Transcriber: Thơ Hoàng Minh Anh Reviewer: Hani Eldalees
Thank you very much. Good day, everyone.
My name is Bernhard, I’m from Vienna and I grew up in the 70s and 80s
in a very safe and family centered environment.
Discussing with my parents about society values and politics
was a normal thing when I was young,
but less from the perspective of political parties,
but more about the importance of individual freedom, social engagement,
and about how important values are in life to make society a better place.
By the way, this is me, 1973,
explaining the world to the governor of the state of upper Austria.
However, as a kid discussing with my dad and also later as an adult,
it has been very difficult to understand how the individual freedom
and responsibility for others go together as they seem to be a contradiction,
at least at first glance, if you follow one of these concepts to the max,
The other can't be fulfilled.
The model of cooperatives helped me to understand how it is possible to combine
both, and it would like to share some ideas with you today.
How we can find a future set up for further growth,
but not only economically, but also socially.
In economic terms, the shareholder value can be seen as
the individual freedom to maximize one's earnings.
Don't get me wrong, a stock exchange is a good thing.
It is there to supply companies with fresh money for investments,
but it should not be abused as a casino for gambling.
Today, the pure shareholder value is more and more superseded by stakeholder
or community values, at least by the young generation.
They seem to think more in long term perspectives and in sustainability,
not only economically, but also environmentally and socially.
This generation said, combines two different,
perhaps even opposite approaches towards life that were
so far not combined total individualism,
the one hand expressed through their smartphones.
I want things right now, tailor made for me, and I can get them
at the same time, they develop new social and community thinking,
expressed through a very passionate
and serious participation in mass movements like Friday's for future.
The fascinating thing is that it's not two different groups in society,
but it's the very same persons that simultaneously act in both directions.
And it's not.
And it's not going towards one against the other.
Therefore, we need to find ways to satisfy both needs,
individualism and community thinking, on the other hand, at the same time,
we face a disruption of traditional business models through digitalisation.
In the last decade.
Bill Gates said something like, we all need banking, but we do not need banks.
Is that true?
Yes and no is the correct answer.
I think. Yes for the fact that everyone who has got some money is theoretically
able to give loans to others or offer people to give her
or him their savings in exchange for payment of interest.
From this perspective, Bill Gates quote is maybe right,
but then definitely not limited to banks.
As you know, the biggest provider of transportation worldwide does not own one
single tire or steering wheel.
The biggest department store in the world doesn't even own
a grocery store. And the biggest provider of accommodation does not own one single
mattress. Of course, you know that I'm talking about Uber,
Amazon and booking platforms like Trivago,
so the asset of traditional companies is probably not the product or the service,
but it's something different. It's trust and safety.
Let us stick to the example of the bank.
Although banks are less trusted than in decades before,
it is still more common to give your money to
a bank than to somebody you don't know
and of whom you hope that he's giving back.
Sooner or later, you trust the bank that it can do all
the things with your money you wanted you wanted to do.
Safety is based on legal framework that provides safety nets for customers
and also a tight and strict control mechanism guaranteed by law.
So from this legal perspective,
we do need traditional banks and do need department stores, hotels, taxes.
Though the question is how to create a set up that fulfills
the individual needs and the needs for caretaking of the generation set
and at the same time matches the need for safety
and reliability in business in a digital environment.
One approach is the strategy and the structure of a company.
So far there's an owner and the client following the shareholder value.
The owner tries to get the most out of it financially.
The client wants high quality performance,
tailor made products and services for a cheap price.
Of course, these two goals go in different directions.
What if the owner,
if the owner and the customer are the same person?
Of course, this person still wants to earn some money.
But she or he definitely wants to satisfy the customers needs in
the best possible way. This is where cooperatives start.
Here comes the seven principles of cooperatives.
Voluntary and open membership.
Cooperatives, a voluntary organisations open to all the persons able to use
the services and willing to accept
the duties of membership. Discrimination of any kind, gender,
race or religion is a no go. A Democratic member control.
What does it mean? cooperatives
or democratic organizations controlled by their members who actively participate
in the organization. In most cooperatives, members have equal voting rights,
which means one member, one person, one vote.
The next principal economic participation.
Members contribute to the capital of the co-operative,
at least part of the capital is usually the common property of the cooperative.
Members usually receive limited compensation.
Members allocate surpluses for the following purposes,
developing their cooperative, setting up reserves,
benefiting members in proportion to the transactions with the cooperative
and supporting other activities approved by the membership.
Autonomy and independence
cooperatives are autonomous, self-help organizations controlled by their members,
if they enter into agreements with other organizations, including governments,
they maintain their cooperative autonomy. Fifth point.
Education, training and information.
Cooperatives provide education and training for their members,
the employees, the managers, the representatives,
so they can contribute effectively to the development of the cooperatives,
they inform the general public,
particularly young people and opinion leaders,
about the nature and the benefits of cooperation.
Cooperation among cooperatives,
cooperative served the members most effectively and strengthen
the cooperative movement by working together through local, national,
regional and international structures to strengthen other cooperatives.
And the last one, concern from community. cooperatives work for
the sustainable development of their community system.
Sustainability is the key word here.
To sum it up, these seven principles.
Go together in two main key issues,
subsidiarity and solidarity,
solidarity is a well-known term,
this the agreement between and the support for members of a group,
subsidiarity means that the individual comes first.
The individual can decide if the group shall be involved in his
or her own issues or not. It is not the group that takes the decision,
the group is not more important than the individual.
if the individual member asks the group for help to get something in motion.
That she or he can only move together with the support of others.
Then we talk about solidarity.
How does such a model work operationally?
The members of the cooperative elect their representatives,
the representatives elect the supervisory board,
the supervisory board appoints a management board and
the management board employ the employees who serve the members.
Well, this is very similar to well-known forms of organizations.
The interesting thing is that all of these four bodies
are at the same time members.
This is maybe the reason why it's so successful.
A man called Frederick William Jefferson was the first founder of
a cooperative bank almost 200 years ago.
Why did he do that? Easy, because he had to.
No bank at that time would provide loans
to farmers, but they needed money to buy machinery.
But what he did was to collect money from the community.
And with this, they bought the equipment that they owned together
and one used after the other.
Jefferson got famous for this concept, which, to my opinion is very modern today.
It's a concept of the 21st century, so to say.
We just tend to say sharing economies instead of corporations.
Thank you very much.