By Art Sherwood 163 November-December 2012 Expansion and growth are on the minds of many cooperative board and management leaders. And this makes sense, since growing our cooperatives’ abilities to deliver on their organizational Ends is of critical strategic importance. It certainly was on our minds at Bloomingfoods Co-op (Bloomington, Ind.) this last year as we addressed growing to include a fourth store and [...]
Chapters: Overview Ends to Interpretation Interpretations to Strategic Planning Planning to Action Ends Reporting Communicating Ends Accomplishment Note: Click to view all chapters
The job interview is your best tool for making the right hiring decision. You can't count on references, and resumes are designed to make the candidate look good. The job interview is your best tool for making the right hiring decision. You can't count on references, and resumes are designed to make the candidate look good. However, research shows most interviewers decide, consciously or [...]
When I was a new CEO, I misunderstood why some employees performed well with my direction while others did not. Even worse, I allowed some employees to be mediocre for too long while I gave up on others too soon. Organization-wide, we were all struggling with this same issue: what are the appropriate responsibilities of managers in accountability? So we hired a consultant to [...]
By Stuart Reid 163 November-December 2012 The mayor spoke at the co-op’s ribbon cutting, and it seemed like the whole town turned out to celebrate. The local paper wrote excitedly about the new grocery store. The future seemed bright. Nine months later, the fledgling store was begging members for additional cash infusions. Before its second anniversary, the co-op closed its doors. This story is [...]
Have you ever been in a room with 2,800 cooperators from around the world? This past October, cooperators from around the world gathered for the Imagine Conference and International Cooperative Summit in Quebec. The experience was nothing short of inspiring. The room was approximately the size of three football fields filled with people dedicated to making the world a better place! You can imagine [...]
