Corporate Structure
Humans need to be able to organize ourselves in order to function. From family to tribe to neighborhood to city to nation to international settings or from family to school to community to work, we need to organize ourselves in a way that allows for air, water, food, shelter, and society to function. The rise of the “corporation” has been instrumental over the past 500 years as a vehicle outside of direct civil government control. From Feudalism to Colonialism to Capitalism, the corporation has been developed and experimented with in various different forms. Across nations, states, cities, tribes, neighborhoods, and families, corporations have been the most effective form of organization for specific purposes that require groups of people to work together. The interplay between corporations pushing their agendas versus the other corporations and people has been the struggle of the past several centuries. Since we have created theses amazingly powerful tools of organization, how do we balance the needs of the one and the needs of the many? How do we facilitate the arena of new corporations being formed and current corporations transforming themselves? How do we handle the feedback loops of action and consequence to hold corporations accountable as well as rewarding those that benefit others?
We have tried monarchies in Feudalism, but the king is a flawed vehicle. We have tried Shareholder Capitalism, but the needs of the investors at the expense of communities, employees, vendors, and the environment are too short sighted. We have tried Stakeholder Capitalism to different degrees, but how much power do we give to which section of Stakeholders?
I have worked in corporations that were an amalgamation of different corporations and further networked and partnered with more corporations to accomplish projects. Sometimes, a corporation will create legal entities to satisfy certain political, security, or ethical considerations. Sometimes, a corporation with merge, dissolve, or sell off products or services or organizations that do not fit its purpose; in the case of Shareholder Capitalism, to make profit for the shareholders.
Cooperative corporations have stepped in to fill the void in different cases. But, only the Worker Cooperatives fully embrace the employee question. Yet, even Worker Coops, or other Employee Owned corporations, do not provide the adequate governance structure by themselves.
With the chaos of the marketplace and changes over time, the need for creating, transforming, and destroying corporations while providing for and protecting the communities, employees, vendors, environment, and investors requires innovation, balance, humility, boldness, and the feedback or voice of all involved.