But there is one very important lesson in this tale, one that I learned myself the hard way.

I was the co-founder of a co-op IT consultancy, founded by 3 people in 1997 which quickly grew to 20 people.

We had constant growth and profit, even in the dot-boom years, and we had a lot of fun, motivation, energy and innovation, because everyone had a stake in ownership and decisions.

We were doing really great. However: When some of us felt it was time to take the business in a different direction, we couldn’t.

We found ourselves too comfortable with the status quo, too risk-averse and had too many different ideas for the future.

We ended up going corporate as well and selling the company.

Does this mean that co-ops can’t innovate, grow and change their business models? No. But it does mean that it requires more effort than in traditional companies where a top management can make the decision alone.

I think the solution is to design change and innovation into the co-op from the beginning and, above all, have great tools to facilitate decisions, so you don’t fall into the trap of always trying to achieve consensus.