Businesses & Companies

There are various types of ownership. One type of ownership is personal and another type is business ownership. Personal ownership has to do with depreciating assets: houses, cars, and coffee cups. Business ownership has to do with active assets. One or a few people own the profits that come out of the business.

Whether it is a sole proprietorship, a partnership, or any type of corporation (i.e., including Cooperatives and B Corps), the profits generated by active assets belong to their owners. Private business are the only option we have today: you either own a business (and its profits) or you are working for a paycheck. We call all of these ^∇ businesses, because everything is done by the absolute say so of the owner(s).

Fiat businesses are hierarchical. They can be generous and progressive, like Patagonia, but, no matter, their overarching goal is to make profits for its owners.

An Alternative

An alternative to the pervasive Fiat business model is what we call Radical companies.^∇

Notice that we differentiate “businesses” from “companies.” Business, in the sense of manufacturing and trading, is what owners do to create profits for themselves. Company comes from the Latin prefix con- meaning “together” and the word pan, “bread.” Company then refers to people who break bread together. So, we talk about businesses and Radical companies as two distinct species of the same genus. Like donkeys and zebras.

Disentangling Ownership

Like businesses, Radical companies are private. They are not owned by a benevolent-government-in-the-name-of-the-people and they are not cooperatives.

Radical companies are owned by what we call co-owners. Instead of it belonging to one or a few people, they are co-owned by everybody who embodies it.

Instead of a static number of shares, ownership of a Radical company is dynamic. It changes based on contributions recognized by other co-owners.

Instead of one or a handful of people, you and the other co-owners own the surplus value (i.e., the profits) that you all create.

For more, see Disentangling Management.^∇

ENDNOTES

• “Because I say so.” >https://www.etymonline.com/search?q=fiat<.

• Matt Perez, Adrian Perez, Jose Leal. RADICAL COMPANIES: Without Bosses or Employees. PRADERA Media. 2021. >https://radicalcompanies.com<. Alternatively, you may want to read the shorter RADICAL COMPANIES: For the Impatient. >https://radicalcompanies.com/2022/05/03/radical-companies-for-the-impatient.html<.

• Matt Perez, Adrian Perez. Disentangling Management. RADICAL COMPANIES blog. Sep 2022. <https://radicalcompanies.com/2022/09/13/disentangling-management.html>.