A cooperative as an alternative in starting a company
In this Meet an entrepreneur video, Jean-Philippe Wagnon, Founder-Cooperator of ALLAGI since 2019, explains why he chose the cooperative as an alternative for his company:
- Why cooperator?
- Who makes the decisions ?
- Does it really change?
- Difficult to convince others?
Jean-Philippe Wagnon is the founder-cooperator of ALLAGI, a supportive and responsible training organization that places people at the heart of its activities. Find out more about him on allagi.lu.
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Transcription de l'intervention de Jean-Philippe Wagnon
Why cooperator?
I wanted to bring the work forces closer to governance and corporate structure. So, a cooperative was an obvious choice, even if it is quite a surprising and unusual structure for services. The idea is that each cooperator is a member and deals with a specific topic, and is involved not only in the provision of services, organising workshops, seminars, training courses, but is also an active player in the management of the company, its orientation, day-to-day decisions or rather strategy.
Who makes the decisions?
The company belongs to everyone. There are no power relationships over the number of shares, or the amounts invested, since in a cooperative, each cooperator has one vote when comes time to deliberate.
Is it a real change?
I know, from having been a manager in other companies, that yes, fundamentally, it’s a pretty big game changer compared to companies that traditionally are seen and experienced as hierarchical, very top-down.
Was it hard to convince the others?
No, it came in a very self-evident way. It’s an environment we know, we’re familiar with its different roles and it was pretty easy to say now we want to do something different that reflects and allows us to translate the spirit we want to put into it. So, a cooperative was pretty obvious.