for
Cooperative Enterprises Build a Better World
Department of Cooperative and Friendly Society
In collaboration with
TIP Friendly Society
Ocho Rios Jamaica
July 18 – 19 2012
JAMAICA’S POSITION WITH
CO-OPERATIVES
• Verbal support for coops in a few quarters but overt
competition and individualism widely encouraged.
• Island yet to find a balance between profitability of
productive enterprises and deeper social responsibilities.
• Credit Unions flourishing but other coops languishing.
• Linkage between coops generally weak, including Credit
Unions with other coops.
JAMAICA’S POSITION WITH
CO-OPERATIVES Cont’d
 Productive and non Credit Unions coops seen as the
legacies of Government socialistic past.
 No connection between productive coops and knowledge
structures and technological community.
 Government still lukewarm about the potential of Coops.
Co-operative Ideals
 More balance and inclusive patters of growth
 People helping people
 Responds to the common good
 Platform for training, empowerment and hope
 Flexible and ethical organization
 Marry markets with human values
 Logical ways to meet the needs of the majority
GLOBAL DILEMMAS
 Significant global growth but poverty remains.
 Global crisis-resulting from severe imbalances in
prevailing growth patterns.
 Private debts repaid by public debts.
 Failure of both Capitalism and Communism in recent decades with no
obvious replacement.
 Concentration of businesses and wealth-less competition, market
systems subverted.
 Profits at any cost even to the destruction of life support systems.
GLOBAL DILEMMAS Cont’d
 Little respect for human rights, voice and dialogue.
 Cost of adjustments bourn by the weakest.
 Capitalism for the poor and socialism for the rich
 Tendency to return to old failed systems.
WAYS TO STRENGTHEN
COOPERATIVES
• Active advocacy of cooperatives ideals and potential.
• Demonstrating what can be achieved by efficient cooperative
organization.
• Integrating cooperatives approaches in policy development.
• Ensuring that policies and laws are enabling, and not restrictive.
• Providing cooperative education in schools and entrepreneurship
training for members.
• Exploring new productive avenues for cooperative development
THE TRUTH ABOUT COLLABORATION
We are more cooperative and less selfish than most
believe.
Recent studies found that:
•
•
•
•
•
•
50% systematically and predictably cooperative;
30% behaved selfish;
20% unpredictable
we can build efficient systems by relying on our better self.
cooperation feels good – Oxytocin release; and
material rewards crowd out intrinsic collaborative behaviour.
BENEFITS OF
COLLABORATION
• A high level of comfort is attained by access to the same
pool of information, and employing the same tools to use
this information.
• Improves trust and confidence – a feeling of belonging.
• Increase self motivation beyond ordinary incentives.
• Information flows are easier and more widely accessible.
• There are lower transaction costs.
BENEFITS OF
COLLABORATION Cont’d
• Scientific approaches are easier implemented.
• Needs of workers and entrepreneurs are easier met.
• Skills and training easier to accomplish.
• Learning from each other becomes normal.
• Balanced policy and regulations can be more forcefully advocated,
through economic fairness.
• A system of feedback and positive reinforcement installed.
INNOVATIVE CAPABILITIES
Defined as:

The skills, knowledge and management techniques needed to
create change, and improve and commercialize:
 Successful products
 Services
 Equipment
 Processes
 Business models
TOOLS FOR COOPERATIVES
TO FLOURISH
•
Capacity building especially in the relevant technical areas;
•
Entrepreneurship and business development, to energize
improvement of old and formation of new coops.
•
Management training to promote and deploy collaboration.
•
Access to micro finance and grants.
•
Consulting services to meet standards and quality.
•
Marketing
TOOLS FOR COOPERATIVES
TO FLOURISH cont’d
 Improved information flows and engagement.
 Proper staffing
 Discussions on benefits of Coops
 Mentoring
 Commensurate reward system
ASSESSMENT OF THE CO-OPERATIVE SPIRIT
IN AN ENTITY
• Management allow discussion of the cooperative spirit and
permit learning from each other.
• Less of the one to one hierarchical management in
assessing subordinates.
• Follow up discussions collaborative in nature
• What proportion of recognition and reward given to
individual, individual unit, or intra-unit team efforts.
PSYCHOLOGICAL CHARACTERISTICS OF
ENTREPRENEURS
• Creative thinkers – identify positive trends in negative situations
• Highly self-motivated-enthusiastic, optimistic, imaginative and
trusting.
• Possess traits of innovativeness, risk-taking and pro-activeness.
• Need for achievement, enjoying challenges and sharing
• Capacity to control – good leaders
• Tolerance of ambiguity and others
• Analyze situations easily and make decisions quickly.
ENTREPRENEURIAL SUCCESS
 Achieved by – creating value in the market place
through the process of combing resources in new and
different ways to achieve a competitive edge over rivals.
 Applying creativity and innovation to solve problems
and exploit opportunities is the secret for creating
value in the market place.
CREATIVITY – IMPORTANT INGREDIENT IN
ENTREPRENEURSHIP
What is creativity?
• A way of thinking about everything
•
Openness to change
•
Willingness to try new things
•
Persistence in seeking possibilities
•
Open to brainstorming ideas
•
Dedication to doing it better
•
Thinking about what is seen and heard and new patterns and possibilities
sought.
ELEMENTS OF THE CREATIVE PROCESS
• Preparation – an open mind, cross fertilization of ideas; read
widely and connect with knowledge community.
• Investigation – the targeted problem or effort must be
understood, transfer of information, techniques and research.
• Transformation – analyze data, identify similarities and
differences of elements of the problem or effort.
• Incubation – take time to reflect and share.
• Illumination – emergence of new ideas or solutions.
ELEMENTS OF THE CREATIVE
PROCESS Cont’d
 Verification – many need market testing, prototyping
or experiment.
 Implementation – transform - ideas into reality – the
entrepreneurial step.
 Entities needs to systematically introduce this type of
process.
FEATURES OF INNOVATION
SYSTEMS
Systems of innovation are networks of economic
agents with institutions and policies that boost
innovative performance. These include:
Openness and questioning
 Experimentation – active learning
 Coping with uncertainty
 Dealing with change
 Building trust
 Partnership across ministries, firms, universities and research
bodies
 Adaptive policy making.
