Stephens Scown was delighted to co-sponsor and present an exclusive employee ownership event alongside Paradigm Norton Financial Planning. Held on 4 March, members of the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) community came together from across the South West to connect and share knowledge.
Sharing Knowledge
As the first large law firm in the UK to become employee-owned we’ve a lot of experience to share with other employee-owned businesses. We are trusted advisors for our clients and contacts and were eager to share what we have learnt to help others interested in this ownership model.
The Watershed in Bristol was at full capacity for a day that included presentations, a ‘hackathon’ and networking.
One update from the event highlighted the fact that there are 8000 employee owners in the South West region, and over 2000 employee-owned businesses across the country.
Sharing their experience of employee ownership (EO) for Stephens Scown were Cat Mathews, Dave Robbins, Emily Smith, and Sam Moles. Discussing the practical solutions a business can put in place to enhance EO, how EO can be a great vessel to embed a leadership mindset, and how we strive to remain at the forefront of ‘Great EO’, our colleagues took to the stage for an information discussion which ended with questions from the audience.
What We Learnt
Reflecting on the day, the key takeaways and themes were identified as:
Sam says: The EO community is growing and with it the knowledge and experience that can be accessed and shared. This is brilliant and should mean that businesses earlier in their journey can learn from their peers – it also means that businesses further down the road, as we are, can still learn more as our business and our employee ownership evolves.
Dave says: Philippa Hann, incoming CEO of Paradigm Norton, shared her perspective of ensuring that EO does not cause a business to lose sight of the fact it is still a business – employees still need to have a level of accountability, and understand the responsibility that comes along with the benefits that might have been introduced by employee ownership.
Cat Mathews says: The opportunity to have conversations with the diverse range of businesses in the room made yesterday a valuable EO knowledge share. We are almost nine years into our EO journey but there are still things to learn from others and the event provided an ideal forum.
Emily says: Every EO business is different but faces similar challenges. Having the opportunity to connect with the EO community and share experiences is a great way to learn, develop and grow EO.
Cat Carlton, one of Stephens Scown’s EO experts says: the governance and the employee owners’ roles and responsibilities will change over time as an EO business evolves. The governance structure that you start with is just a starting point to refine and shape as your business grows – don’t be afraid to review and improve what you have!
Employee ownership as a form of business succession is growing and it’s clear from the event today that so is the drive to obtain ‘Great EO’.
Our expert team can support your business at whatever stage of its EO journey and are passionate about purposeful business. If you’d like to talk further, please contact us 0345 450 5558 or enquiries@stephens-scown.co.uk