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We have heard of more ESOP companies using "kaizen" management. It can be a great fit for employee ownership companies. For those of you who have been afraid to ask just what someone means by this at the latest cocktail party you attended, here is a brief explanation:

The NCEO has now released the third part of its three-part series on preferred-status certifications, such as minority-, women-, and veteran-owned businesses.

With the primary season about to launch, town hall forums will become a staple of at least the Democratic primaries, and possibly Republican as well. This is a great opportunity to promote employee ownership.

Because most ESOPs are used to provide for business transition in closely held companies, probably the most important issue for the future of ESOPs will be demographics. A 2001 Federal Reserve Survey of Consumer Finances reported that 50,000 businesses changed hands in 2001.

According to an article in the online magazine of the trucking industry, trucking companies are starting to turn to employee ownership as a way to tackle employee attrition,

In Department of Agriculture Rural Business-Cooperative Services, 7 CFR Parts 4279 and 4287, the Department of Agriculture provided, for the first time, that loan guarantees may be made to ESOPs or worker cooperatives under the Business and Industry Guaranteed Loan Program.

A common misperception about employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs) is that they only work for larger employers. Rules of thumb vary; some practitioners say $1 million in revenues; some say 20 or 30 employees are needed before an ESOP makes sense.

Based on data from the Department of Labor and the IRS, the NCEO estimates that in 2006 that the number of ESOPs and stock bonus plans grew by approximately 5% over the 2005 numbers. Plan assets grew to approximately $675 billion, up about 12% from the prior year.

New NCEO estimates show that ESOPs and ESOP-like plans added over $250 billion in assets in 2007 and added about 700,000 participants. The net number of plans grew more slowly, adding about 120 plans. The table below shows comparative data:

According to data from the Department of Labor's Private Pension Plan Bulletin 2004, the rate of return for ESOPs with more than 100 participants during the 1990s was about 10% better than for 401(k) plans with more than 100 participants.