates a purely positive impact can have surprising negative side effects. As the company grows bigger, it might need to venture into business areas that are no longer aligned with its original mission in order to sustain growth.<\/p>\n<p data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">If a company is structured in a traditional way, it still needs to ultimately listen to the demands of its stockholders. If the stockholders are primarily interested in maximizing their profits \u2014 and this is often the case for any company that is public or has sold more than 50% of its equity to venture capitalists \u2014 the company\u2019s management is incentivized to put its social mission on the backburner and focus on profits and growth instead.<\/p>\n<p id=\"d856\" class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb lc ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\"><strong>Steward-ownership<\/strong> is a company structure designed to ensure that our company\u2019s profits are purely a means to pursue its mission, and forever removes any personal financial incentive of profit maximisation from the company\u2019s management. The steward-ownership structure is protected with a foundation structure and can never be dismantled once introduced.<\/p>\n<p class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb lc ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">From now on, it\u2019s in the best interest of your management to put our social mission first, even if that means slowing down your growth. Everyone working in the company is incentivized, first and foremost, to make decisions that benefit not just the owners of the company, but all other stakeholders, the environment, and society at large. After this change, you can finally \u2014 confidently \u2014 say that your company will always be a force for good in society<\/p>\n<p id=\"1bfc\" class=\"lg lh iw bn li lj lk ll lm ln lo lp lq lr ls lt lu lv lw lx ly lz ma mb mc md fy\"><strong>History of steward-ownership<\/strong><\/p>\n<p id=\"bae4\" class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl me kn ko kp mf kr ks kt mg kv kw kx mh kz la lb mi ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Steward-ownership is relatively new as a term, but the underlying concept is almost as old as limited liability corporations, the structure adopted by most modern companies. The original steward-ownership model was invented by Ernst Abbe, co-owner of the successful German optics manufacturing company ZEISS, founded in 1846. Abbe had worked as a professor at the university of the city of Jena, where he invented the technology behind ZEISS\u2019s success. This likely led him to the insight that the value and the profits created by ZEISS did not belong just to him, but to everyone working at the company and society at large.<\/p>\n<p id=\"90a8\" class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb lc ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">After the company\u2019s founder Carl Zeiss died in 1888, Abbe created the Carl Zeiss foundation, which has owned ZEISS ever since. The foundation ensures that the company cannot be sold and profits are either reinvested or donated to the common good. Abbe then introduced several important rights for the workers, amongst them a health and pension insurance for the workers and an 8-hour workday. He also instituted a principle that the highest salary of any ZEISS employee cannot be higher than 12 times the lowest salary a worker gets after being at the company for two years.<\/p>\n<p id=\"386f\" class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb lc ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Today, more than hundred years later, ZEISS is thriving. Its business consists of manufacturing optical systems, industrial measurements, and medical devices. Its annual revenue exceeds 5 billion euros and annual profits 600 million euros. Charitable donations from ZEISS are an important source of funding for the university of Jena, where its technology was originally created.<\/p>\n<p id=\"d84d\" class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb lc ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">Since then, several other major companies have adopted similar structures. The most well-known ones include German engineering and electronics company Bosch (revenue 78 billion euros and profit 5.3 billion euros in 2017) and British department store chain John Lewis (revenue 2015 11 billion pounds and profits more than 400 million pounds).<\/p>\n<p class=\"pw-post-body-paragraph ki kj iw kk b kl km kn ko kp kq kr ks kt ku kv kw kx ky kz la lb lc ld le lf ip fy\" data-selectable-paragraph=\"\"><strong>Steward-ownership<\/strong> is not only reserved for \u201cimpact companies\u201d trying to cure diseases, build technology for renewable energy, or tackling poverty. The model can be applied to any company that is building useful products, like the examples of Bosch, John Lewis and ZEISS show. <mark class=\"va vb og\">The purpose of the structure is simply to make sure that our companies are in service of society, not the other way around.<\/mark>If the management of a steward-owned company comes to the conclusion that the company\u2019s net impact is no longer positive due to its negative externalities, the management is incentivized to change the company\u2019s ways.<\/p>\n<p data-selectable-paragraph=\"\">\n<\/div><\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9994,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5392","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-international-fashion","category-geen-categorie"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5392"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9995,"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5392\/revisions\/9995"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9994"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/aaafashionconsultancy.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}