Social enterprise hopes to break new ground with 'hybrid co-operative' business model

Social enterprise leads the way in innovative business practices. From Fairtrade to micro-financing social enterprise has given the world new models for enterprise and altered our expectations of the ability for business to achieve social change. Social enterprises are more likely to recognize the benefits of non-static practices. This has resulted in the innovative social business models that we are accustom to today. A new business model currently being tested by a social enterprise in Thailand is that of the 'hybrid co-operative'.

Previously I wrote about The Kohtrad Silk Project, a social enterprise giving Thai silk producers the opportunity to sell their produce through an online platform. Besides providing a new market for silk weavers in the poor area of Issan, the company also put its profits towards social innovation, funding the building of an internet hub for villagers in the remote rural village where much of their silk is produced. This innovative company has now expanded into silk cushions to set up Isaan Cushion Company. This is not simply an extension of the existing company. Isaan Cushion Company will be used as an experiment to pioneer a new business model they call the 'hybrid co-operative', in their eyes, 'a leaner and fitter version of the traditional co-operative model.'

The hybrid co-operative model takes its influence from the co-operative model but combines this with the standard mainstream private business model. Along with paying a basic salary the company distributes surplus profits among the employees. This will guarantee a better wage than someone would get if they left the area and worked a 10 hour shift in a large factory in Bangkok (many people from this poor region leave for the factories of Bangkok in the hope of better wages). Additionally all employees are allowed a say in the creative process from ideas to designs to ways of promoting and selling the cushion covers.

Isaan Cushion Company say they have chosen to use this model because, although they are 'big fans' of the co-operative model, they feel the model also has some weaknesses. One weakness is the fact that for people to make decisions on the overall development strategy of the business they need some business experience.  If the employees have little business experience, decisions regarding the overall majority vote could end up harming the company. A hybrid co-operative can introduce and teach business to its employees. This means that employees are actively learning new business skills, giving them greater opportunity to contribute to wider aspects of the company and become more upwardly mobile employees.

Through the hybrid co-operative business model Isaan Cushion Company hope to keep the best bits of both private and co-operative. The company says: 'We feel this approach will encourage unity, sense of community inside the business and make it more productive and fairer.' Isaan Cushion Company is currently looking to supply shops around the world with their branded cushion covers. The company also offers OEM and buyer label manufacturing. So if businesses want cushions in their own brand Isaan Cushion Company can do this. The company would also welcome any feedback on their hybrid co-operative model.

Photo credit: Aidan Jones