Looking forward to summer? We are! Time to relax a little and enjoy the weather after what was a rough winter and late spring. So we will see you again in September when we can all get back into taking care of business and looking forward to the vibrant colours of fall.

When Your Business Grows, Your Culture Should Too
- from NCEO Newsletter

As your business grows in tandem with the growth of your workloads and the demand for your services, it can be easy to neglect the importance of scaling your culture as the number of your clients, employees, and locations increases over time. While there may not be a one-size-fits-all solution to scaling your business and culture in alignment with one another, there are certainly some practices and important steps in the process that will help you get ahead of potential challenges. ... [More...]

Barrick Shares the Wealth
- from Mining.com

Barrick Gold, the world's top miner of the precious metal, is moving forward with its global employee share plan, which aims at making every staff member an owner of the company.
As part of the initiative, launched in 2016, the Canadian miner’s employees will receive this year 90 shares each, taking the total held by staff to more than 1.5 million shares. ... [More...]

The Case of the Consulting Engineers
  - by Perry Phillips, ESOP Builders.Inc.

1. Executive Summary. An environmental consultant firm implements an ESOP to recruit leaders in the business. The owner deemed the ESOP was a great succession plan as it “allowed me to retire earlier than I had planned”.
2. Challenges. A company was experiencing  poor growth despite previous years of 20% growth. The owner knew he had to recruit experienced leaders to take the organization to the next level. The owner had previously asked a lawyer to draw up a plan. The plan favoured the owner and as a result, employee trust needed to be regained.
3. How We Helped. The owner realized employee ownership could be a competitive advantage and hired ESOP Builders to implement a plan. Using the ESOP Transformation Model, ESOP Builders worked with the owner and key staff to design and implement a plan that was considered fair to everyone.
4. Results. The company has seen 40% ROI for the past ten years. Share value has increased from 25 cents to $5.40. Employees increased from 40 to 140, of which one third have become owners. The ESOP provided the owner with a working exit strategy. The owner stated “it was a great idea and a way for me to divest … in the end we are a better company for it.”

Your Company's Hidden Value & the "Magic Accelerator" - Part I
- by Vincent Côté, Hero's Guide Inc.

Typically, when someone speaks of growing the value of their business, they are talking about improving their revenue or profit. But did you know there is “hidden value” within your company that can be discovered if you know where to look? Furthermore, there is a magic that happens if you focus efforts on unlocking this hidden value, that acts as a “Value Accelerator”. In part one of this article, we will introduce the Value Builder system. ... [More...]

Nine of Top 50 Supermarket Chains Are Employee Ownership Companies
- from NCEO Newsletter

Nine of the top 50 grocery chains are partly or majority employee-owned, according to a ranking from Progressive Grocer. In the list below, the companies with an asterisk are less than majority employee-owned. All have ESOPs except H.E. Butt and Hy-Vee, which use profit sharing plans to share ownership.

All the Canadian ESOP Guidance You Need in One Book

ESOPs in Canada: How to Implement an Employee Share Ownership Plan to Grow and Exit Your Business with Your Legacy Intact is a comprehensive and practical guide to every aspect of designing and implementing an Employee Share Ownership Plan in Canada.
 

“This is a must read for those business owners thinking about exploring the notion of employee ownership and discovering that “skin in the game” for those on the front lines of leadership is a secret weapon to surpassing your wildest dreams and forecasts! It is magic”

~ Doug Flynn, CEO, Flynn Group of Companies

Notable Quotables
"I am a great believer in luck. I find the harder I work the more I have of it." -- Thomas Jefferson

Upcoming ESOP Events
See ESOP Builders events page for details on upcoming ESOP events. 

Canadian ESOP and Ownership Thinking Books

ESOPs in Canada: How to Implement an Employee Share Ownership Plan to Grow and Exit Your Business with Your Legacy Intact (2015) by Perry Phillips and Camille Jensen.  Buy this book on Amazon or FriesenPress.

The $10 Trillion Opportunity: Designing Successful Exit Strategies for Middle Market Business Owners: A Guide for Professional Advisors - Canadian Edition (2007) by Perry Phillips and Richard E. Jackim.  Buy this book on Amazon. 　
　
Dr. Carol Beatty's book, Employee Ownership: The New Source of Competitive Advantage (published by Wiley and Sons 2001 - ISBN 0-471-64641-5).  Buy this book on Amazon.
　
Brad Hams' book, Ownership Thinking: How to End Entitlement and Create a Culture of Accountability, Purpose, and Profit (published by McGraw-Hill 2011- ISBN-10: 0071772456 - ISBN-13: 978-0071772457).  Buy this book on Amazon.

If you have any questions or feedback (or suggestions for future email newsletter content), please let us know at lisa@esopbuilders.com　　 　

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