Discover why businesses should harness the power of cooperation
A leading light of the co-operative movement is to speak at our University about the value of working together in business.
Our School of Business will host Ed Mayo, Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, for his lecture ‘The Power of Co-operation’ as part of its Dean’s Lecture Series. It takes place on Wednesday 25 October from 5.30pm in Lecture Theatre 2 of the Ken Edwards Building. This public lecture is free to attend but click here to book your place.
Ed Mayo’s lecture is a story in part about co-operatives, those values based businesses that are structured around participatory ownership rather than the rights of investors, but it is also a story of every business and every participant in the economy.
Ed Mayo said: “We are often told that to get on is to get ahead, to compete. But what if it wasn't confrontation that powers success in business and in life, but co-operation - sometimes co-operating to compete.
“I will argue that what underpins productive co-operation are values - often strongly held and the deepest motivators for individual and group action that we have."
Ed Mayo is Secretary General of Co-operatives UK, the network for the UK’s thousands of co-operative businesses. He was one of the team who founded the Fairtrade Mark, which sources products from co-operatives and small-scale producers in developing countries. He rose to prominence as director of the New Economics Foundation from 1992 to 2003. He led the organisation from two to fifty staff, creating an award-winning ‘think-and-do tank’, looking at ethical market activity, local economies and public service reform. Ed is now a fellow of NEF.
The Dean’s Lecture Series features invited speakers who are regarded as leaders in the areas of management, economics, finance and business.