Ed Russell

I've just been reading an article on the Register about Co-op outsourcing of financial services to India...  You can read the article here: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/29/steria_staff_strike/.  Aside from the usual "the co-op is one great big business" assumption that winds me up there is something else that deserves consideration.

How much should Co-ops behave like normal businesses?

Co-operatives have different motives to normal business, or so people say, and there are those Co-operatives out there which genuinely do.  Some, in my opinion, don't really behave any different but I've heard people talk and say "first we have to make the money and then we do the good with it" as a justification for it....   Does that make sense to Co-operatives?  I'm undecided, the purist in me says no, the realist says maybe. 

Co-operatives have to survive in the environment that they find themselves in.  That is the fact of the matter...  But should that really be done at the expense of the values and principles?  That just devalues the brand in my opinion and by doing that you end up not providing the consumer with a choice or at the very least limiting their choice to a value/service decision rather than including ethics which I think can be a major differentiator...

Posted by Ed Russell