Mondragon‘s seminar on 30.04.2014: “An incredible success story from Spain: 120 successful start-ups out of 125“. Employing over 80,000 people, Mondragon is the largest company in Basque Country and one of the largest employee-owned companies in the world. Over 120 employee-owned cooperatives have been successfully established within last 50 years, and only 5 have failed. If it is usually considered that only 1 successful start-up out of 10 is normal, then how can it be, that in the case of Mondragon the success rate is more than 9 out 10? What is the secret behind Mondragon’s success? Mikel Lezamiz tells the story.

Mikel Lezamiz has worked in Mondragon for over 30 years in different units and on several positions. For last 23 years he has worked as a Director of Cooperative Dissemination, organising lectures and seminars, and being a member and a president of Governing Body in two different enterprises of the group.

Mondragon:
— The largest company in Basque Country and 7th in Spain (turnover of €15 bn);
— Constant fast growth since establishing in 1956 by 5 men;
— Has its own university – Mondragon University – 3500 students;
— Established its own bank – Caja Laboral – in 1959, after being denied of credit for growing the business. Current total assets of the bank €25 bn, which is 3 times more than that of the Estonian largest bank Swedbank.
— Extremely successful support program for start-ups, carried out by a special division of the bank. The bank mentored and funded the start of well over 100 businesses, virtually without a failure, all of them employee-owned.
— Company’s own social welfare system beginning of 1959;
— Business operations in 27 countries all over the world in different fields: industry, retail, banking, insurance, education, research and development. Export 70% of sales.
— Well-organised and coordinated cooperation between the different subsidiaries and cooperatives of the group (incl. sharing know-how, R&D, HR management, united purchases, intra-group investments, financing etc);
— Employees/Members are involved in strategic planning and business decision making, have autonomy in operational management, share assets and financial gains/losses;
— The capital account model developed by the company is the best solution for an employee owned company (Erdal 2011).

The seminar is held on April 30th, 2014 from 9.00 to 14.30.
Timetable:
08:30-09:00 Morning Coffee and Registration
09:00-10:30 Session I
10:30-11:00 Coffee Break
11:00-12:30 Session II
12:30-13:00 Coffee Break
13:00-14:30 Session III (incl. Q&A and discussion)
Venue: Tallinn, Oru Hotel, Narva road 120 B
Registration: info [ät] seminarid.com, tel. +372 5656 2323
Participation fee: 119 € until 25.03.2014, 139 € beginning of 26.03.2014 until 18.04.2014 and 199 € beginning of 19.04.2014. VAT is not included in the prices.
Organizer: Alfonso AB OÜ
The seminar is held in English with no translation.

Parking: for free in front of the hotel.

General Terms of Registration: here