There's a grocery store in Brooklyn, New York, with sales per square foot 4 times as high as any other grocery store in the area. 10,000 people work there, and it doesn’t have a CEO.
Ada satu kedai runcit di Brooklyn, New York, jumlah jualan per kaki segi ialah 4 kali kedai lain di kawasan itu. Mempunyai 10,000 orang pekerja, dan tiada CEO.
This place is the Park Slope Food Co-op, and it’s one of 3 million cooperatives, or co-ops for short, around the world. Co-ops are a big part of the global economy: they employ 280 million people— 10% of the world’s workforce and the equivalent of over $2 trillion flow through their doors every year.
Tempat ini ialah Park Slope Food Co-op, dan ia adalah antara 3 juta buah koperasi, atau co-ops secara ringkasan, di dunia. Co-ops adalah satu bahagian besar ekonomi global; mereka mangambil 280 juta pekerja- 10% tenaga kerja dunia dan bersamaan lebih $2 trilion mengalir melalui pintu mereka setiap tahun.
How is it possible that a business with 10,000 workers doesn’t have a CEO?
Bagaimana ini berlaku bisnes dengan 10,000 pekerja tidak mempunyai CEO?
To answer that, we have to talk about what a co-op is and why they were founded.
Untuk jawapannya, kita harus bincang apa co-op dan kenapa ia wujud.
Let’s rewind to 1844. A group of 28 weavers in Rochdale, England came together to create and co-own a store. By buying in bulk directly from suppliers, they could negotiate prices, which allowed all of them to buy stuff they couldn't otherwise afford. They ran the store collectively and democratically, which was remarkable at the time. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers wasn't the world's first co-op, but it was the first to publicize its principles— principles that guide co-ops to this day.
Mari kita kembali ke 1844. Sekumpulan 28 penenun di Rochdale, England bersama-sama mencipta dan milik sebuah kedai. Dengan beli secara pukal dari pembekal, mereka boleh merunding harga, ini bolehkan mereka membeli barangan yang mereka tidak mampu. Mereka menguruskan kedai secara kolektif dan demokrasi, ini agak mengkagumkan pada masa itu. The Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers bukanlah co-op pertama di dunia, tetapi merupakan yang pertama mengumumkan prinsipnya- prinsip ini membimbing co-ops hingga kini.
Today, there are all kinds of co-ops: REI in the US and S-Group in Finland are large consumer co-ops. Credit unions and mutual insurance companies are financial sector co-ops. And when farmers or other producers come together, that's a producer co-op.
Hari ini, terdapat banyak jenis co-ops; REI di AS dan S-Group di Finland adalah co-ops pengguna yang besar. Kesatuan kredit dan syarikat insurans mutual ialah co-ops sektor kewangan. Dan apabila petani atau pengeluar lain pakat bersama, wujud co-op pengeluar.
And then there are worker co-ops, like Mondragon in Spain or The Cheeseboard in Berkeley, California, which are founded to provide jobs to people in the community.
Dan juga terdapat co-ops pekerja, seperti Mondragon di Sepanyol atau The Cheeseboard di Berkeley, California, yang diwujudkan untuk memberi kerja kepada penduduk komuniti.
Some consumer co-ops, like Park Slope, require their members to work shifts in the store. In exchange for their work, members pay 15 to 50% less for groceries, and they influence what products are— or aren’t— sold there.
Co-ops pengguna, seperti Park Slope, meminta ahli mereka bekerja syif dalam kedai. Sebagai pertukaran, ahli bayar 15 ke 50% kurang untuk barangan runcit, dan mereka mempengaruhi apa barang dijual atau tidak dijual di situ.
Three crucial things to know about co-ops: first, all co-ops are jointly owned by their members, whether those members are consumers, producers, workers, or whoever. Unlike traditional companies, which can have outside shareholders, all owners of a co-op are also members.
Tiga perkara penting mengenai co-ops: pertama, semua co-ops dimiliki bersama oleh ahli-ahlinya samada mereka pengguna, pengeluar, pekerja atau sesiapa saja. Berbeza dari syarikat tradisional, yang mempunyai pemegang saham luar, semua pemilik co-ops adalah ahli.
Second, co-ops are not founded to maximize profit. Many do turn a significant profit, but that’s not their core mission. So evaluating a co-op purely by traditional business metrics ignores the most important reason for their existence: how well do they serve their members?
Kedua, co-ops bukan bertujuan untuk mendapat untung maksimum. Banyak yang dapat untung besar tetapi ini bukan misi utama mereka. Oleh itu, menilai co-op melalui metriks tradisional semata-mata mengabaikan sebab paling utama kewujudan mereka: sebaik mana mereka melayani ahli mereka?
And third: co-ops are controlled democratically by their members.
Ketiga: co-op dikuasai secara demokratik oleh ahlinya.
But how do decisions get made?
Bagaimana segala keputusan dibuat?
It varies.
Ia adalah berbeza.
At a small worker co-op like The Cheeseboard, day-to-day operational decisions are just made by the workers.
Di co-op pekerja kecil seperti The Cheeseboard, keputusan operasi harian hanya dibuat oleh pekerja.
As co-ops get larger, they do institute some form of leadership or management.
Apabila co-ops jadi lebih besar, mereka akan wujudkan kepimpinan atau pengurusan.
Park Slope has a general manager who leads the 80 or so employees. And the largest network of worker and consumer co-ops in the world, Mondragon, has a president and managers who lead the roughly 30,000 worker-owners and 50,000 contract workers.
Park Slope mempunyai seorang pengurus besar bagi pimpin lebih kurang 80 pekerja. Rangkaian co-ops pekerja dan pengguna terbesar di dunia, Mondragon, ada seorang presiden dan pengurus-pengurus untuk pimpin 30,000 pekerja-pemilik dan 50,000 pekerja kontrak.
But leadership roles in a co-op are very different than in a traditional company. The leadership implements policies that its members or worker-owners have agreed upon, by vote. And at Mondragon workers, can vote to fire the president.
Namun, peranan pemimpin di co-ops adalah amat berbeza daripada syarikat tradisional Pemimpin laksanakan polisi yang dipersetujui ahli atau pekerja-pemilik melalui pengundian. Di Mandrogon, pekerja boleh undi untuk memecat presiden.
At a co-op, there’s no single person with overarching, top-down power over everyone else, like a CEO would have in a traditional company.
Di co-ops, tiada seorang pun ada kuasa menyeluruh dari atas ke bawah ke atas semua orang, seperti kuasa seorang CEO dalam syarikat tradisional.
Meanwhile, in both co-ops and traditional companies, major company-wide decisions are made by voting.
Sementara itu, co-ops dan syarikat tradisional, kedua-dua buat keputusan penting melalui undi.
But who votes and how is wildly different.
Tetapi siapa dan cara undi sangat berbeza.
In a traditional company, voting rights usually come with shares of stock. The more shares you own, the more votes you have. Take Alphabet, the parent company of Google: there are thousands of shareholders, but the two founders control 51% of the votes and therefore the direction of the company.
Di syarikat tradisional, hak undi bergantung kepada jumlah saham. Semakin banyak saham, semakin banyak undi anda. Misalnya Alphabet, syarikat induk Google: terdapat beribu pemegang saham, namun dua pengasas syarikat menguasai 51% undi dan menguasai arah tujuan syarikat itu.
In a co-op, every member has the right to vote, and in most co-ops, every member gets one vote. That difference results in radically different policies than you’d find at traditional companies. For example, Mondragon limits the salaries of its management to about 6 times what the lowest paid worker makes. In Spain, CEOs of traditional companies make, on average, 143 times as much as a typical worker.
Di co-op setiap ahli mempunyai hak mengundi, kebanyakan co-ops, setiap ahli ada satu undi. Perbezaan ini menghasilkan dasar yang sangat berbeza dari syarikat tradisional. Misalnya, Mondragon menghadkan jumlah gaji pihak pengurusan ke 6 kali gaji terendah para pekerja. Di Sepanyol, CEO syarikat tradisional secara purata, menerima gaji 143 kali daripada gaji pekerja biasa.
At Park Slope, there’s a monthly general meeting, where any member can show up to vote, and a motion needs a simple majority to pass. It then gets taken up by the Board of directors, which is composed of co-op members, for official approval.
Di Park Slope, terdapat mesyuarat agung bulanan, setiap ahli boleh hadir untuk undi, dan usul perlukan majoriti mudah untuk diluluskan. Kemudian dipertimbangkan oleh Lembaga Pengarah, yang terdiri daripada ahli co-op, untuk lulusan rasmi.
At The Cheeseboard, the worker-owners try to reach consensus on major decisions. This means that some decisions can take a long time. For example, in the late 1970s, the workers debated whether to post a sign outside declaring that The Cheeseboard was a collective for one and a half years. But the extensive discussion, and disagreements, around that decision made it a solid one— The Cheeseboard still advertises the fact that it’s a collective almost 50 years later.
Di The Cheeseboard, pekerja-pemilik cuba capai persetujuan keputusan majoriti. Maksudnya sesetengah keputusan akan ambil masa yang panjang. Misalnya, pada akhir 1970-an, pekerja berdebat untuk meletakkan tanda di luar bagi memaklumkan The Cheeseboard adalah kolektif untuk satu setengah tahun. Namun perbincangan meluas dan perselisihan faham keputusan ini jadikan ia keputusan kukuh- The Cheeseboard masih mengiklankan fakta yang ia adalah kolektif untuk 50 tahun seterusnya.
And that’s not all that’s working well at co-ops. Studies in the UK show that co-op start-ups are almost half as likely to close within five years as traditional businesses. And in one study, researchers polled 600 workers at two in-home healthcare businesses: one was a worker co-op and the other was a traditional company. The workers did similar work with similar salaries. The biggest difference? Co-op workers were about 40% happier with their jobs.
Bukan itu saja kebaikan co-ops. Kajian di UK menunjukkan jumlah co-op adalah separuh dari jumlah syarikat tradisional yang mungkin ditutup selepas lima tahun beroperasi. Dalam satu kajian, pengkaji meninjau 600 pekerja dari 2 buah syarikat kesihatan di rumah; satu ialah co-op pekerja dan satu lagi ialah syarikat tradisional. Pekerja lakukan kerja dan terima gaji yang hampir sama. Perbezaan terbesar? Pekerja co-op adalah 40% lebih bahagia dengan kerja mereka.