Executive Role and Board Stewardship
Reference code: C25-11 This commentary is one of a two-part set of commentaries that examines the principles and practical design choices involved in Small Scale Commons Governance. Part Two─Executive Role and Board Stewardship Within this compact design, the role of an executive director or equivalent senior manager requires careful handling. The temptation in a small […]
Smaller Structures with the Same Core
Reference code: C25-10 This commentary is one of a two-part set of commentaries that examines the principles and practical design choices involved in Small Scale Commons Governance. Part One─Designing Small Scale Commons Governance This commentary is the first part of a two-part guide on how small commons corporations can streamline boards and roles while preserving […]
Professional Fields with a Stake in Commons Capitalism
Reference code: C25-09 Commons capitalism represents a departure from familiar corporate and nonprofit structures. By separating stewardship authority from market-facing operations, and by requiring subsidiaries to pursue the highest achievable net profits while the parent corporation preserves consolidated surplus for internal purposes, it introduces a new architecture of enterprise design. Because this model diverges sharply […]
Scaling Shared Wealth Through a Commons Capitalism Entity
Reference code: C25-06 Executive Summary A purpose-built commons capitalism entity that centralizes surplus, holds subsidiaries, and pursues acquisitions delivers distinct economic advantages over a typical worker cooperative in three interlocking ways. First, the legal and financial design of a parent commons capitalism entity enables deliberate, rapid expansion by acquiring existing firms and folding them into […]
Managing a Nonprofit Enterprise with Stewarded Surplus
Reference code: C25-05 Introduction and Core Function The design of a nonprofit enterprise without members or shareholders that distributes decision authority across multiple centers and treats net profits as stewarded surplus produces a distinctive institutional model. The structure differs from conventional corporate arrangements because residual gains are not distributed to private parties. Instead, retained surplus […]
A Labor Union’s Assessment of the Organizational Structure and Overall Benefits of a CCE
Reference code: C25-04 Commons Capitalism Entities, or CCEs, present a deliberate redesign of firm incentives and ownership structure. Rather than permitting outside investors or executives to extract surplus, these entities hold surplus in an internal commons structure and allocate it primarily to three purposes: premium wages for workers, broad employer-funded benefits modeled on Nordic systems, […]
A Concise Summary of Commons Capitalism
Reference code: C25-02 Commons Capitalism reframes how businesses capture and distribute economic surplus. It’s neither a return to laissez-faire shareholder capitalism nor a revival of worker cooperatives; instead, it proposes a third institutional form designed to anchor corporate surplus within a collectively governed “commons” while preserving managerial structures and expansion capabilities. Core idea At its […]
Commons Capitalism Entities and Workers’ Cooperatives: Working Together for a Better Society
Reference code: C25-01 Economist Richard Wolff has proposed replacing traditional corporations with workers’ cooperatives (“coops” for short). More specifically, he advocates for Workers’ Self-Directed Enterprises (WSDEs). These organizations aim to distribute wealth, particularly net profits, across a broader economic class of worker-owners, thereby reducing the concentration of capital among a small group of individuals. These […]