Workers’ Buyout for Company Succession: Alternative Organizational Models and Their Positive Effects

Workers’ buyout (WBO), the co-ownership of a company by the workforce as a cooperative, is a model that has been used successfully around the world to save companies in crisis. The aim of this chapter is to show how WBO can also be used for company succession and under what conditions it creates the basis for an approach to holistic innovation. Based on the study of the active cooperative scene in Italy, it will be shown which framework conditions contribute to the success of cooperatives in general, and WBO in particular; Italy has abt. 60,000 cooperatives and Germany 8,000. The case study on oose eG, a company that has transformed itself into a self-organized cooperative, examines which organizational elements and structures contribute to innovative strength in companies, and built innovations as their platform haqoo. Based on a practical case study, this chapter argues that WBO offers potential for creating a sustainable economy, redefining economic success and distributing the added value generated. Co-ownership enables former employees to participate in fundamental decisions. The international cooperative principles promote cooperative work, mutual support, and the development of ecosystems. This creates ideal conditions for a holistic development and implementation of social innovations, and at oose eG, this can be also multiplied externally via haqoo.