Future Co-operative 2010

I came into work this morning (albeit a bit late from oversleeping) with a bounce in my step. There is nothing quite like spending time with a bunch of people who share your vision for the future.

Yes it is that time of year, Future Co-operatives 2010 where advocates of co-operation get together and talk about the future of the movement and what it will look like.

As usual most of the serious work took place on the Friday with meetings of the worker co-operative council and co-operative development network. There was also a worker co-operative open forum (some of this discussion I will cover in a future blog). The most serious work of the weekend took place in the in the Bar. I chance Inever miss to talk to members and improve my knowledge of the sector...

On the Saturday Ed Mayo (Secretary General, Co-operatives UK) gave a thought provoking speech on the case for co-operation. How it is part of our human nature to share, work together and yes, co-operate. He spoke too about the state of the economy, society in general and how there is an alternative to the current situation.

How our challenge as co-operatives are to be that alternative; to evidence and argue that co-operation and co-operative business works and can create a more equal and sustainable future.

Sion Whellens (Calvert's) ran a session on Principle 6 and the power of co-operating in business. How our ability to use each others networks, increase all our business opportunities is under utilised (something I have talked about before in my blog). A great example of this in action: one delegate as part of their 60 sec pitch requested an introduction to a permanent secretary in a Government ministry, amazingly someone was able to deliver.

Vivian Woodell (Chief Executive, Phone Co-op) ran a session on developing a successful affinity scheme. The Phone Co-op offers a deal where co-operatives and organisation that promote their services get a share of the resulting sale. Co-operatives UK takes part in this scheme, (we pass on this share direct to our member resulting in a 6% discount on phone calls) members offers .

The Co-operative Group launched www.hive.coop a website for members to socialise and talk about co-operatives (yes I've already created a worker co-operative group, can you find it?).

The Saturday finished off with a Q&A's panel session chaired by Jo White. The event was great and gave me renewed focus in my work.

I was left however with the feeling that it could have been bigger and involved a wider audience: Housing Co-operatives, Credit Unions, employee owned businessed and others interested in creating a better world through co-operation.

This event seems to have grown every year, I am already looking forward to next year and hope you will be there too.

Business Referral Network

I attended a Co-operativesNW event yesterday and had a revelation. 30 or so co-operatives in the room stood, and told me about their business. What they want, who they want to talk to, and that dream contract they would like to land.

Although we talk to each other about values, promoting the movement and improving society, how often as co-operatives do we actually talk about what our business needs are and what business opportunities we could help each other with?

Not as much as we should, and not as much as many other businesses. Whether through the local chamber of commerce, sharing a round of golf, or as a member of a select club or Network, businesses with less history of co-operation are co-operating with each other to increase their business opportunities.

One of the priorities of the worker co-operative council is to improve trading between worker co-operatives. So we asked Co-operativesNW if we could hold our meeting on the same day and run a session at their event. Sion Whellens from Calverts a long standing member of the BNI ran a session on this topic.

Sion started by talking about the BNI, the point of it and the amount of business referrals received from these weekly meetings. He then invited attendees to do a 60 second pitch about their business:

• Name
• Where they are based
• What they provide
• Why people should buy from them
• Who you want to talk to:

Although we didn't have time it is also usual to reverse the process, with everyone returning to the stage to tell the room what business referrals they can make, based on what people have asked for. This really would get you paying attention to other peoples pitch!

The session went incredibly well and people hung about at the end far longer than usual, to catch each other and to share contacts. It somehow felt right, and as if we should be doing this more often.

As a way of enabling co-operatives to find each other work, of helping individual co-operative grow and building the co-operative commonwealth as a whole, business referral networking is part of the answer. It’s what Principle 6 – co-operative amongst co-operatives – is all about. So if you are and experianced at business networking get in touch with us or your local Regional Co-operative Council and get organising!

Principle 6: Trading together, do we?

When I first learnt about co-operatives, I thought Principle 6: Co-operating with other Co-operatives was the most powerful of all the principles and gave co-operatives a serious competitive advantage against other forms of business and other social enterprises for that matter.

I imagined this to be like being in the Freemasons, or going to the right University. The right handshake, name dropping Horace, George, or the Fenwick Weavers and you would be instantly given all the advice, business contacts and co-operation you required from fellow members of the movement.

Now that I have been "in the movement" for 18 months and talked to a lot of co-operatives, I find that this is not always the case, particularly the trading together aspect of Principle 6. There is interest though: for some a genuine commitment to a stronger movement and helping fellow co-ops, for others its just good business sense.

People do try and are successful, but this is mainly the larger co-operatives or in an informal way. There are some who try to inter-trade, market to fellow co-operatives and don't meet with much success. There has even been a proposal put forward to develop a business referral network called "principle six". So does it work? Can co-operatives trade together?

Some examples of success:

• Fair trade & supporting producers in developing countries - A good example is Palestinian Olive Producers supported by Zaytoun & Olive Co-op are selling under the Equal Exchange label in Co-operative retailers like the Co-operative Group and the many smaller retailers. The wider fair trade work done by the co-operative movement has helped 1000s of farmer co-operatives round the world.
  
• Initial growth in Co-operative Sector - Historically the consumer societies had a strong tradition of co-operating with each other, the formation of the Co-operative Wholesale Society and CRTG.
• The Co-operative - The Renaissance in the Co-operative Brand and the sector as a whole is in part down to the continuing co-operation between the consumer societies.
• The Phone Coop - has been particularly successful at using other co-operatives to promote its services, Co-operatives UK members for example get a 6% discount and we promote this as part of our membership offer.
  

Through formal co-operating (CRTG) , to the less formal (worker co-op wholesaler selling each other products), co-operatives can and do co-operate. What I am interested in, is why small and medium sized co-operatives and in particular worker co-operatives find it difficult to trade together. This is not just about inter-trading but doing joint projects, making business referrals to each other.

Here's one idea for doing using Principle 6 to trade together, (send me more):
Joint marketing is the process of promoting your co-op to the customers of other co-ops. For example, suppose you wholesale ethical products to small ethical retailers, your customers, probably have a website, bank account, phone line, and you would hope accounts.

You could ask co-op providers of these services to offer a benefit to your customers (of course with an extra discount if these customers are co-ops themselves). If your products are relevant to their customers you could mirror the deal and promote to their customers. This could result in a win-win situation for both of you.

Step 1 - Understand your numbers. You'll need these to demonstrate how much money your fellow co-op could make. For instance, work out what your response rate is for a typical direct-mail campaign and the value of each new customer.

Step 2 - List products and services that are complementary or related to your own, and that you would like to offer your customers. Don't leave out products or services that aren't necessarily related but in which your customers might still be interested.

Step 3 - Search for co-ops that sell those products and services. Then contact those people and propose a meeting to explain your strategy further or get in touch with me to make the link.

Step 4 - Get an agreement. When negotiating your deal, always try to get an agreement to extend your relationship and be clear what you both expect from each other.

Step 5 - Contact Co-operatives UK so we can promote what you have achieved, share the learning or even better get us involved in the idea from the start.

Before you go and start looking for opportunities:

How much trade do we already do with each other?
What stops us from doing more?
What things could we do to improve it?

If you are as interested in the answers to these questions as I am please fill in this quick survey and I will publish the results at the end of October. Together we can look at improving our Principle 6 behaviour. Please leave any comments on this blog or start a discussion here.