EDITOR’S NOTE: I originally wrote this for Equal Exchange’s 2009 Annual Report (where a shorter version appears on page 14.)
You might be familiar with the oft expressed sentiment, “It’s nothing personal, it’s just business.” We at Equal Exhange beg to differ. Our business is formed of persons and financed by persons, it buys from persons and sells to persons, it benifits persons though the efforts of persons. Our business is wholey and fundamentally personal and we work hard to keep it that way. Below are five vital elements to our business model, each of which helps bind us to this principle.
1 – 100% Fair Trade
Every product we sell has been sourced according to fair tradepriciples. We don’t seek to do deals that maximize our advantage by useing whatever leverage we have. We seek to build relationships with our producer partners that are transpartent, equitable and respectful.
2 – Worker-Ownership
Equal Exchange is a worker co-operative; a one-person, one-vote economic democracy. Every worker-owner invests thousands of dollars in the co-op and shares in our profits and losses. Because our worker-owners are closer to the mission than anyone, putting voting control in their hands keeps us on track.
3 – Fixed Price Shares
We need outside capital to grow, but we don’t want capital growth to be our only goal. So our shares are a fixed price. These shares earn dividends, typically 5%, and can be sold back to the company. No one is getting rich here, but our outside investors have allowed us to grow the co-op and change the world – and we’ve paid them dividends for 18 straight years.
4 – Extreme Community
Many talk a good line on community, but we like to crank it up and practice what you might call “Extreme Community.” Every Equal Exchange worker-owner spends a week meeting and working with farmers. The salary range at our worker co-operative is limited to four to one. We also donate and reinvest 10% of earnings in the co-op and non-profit communities.
5 – No Selling Out
Companies sometimes set out to do good, but then comes an offer that’s hard to refuse and they sell to a large conventional corporation. Equal Exchange’s bylaws are different; they require that if the co-op is sold, all proceeds after investors are paid back are then distributed to other Fair Trade organizations. There is no possibility of windfall riches, so there’s no motivation to sell out. As a result, our energies focus on advancing our mission, and we attract employees, supporters and investors with similar goals.
Yes, it is business and absolutely, it is personal.
