Setting a Process for General Manager Compensation
By Carolee Colter, Mark Goehring 134 Jan - Feb - 2008 What are some words that come to mind when you think of general manager compensation? Uncomfortable. Problematic. Crazy. Or: Exciting. Challenging. Strategic. Even though everyone might say that general manager (GM) compensation is important, it doesn’t always get handled that way. In order to help your board and GM approach this topic in [...]
Home-Grown Talent: A guide to promoting from within
By Carolee Colter 122 January - February - 2006 Promoting leaders from among your existing staff offers a lot of advantages. Surprises are minimized—the person’s strengths and weaknesses are known quantities. Furthermore, you can reward and keep your good workers by giving them more responsibility and compensation instead of losing them to other careers. You send a message to the other staff that their [...]
Making Co-ops A Great Place to Work
By Marilyn Scholl, Carolee Colter 088 May - June - 2000 What we love most about co-ops is the emphasis on people. Food co-ops are businesses that operate on a human scale, valuing individual voices--whether it be the democratic aspect of choosing leaders, the ongoing dialogue with customers through comment boards, or staff involvement in key decisions. In cooperatives, people are valued. What drives [...]
The Perils of Co-Management
By Carolee Colter 051 March - April - 1994 Is it inevitable that all "new wave" co-ops founded in the 1970s will end up with general managers? While only a few have had a general manager from the beginning, many co-ops have followed a path from management by volunteers, to management by collectives of paid staff, to some form of co-management or management team, [...]