These companies with no CEO are thriving

翻译人员: Sang Summer 校对人员: Yuwei Wu

There's a grocery store in Brooklyn, New York,

纽约布鲁克林区有一家杂货店。

with sales per square foot 4 times as high as any other grocery store

杂货店每平方英尺的销售额是 该地区任何其他杂货店的 4 倍，

in the area.

10,000 people work there, and it doesn’t have a CEO.

这家店有一万名员工， 但却没有CEO。

This place is the Park Slope Food Co-op,

这家店就是公园坡食品合作社，

and it’s one of 3 million cooperatives, or co-ops for short, around the world.

它是全世界三百万家合作企业， 简称合作社，中的一家。

Co-ops are a big part of the global economy:

合作社是全球经济重要的一环：

they employ 280 million people— 10% of the world’s workforce

他们雇用了 2.8 亿名员工， 也就是全球 10% 的劳动力

and the equivalent of over $2 trillion flow through their doors every year.

也相当于每年有 两万亿美元的资金流动。

How is it possible that a business with 10,000 workers doesn’t have a CEO?

为什么一个只有一万名员工 却没有CEO的公司能够顺利运作？

To answer that, we have to talk about what a co-op is and why they were founded.

要回答这个问题，我们必须了解 什么是合作社以及它们形成的原因。

Let’s rewind to 1844.

让时间回到 1844 年。

A group of 28 weavers in Rochdale, England

在英国的洛奇代尔有 28 名织布工人

came together to create and co-own a store.

一起建立了一家商店 并且共同拥有其所有权。

By buying in bulk directly from suppliers, they could negotiate prices,

直接通过供应商大量进货， 让他们有了可以协商价格的机会，

which allowed all of them to buy stuff they couldn't otherwise afford.

变相让他们能够买到之前 负担不起的东西。

They ran the store collectively and democratically,

他们集体又民主地 经营着这家商店，

which was remarkable at the time.

这在当时可谓是 非常了不起的举措。

The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers wasn't the world's first co-op,

罗奇代尔公平先锋协会 并不是全球第一个合作社，

but it was the first to publicize its principles—

但它是第一个宣扬准则的合作社——

principles that guide co-ops to this day.

指引合作社发展至今的准则。

Today, there are all kinds of co-ops:

如今，各种各样的合作社蜂拥而至：

REI in the US and S-Group in Finland are large consumer co-ops.

美国的REI和芬兰的S-Group 都是大型消费者合作社。

Credit unions and mutual insurance companies are financial sector co-ops.

信用合作社和相互保险公司 是经融方面的合作社。

And when farmers or other producers come together, that's a producer co-op.

而且当农民或其他制造商合作时， 便成立了一个制造商合作社。

And then there are worker co-ops,

其他还有工人合作社，

like Mondragon in Spain or The Cheeseboard in Berkeley, California,

像是西班牙的蒙德拉贡公司 或是加州柏克莱的芝士拼盘公司，

which are founded to provide jobs to people in the community.

它们建立的初衷是为了 提供更多工作机会给社区里的人们。

Some consumer co-ops, like Park Slope,

一些消费者合作社， 像是公园坡公司，

require their members to work shifts in the store.

要求它们的员工要在 不同店铺之间来回切换工作。

In exchange for their work, members pay 15 to 50% less for groceries,

他们会在买这些日用品的时候享受 15% 至 50% 的优惠作为工作的报酬，

and they influence what products are— or aren’t— sold there.

他们可以决定哪些东西卖， 哪些东西不卖。

Three crucial things to know about co-ops:

关于合作社你必须了解的 3 件事：

first, all co-ops are jointly owned by their members,

第一，合作社是由其成员共同拥有，

whether those members are consumers, producers, workers, or whoever.

不论那些成员是消费者、 制造商、员工，或是其他成员。

Unlike traditional companies, which can have outside shareholders,

不同于传统的企业拥有外部股东。

all owners of a co-op are also members.

合作社的所有者也是其会员。

Second, co-ops are not founded to maximize profit.

第二，合作社的成立初衷 并不是为了追求最大利润。

Many do turn a significant profit, but that’s not their core mission.

大多数合作社确实有很可观的收入， 但这并不是它们最主要的目的。

So evaluating a co-op purely by traditional business metrics

所以纯粹按照传统业务指标 来评估一个合作社

ignores the most important reason for their existence:

忽略了它们存在的最重要的意义：

how well do they serve their members?

即它们为会员所提供的优质服务？

And third: co-ops are controlled democratically by their members.

还有第三，合作社由会员们 民主地管理支配。

But how do decisions get made?

但决定又如何做出呢？

It varies.

因公司而制宜。

At a small worker co-op like The Cheeseboard,

如果说是一个类似 芝士拼盘公司的小型合作社，

day-to-day operational decisions are just made by the workers.

员工们会做出日常的运营决策。

As co-ops get larger, they do institute some form of leadership or management.

越大的合作社， 越会制定一些领导或管理的方法。

Park Slope has a general manager who leads the 80 or so employees.

公园坡公司便有一位 领导大约 80 名员工的总经理。

And the largest network of worker and consumer co-ops in the world,

蒙德拉贡公司，作为拥有 全球最大员工和消费者关系网的

Mondragon, has a president and managers who lead

the roughly 30,000 worker-owners and 50,000 contract workers.

合作社，有董事长、总经理领导着 大概三万所有者员工和五万合同工。

But leadership roles in a co-op are very different than in a traditional company.

但合作社中领导者的角色 与传统企业的有很大不同。

The leadership implements policies that its members or worker-owners

领导者会执行全体所有员工 全票通过的政策。

have agreed upon, by vote.

And at Mondragon workers, can vote to fire the president.

在蒙德拉贡公司，员工们甚至可以

At a co-op, there’s no single person

投票决定要不要炒了他们的董事长。 一个合作社里，没有一个人拥有支配一切的、

with overarching, top-down power over everyone else,

like a CEO would have in a traditional company.

自上而下的权力不可凌驾于他人之上 不像传统企业里的CEO。

Meanwhile, in both co-ops and traditional companies,

与此同时， 在合作社和传统企业之中，

major company-wide decisions are made by voting.

重要的公司范围内的决定 都是通过投票决定的。

But who votes and how is wildly different.

但谁来投票以及怎样投票 却大不相同。

In a traditional company, voting rights usually come with shares of stock.

在一个传统公司中， 投票权往往掌握在股东手中。

The more shares you own, the more votes you have.

你拥有越多的股票， 你便拥有更大的投票权。

Take Alphabet, the parent company of Google:

以字母控股，谷歌的母公司为例：

there are thousands of shareholders,

这家公司有成千上万个股东，

but the two founders control 51% of the votes

但是由两个创办者 掌握着 51% 的投票权

and therefore the direction of the company.

因此也掌握着公司的未来动向。

In a co-op, every member has the right to vote,

在一个合作社中， 每个会员都有投票的权利，

and in most co-ops, every member gets one vote.

而且在大多数合作社中， 每个会员都有一票。

That difference results in radically different policies

这种差异导致了合作社和传统企业 有着完全不同的政策。

than you’d find at traditional companies.

For example, Mondragon limits the salaries of its management

例如，蒙德拉贡将其管理层的工资限制 在最低工资工人的 6 倍左右。

to about 6 times what the lowest paid worker makes.

In Spain, CEOs of traditional companies make, on average,

在西班牙，平均来说传统企业CEO 的工资是普通员工的 143 倍。

143 times as much as a typical worker.

At Park Slope, there’s a monthly general meeting,

在公园坡公司，会有每月例会，

where any member can show up to vote,

会员可以参加例会投票表决，

and a motion needs a simple majority to pass.

一个议案只需要 大多数人同意就可通过。

It then gets taken up by the Board of directors,

然后逐渐由合作社成员组成的董事会 取代并且正式批准。

which is composed of co-op members, for official approval.

At The Cheeseboard, the worker-owners try to reach consensus on major decisions.

在芝士拼盘公司，所有者员工想要 尝试在一些重大的决策上达成共识。

This means that some decisions can take a long time.

这意味着有些决策 可以拖延很长时间。

For example, in the late 1970s,

举一个例子， 上个世纪 70 年代末，

the workers debated whether to post a sign outside declaring

员工们为了是否要向外贴标宣称

that The Cheeseboard was a collective for one and a half years.

芝士拼盘公司是集体企业 而争论了一年半。

But the extensive discussion, and disagreements,

但是围绕这个决策的 广泛争论和反对声音，

around that decision made it a solid one—

使其愈发坚定——

The Cheeseboard still advertises the fact that it’s a collective

即使过了 50 年。芝士拼盘公司仍宣传

almost 50 years later.

它是一个集体企业。

And that’s not all that’s working well at co-ops.

但这不一定适合所有的合作社。 英国的研究表明，合作社初创企业

Studies in the UK show that co-op start-ups are almost half as likely

在五年内关闭的可能性几乎是 传统企业的一半。一项专题调查中，

to close within five years as traditional businesses.

And in one study, researchers polled 600 workers

研究人员调研了六百名来自 两个家庭医疗保健业务的员工：

at two in-home healthcare businesses:

one was a worker co-op and the other was a traditional company.

一个是员工合作社， 还有一个是传统的企业公司。

The workers did similar work with similar salaries.

这些员工从事相似的业务， 领着相似的薪水。

The biggest difference?

那他们最大的区别是什么呢？

Co-op workers were about 40% happier with their jobs.

合作社员工对工作的满意程度 要比传统公司的高上 40% 。