Cooperative Enterprise Network

Individual businesses are weak. A network is powerful. Build the economic ecosystem they can't crush one.

Pressure addressed: economic

Time: Years to build meaningful network

People: Multiple cooperative enterprises, coordination body

Resources: Multiple existing cooperatives, coordination capacity, shared services

About this tool

One community business can be undercut, bought out, or driven under. But a network of cooperatives, sharing resources, customers, expertise, and mutual support, is resilient in ways individual enterprises aren't. Cooperative Enterprise Networks link community-owned businesses into mutual support systems. Shared purchasing to reduce costs.

How to do it

  1. Build the enterprises first

    You can't network what doesn't exist. Build individual cooperatives before trying to network them.

  2. Identify mutual benefits

    What do cooperatives need that they can share? Purchasing? Customers? Services? Admin?

  3. Create coordination structure

    Light governance for network decisions. Democratic, but not so bureaucratic it outweighs benefits.

  4. Develop shared services

    What's cheaper together? Accounting, legal, marketing, purchasing?

  5. Build emergency support

    When one cooperative faces crisis, the network responds. Mutual aid at enterprise level.

Before you start

  • Multiple existing cooperatives
  • Coordination capacity
  • Trust among enterprises

Implementation guidance

Starting point

  • Multiple cooperatives participating
  • Shared services operational
  • Emergency support fund
  • Regular coordination meetings
  • Cross-referral system working
  • Democratic network governance

Building on it

  • At least 3 cooperatives connected
  • Some shared services
  • Communication channel established

Advanced practice

  • Network announced without enterprises to network
  • Coordination body without member participation
  • Competition disguised as cooperation

Networks without actual enterprises to network are fantasy. Coordination bodies that consume resources without member benefit become parasites. 'Cooperation' that masks competition destroys trust.

Examples

Mondragon Corporation, Spain

Network of worker cooperatives, 80,000+ workers

Largest industrial cooperative in the world, mutual support through economic crises

Source

Evergreen Cooperatives, Cleveland

Network of worker-owned cooperatives anchored to local institutions

Community wealth building through cooperative employment

Source

Further resources