¶ … Mondragon Cooperative Corporation's Basic Principles. Four main factors stand out: 1) the Mondragon Cooperative Corporation's rapidly advancing concept of Work Environment, in accordance with Finance, 2) reasons people change and the nemesis which causes the ever-growing sense of improvement (perceived as advancement) in Retail, 3) Benefits of Autonomy and Self-Reliance in Industry, and 4) the self-determination from which all knowledge is based.
By all means, knowledge poses as the central theme by which these other elements find nourishment; without knowledge, a vital sense of comprehensive awareness, that on-top-of-it characteristic paramount to Mondragon would not exist as it stands.
Work Environment
The move from a mechanized and industrialized culture to a digital society has fundamentally modified what we consider these key-phrases: occupation, employment, profession, career, assignment, and vocation. What's nice, of course, is that advancement and promotional encouragement is much more easily attainable, and will continue to increase as the world's economy strengthens from quite a low that we all currently have. This loss of revenue the entire world has been recovering from, and really still facing, will be compensated soon enough.
Financially, the banking business of Caja Laboral, the insurance company Seguros Lagun Aro, and the Voluntary Social Welfare Body Lagun Aro, all had an asset fund totaling 4.2 billion euros by the end of 2009 (Eroski contigo, 2009). This was more than a year ago; hopefully even now they've still got it straightened all out and continue to prosper.
"The structural reorganization of the Mondragon cooperatives in 1987 and 1989 formalized the basic principles and delineated the legal regulations of the system. Through these meetings, the ten basic principles and the mission for Mondragon were defined."
Fast-forward twenty-plus years. The business setting has changed and is changing to an unprecedented degree.
Conventional cooperatives use accumulated capital for the private use of members. The MCC on the other hand uses accumulated capital for community benefit. The key distinguishing factor of the MCC is not co-operativism per se but the community base as recognized through social equity. Similarly, Gibson-Graham (2006) sees the MCC not as solely a classic cooperative project but as an ethical and political space of decision centered on community. That is, the cooperative form is the tool used to achieve a different end (Social enterprise and socio-legal structure: constructing alternative institutional spaces for economic development).
Regarding advancement, the future must always be regarded as better than the past; this is the significance of history: we then have a base from which to use as a guide. Salaries within any sector do not fluctuate too greatly, and there is always safety to be found in numbers (that is, numbers of other operational employees within any workforce). Therefore, the self-confidence and composure that comes from this assurance instills a sense of serenity and calmness that is inductive to production and progress. Several traditional work ethics and procedures have become entirely unidentifiable to young people entering the workforce of today. In fact, even folks resuming employment after some time off, even a few years, must learn an entirely new code of principles and behaviors.
The financial yield acquired through this structural reorganization of the Mondragon cooperatives will be used to incorporate long-term retirement, widowhood, and invalidity benefits, complementary to those offered by the Spanish social security system. "Caja Laboral, for its part, ended 2009 with 18.6 million euros of deposits in a year in which it granted loans worth 16.4 billion, mainly to household economies and small and medium-sized enterprises. Its extensive experience with the Corporation's Co-operatives enables it to offer SMEs services typical of large companies" (Tonder, 2003).
III. Retail: Reasons People Change
This rapidly advancing technological world seems too rapid and instant to keep track of what has become outdated and discontinued. Everything that was understood as recently developed or modern as recently as three to five years ago is now considered unfashionable, behind the times, old hat, antiquated, square, passe, or outdated. What's more, all the most recent technology that we know as of today will be outdated within three to five years from now. Contemporary, modern, and cutting-edge fits the lingo of the 21st century.
As stated by MacLeod (How to Start a Community Enterprise):
When a group has limited liability the assets of the private citizen are not at risk in the case of a lawsuit. If a society or association carries on a business and is sued, then individual members can be charged and their assets seized in a lawsuit. Under most legal systems, associations and societies are not designed for operating businesses. The legislation of most jurisdictions grants limited...
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