Employee Owners, Jobs and the Local Community
By Thomas Roback, Jr., CEP, QKA

How do you want to be remembered? Many business owners ask themselves this question as they ponder the future of the company they built. An Employee Stock Ownership Plan (ESOP) is not the right succession strategy for every business owner, but ESOPs are worth considering.

Let’s forget about the power cities of America for a minute and think about small town USA. A successful manufacturing company in a small southern city created jobs in the local community for decades. Employees of this growing business enabled families to thrive and generations to be hopeful for their futures. It was a proud town and the company gave people their dignity. Two years ago, the business owner got an offer from a big competitor she could not refuse. It would create more wealth for her than she could ever dream of. It was a tough decision and a grueling process involving secret meetings and suits of investment bankers. When the corporate transaction was announced to employees there were tears and fears. Three months later the new buyer started a restructuring and jobs were cut. Input from the selling shareholder was not appreciated and it didn’t feel good for anyone. One night the seller came to dinner at her local country club where she used to be the hometown hero and got mean looks and heard whispers at the other tables. I met this seller about a year ago and she wished she had known ESOPs were an alternative. Please click on the attached PDF to continue reading.