NCEO Founder Discusses ESOPs in Podcast

On June 29, Paul Speigelman of the Small Giants Community, an organization of companies that “choose to be great instead of big,” did a podcast with NCEO founder Corey Rosen on employee ownership.

Paul had considered selling his own company to an ESOP many years ago, but in the podcast said that “I started to learn about these options and I have to tell you that I just became overwhelmed. I just couldn’t understand it enough—it become so complicated that I didn’t seriously consider it at the time. What has changed to make the establishment of an ESOP simpler or easier to understand?"

Rosen responded, “There are a lot of rules and complexities, but there is now a large infrastructure of people who can help you through this process, including our organization. You can hire the right people to do this for you. Selling your business to anyone is complicated. ESOPs are generally less complicated and less expensive than other ways to sell your company.” Speigelman replied that he ended up selling his company to another buyer and, in hindsight, realizes this is true.

The podcast also included a discussion of some of the arguments Rosen made in his book with John Case, Ownership: Reinventing Companies, Capitalism, and Who Owns What.