Ford Funds COG Virtual Think Tank

Ford Funds COG Virtual Think Tank

Global problems require global solutions. This requires coordinated international action. The Internet has eliminated distance and time zones as an impediment to a truly international discussion. The Capital Ownership Group, with funding from the Ford Foundation, has established a Virtual Think Tank to enable people from all over the world to join together to develop and implement strategies for broadened ownership.

The Capital Ownership Group (COG) is an informal association of people who’s mission is to: create a coalition that promotes broadened ownership of productive capital; reduce inequality of income and wealth; increase sustainable economic growth; expand opportunities for people to realize their productive and creative potential; stabilize local communities by improving living standards; and enhance the quality of life for all.

Deborah Groban Olson, ESOP lawyer and Chair of the National Center for Employee Ownership, has facilitated the effort to get COG off the ground since a group of its initial members first began discussing the idea at the NCEO’s April 1997 conference in Chicago. The group met in October 1997 to draft a mission statement and again in April 1998 to discuss an ambitious funding proposal to be developed and presented on behalf of COG by the OEOC at Kent State University.

Following a year of discussion with the Ford Foundation, the Capital Ownership Group has been awarded a $100,000 fifteen month grant to build COG’s Virtual Think Tank. The project will create an efficient electronic network to develop viable policies and implementation strategies to broaden capital ownership through employee ownership in an increasingly global economy. COG’s Virtual Think Tank will begin this task by filling three key needs: (1) moderating five important policy discussions via listservs and multiparty chat rooms; (2) housing an electronic library of downloadable articles around the theme of broadened ownership; and (3) hosting electronically the quarterly meetings of the project’s Executive Committee whose membership is drawn from around the globe.

The Ford Foundation funding has allowed Olson to join the OEOC staff on a part time basis. The Center’s staff is responsible for developing and operating COG’s Virtual Think Tank, as well as moderating its initial five policy discussion groups. OEOC moderators will serve as recording secretaries, facilitate monthly on line discussions, and produce a paper which summarizes each group’s discussion and recommendations for next steps in developing and implementing policy proposals.

Readers of Owners At Work are encouraged to check out the COG Virtual Think Tank at http://cog.kent.edu which came on line this summer. From your computer anywhere in the world, you can contribute prepared ideas in written form as well as participate in live-time discussions with other policy discussion group participants. You can also send papers and articles in electronic form and download those of others, which will be available in the Virtual Think Tank library.

Policy discussion topics

The Ford Foundation funding of the COG Virtual Think Tank is linked to a number of outcomes. Specifically, by the summer of 2000, the international discussions being hosted by COG should produce five papers aimed at developing policy, and strategies to achieve their implementation, in multiple countries. By registering at the COG web site, you can be included on a listserv to send and receive written contributions and participate in monthly live-time discussions on any of the following issues:

The "Industrial Homestead" project: Explore the creation of policies which link government incentives provided to private corporations with reciprocal actions by these corporations to broaden ownership.

Employee ownership in privatization: Analyze the uses (and abuses) of employee ownership in the privatization process internationally.

Broadening employee ownership transnationally: Explore existing and potential structures for broad employee ownership to be used in multinational corporations and in international development projects, as well as other transnational actions for broadening ownership.

Building employee ownership at the national level: Canvass the range of national legislative experiences and choices to promote employee ownership and their relative advantages and disadvantages.

Building employee ownership at the subnational level: Look at international experience with state, regional, provincial, and city policies in the public and private sector to support the development of employee ownership.

Individual countries lack the uniformity of action necessary to meet the challenges presented by concentrated global ownership. Perhaps COG’s Virtual Think Tank can play a role in establishing the global communication so fundamental for building the necessary international solidarity of action required. Come join us! Contact project staff at COG@kent.edu.