Measuring success to enable development as a mutual or a cooperative

12 December 2014

Blog by Ramsey Margolis, Director HUIA C•D•S. HUIA C•D•S is an associate member of the BCCM

There are two ways of measuring success that CMEs (cooperative and mutual enterprises) need to be paying attention to, and they’re quite different.

Firstly, success as a business. This is comparatively easy to measure as many of the standard business metrics are also relevant to CMEs and can be applied with ease.

Secondly, success as a mutual or a cooperative. This is not so easy and is very much a work in progress. Having developed the World Cooperative Monitor around business metrics, the International Cooperative Alliance is now putting effort into developing the means of measuring success in member terms, and we’ll be seeing the fruits of this research over the next few years as new rankings are published.

California Center for Cooperative Development recently surveyed their members and supporters to find out the areas they wanted the Center to focus on. The results below ranked highest interest in the survey.

Governance

• Board/Co-op Leadership Roles and Responsibilities
• Roles and Responsibilities of Co-op Boards
• Understanding Financial Statements
• Productive and Effective Meetings
• Consensus Decision Making and Meeting Process

Cooperative Basics and Start-up

• Financing New Co-op Start-ups
• Feasibility Study and Business Plans
• Organizing Communities for Membership Recruitment
• Cooperatives 101
• Starting a Cooperative through a Buyout of an Existing Business
• Building Co-op Membership
• Developing Co-ops as a Strategy for Job Creation among Disenfranchised Groups

Legal Issues

• Legal Issues in Cooperatives
• Co-ops and Employment Laws
• Legal Issues Involved with Financing Approaches
• Evaluations in a Worker Co-ops

Cooperative Operations

• Maintaining and Increasing Member Involvement
• Promoting a Harmonious Co-op Culture
• Maintaining a Cooperative Culture Through Growth and Change
• Accountability in Cooperatives

Promoting Cooperatives & the Co-op Difference

• How to Achieve a Competitive Edge in your Industry
• Marketing the Co-op Model
• Communicating the Cooperative Difference
• Marketing the Co-op Advantage
• Effectively Communicating the Co-op Story

Could these be good starting points for discussion in how to develop the mutual or cooperative nature of your business and, crucially, measure the success of your endeavour?

Ramsey Margolis (ramsey@huia.coop) is a writer, speaker and cooperative business development strategist, and the founder of Huia C·D·S. From 2006–13 he served as Executive Director of Cooperative Business NZ (formerly NZ Cooperatives Assn), and was on the Board of Managers of DotCooperation LLC from 2008–11. Huia C·D·S is an Associate Member of Business Council of Co-operatives and Mutuals.