25 IN 2012 . . . AND RISING
On the first day of this new year, South Mountain began its 25th year as an employee owned company (and its 38th year in business). It was on January 1, 1987 that we converted from a sole proprietorship in my ownership to a democratically owned worker co-operative. As I’ve so often said, it was a hinge point in the history of the company.
When I started South Mountain in 1975 I was 25. Now there’s a group of us in our sixties who will gradually retire during the coming decades (starting with Mike Drezner at the end of this year) and a collection of new, younger owners poised to lead SMC in to its 2nd generation, and beyond. My personal goal: to still be going strong in 2025, when SMC turns 50 and I’m 75.
The last few years, however, haven’t been easy. We’ve been on semi-permanent scuffle: working hard, all the time, to keep everyone working, to keep adjusting, and to keep expanding the diversity of what we do. In our many years in business there have, of course, been other tough times, but never did it require such prolonged arduous efforts. One thing is for certain: we have left no sacred cow un-skewered.
And we’ve emerged. We scuffle no longer.
SMC is wide awake and our temperature is rising. Now we are faced with managing fulfillment of the many exciting projects we have before us. And I’m one helluva lot happier to bust our tails trying to figure out how to get things done than to bust our tails trying to figure out how to have enough to do.
As we begin the year a quick survey of the projects in progress serves to remind me that we are a very different company than the SMC of several years ago. From many connected new endeavors and approaches a new dynamic of diversity is emerging and rapidly becoming the norm.
Right now we are finishing the following: renovations in Oak Bluffs and Edgartown; a sweet little high performance home in Aquinnah for the daughter of old friends and former SMC stalwart Bruce Ignacio; a deep energy retrofit to a 1930’s Chilmark cottage where SMC owner Billy Dillon and wife Amy live, and a 70 KW solar electric system and associated energy improvements that will make a large Chilmark property – where we have built three homes over 20 years – energy neutral! Meanwhile, every week or two we complete a new residential solar electric system, and they keep on coming.
We have just begun a remarkable renovation project for the wonderful new owners of a storied Chilmark property that has a very tight schedule and some interesting architectural excursions. Phase One will be completed in June, after which we’ll drink a cup of coffee, take a deep breath while the owners enjoy, and continue in the fall with Phase 2.
We are designing a large barn/workshop/gallery for an artist in West Tisbury; it will include a greenhouse, composting toilet, and rainwater collection, as well as a large solar electric system that will provide all the electricity needs for this 50 acre property (see a pattern here?).
Meanwhile, along with our other design projects, we are working with Vineyard Power on permits and design for two very exciting commercial solar electric projects: 50 Kilowatts on the Aquinnah landfill for municipal power, and three parking lot canopies at Cronig’s supermarket that will provide 210 kilowatts and be the largest renewable energy project – by a fair margin – on Martha’s Vineyard to date, and the first parking lot canopies in Massachusetts.
We are also beginning some new projects off-island as well, including a planned net zero deep energy retrofit of a 50 year old 25 unit affordable housing complex in Falmouth, and a design for a new house in Vermont, which is way off our usual beaten track!!
So our 25th year as an employee owned company looks like it will be a thrilling one. We owe a lot of the excitement to the structure that has allowed us to safely navigate the rough waters of the last few years. With all oars pulling together we’ve been able to haul ourselves out of the storm. For now, we’re clear.
Happy New Year. Onward we go.
GET YOURSELF TO BURLINGTON!!
If you’re interested in employee ownership, one of the very best places you can be is Burlington Vermont on June 10th for the Ninth Annual Vermont Employee Ownership Conference.
Over the years I’ve been part of many of these gatherings. I’ve always learned a lot, always enjoyed myself, and always appreciated the fine work of the Vermont Employee Ownership Center, the organization responsible (and one of only two statewide employee ownership centers I know of – the other being in Ohio). Full conference details and online registration are available at http://www.veoc.org. For more information, call 802-861-6611 or email info@veoc.org.
This year’s opening plenary will feature the stories of some of the latest companies in Vermont to choose employee ownership, including Vermont Aerospace, a manufacturing business based in Lyndonville that recently become 100% employee-owned through an Employee Stock Ownership Plan, and PT360, a new physical therapy practice that is organized as a worker cooperative.
It’s a great opportunity to hear what led company leaders to choose employee ownership and what differences they expect it to make to their business and to their employees.
I can’t make it this year – wish I could. I hope you can.
CRAFTING A BUSINESS OWNED BY ITS WORKERS
During the past year I have been in correspondence and conversation with a number of people who are transitioning their companies to employee ownership, starting worker co-ops, or thinking in new ways about worker ownership and cooperative business.
Among them: Rick Dubrow and Cindy Landreth at A-1 Builders in Bellingham, WA, who are working on an employee buyout of the business they bought in 1976 from the original owner who started it in 1955; Jamie Odegaard who, with four friends, is starting a worker owned building company in Western Massachusetts; James Kosacz, the president of Autoworks in Kittery, ME, who is considering selling to his employees; Mark Skimson, in Terrace, BC, who is leading an effort to make a co-op purchase of a small ski area called Shames Mountain (following the path blazed by Mad River Glen in Vermont); Jeffrey Hollender and Gregor Barnum, formerly of Seventh Generation in Vermont (Jeffrey was the founder of 7th Gen) who are developing a major new – and very exciting – co-operative enterprise.
And the list goes on. Read more
EXITS & OPPORTUNITIES
BO BURLINGHAM IS AN INC. MAGAZINE editor-at-large who has been writing about entrepreneurship for three decades. I know him; we have crossed paths several times. But I know him much better from his writing, which includes a fine book called SMALL GIANTS: Companies That Choose to Be Great Instead of Big (I have to admit here, sheepishly, and maybe arrogantly at the same time, that when I read that book I wished we had been included).
The November issue of INC., has a long piece by Bo called “What Am I, If Not My Business?” which is about the challenges entrepreneurs face in leaving their companies when they retire or sell. He is in the midst of writing a book about the subject.
SMC IN THE NEWS
I’d like to share some nice press SMC has received recently.
The first two are recent articles in local magazines about projects of ours.
CO-OPS ON THE RISE
I’m still excited about the budding alliance between the United Steelworkers (USW) and the Mondragon Cooperatives – and the general awakening consciousness about worker co-operatives and co-operative business in general that I wrote about last month.
And there’s more.
AN HISTORIC ALLIANCE
My friend David Smathers of the TeamWorks Cooperative Network in California writes:
“The Mondragon cooperatives and the United Steelworkers have announced an historic partnership through which they will buy or start manufacturing businesses in the U.S. and Canada that will combine Mondragon’s democratic structure of ownership and governance with collective bargaining.
It will take many years to implement. But particularly in the face of the economic crisis that has exposed Wall Street’s failure to provide responsible stewardship of the economy, this is a very heartening development. Together, these two institutions have the resources, technical expertise, and vision to demonstrate to the public that it is possible to structure and run large corporations in entirely different ways than what we have become accustomed to.”
Sharing Ownership of the Future
One more post (which might become two) about employee ownership and workplace democracy before I veer off toward some related topics. . . .
Despite the Obama administration’s recent shift in emphasis from homeownership to rental housing (which I will discuss in detail in a future post), homeownership is at the very heart of the American dream. Owning our work, and finding meaning there, seems as essential to a good life as owning our homes. But although many of us own homes, far fewer own our work.
Moving A Mountain
Blogging is new to me. In fact, this is my first entry. The question is: why am I doing this? Why am I doing it to me and why am I doing it to you? I hope for good reason. There are two I can think of, so far.
The first is this. Over time, as South Mountain Company has matured (sort of), and in the course of my professional relationships, book adventures, speaking opportunities, and teaching experiences, I have found a small group of people who seem to be interested in what’s going on at SMC – what we are doing and thinking about. I’m curious to communicate with you, and others – in some organized way – to see what might come of this far-flung web of relationships.
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JOHN ABRAMS is co-founder and CEO
of South Mountain Company and the author
of COMPANIES WE KEEP read more
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COMPANIES WE KEEP is published by Chelsea Green Publishing
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