Reading Reflection

Democracy, Cooperation and Business Success (Forcadell) • MCC has developed its own Management Model based on its cooperative principles, on modern management practices and on the cutting edge experiences of the most advanced companies. • In this work we analyze the key elements of MCC's democratic management model, developed around aspects such as corporate culture, organizational structure or human resources. • The conception of democracy in MCC encompasses aspects deriving from the idea "people in power", by which organizational democracy is conceived as "one worker one vote regardless of the share of the capital owned.' • This experience validates a participatory model that is based on the ability of people to manage themselves. • The corporate culture of MCC has the aim of overcoming the capital-labor confrontation, making people joint owners of the firm and therefore sharing in the firm's decision-making as well as in the profits. • Moreover, the firm seeks to promote people's participation and integration in management, profit and property. • The values and culture of MCC are not fixed and unchangeable, and it is necessary to adapt them periodically to a social and economic reality that is rapidly evolving. • MCC has developed an organizational structure to enable it to contain the operations of all its cooperatives, following a federal organization model (Handy, 1992). • Nevertheless, in contrast to traditional corporate models, MCC is not based on financial participation (it is not a parent company), but rather on an agreement between the parties to share some management areas. • Because the Corporation is democratically constituted, power resides in its social base. Each individual cooperative is legally, and to a large extent functionally, an autonomous unit.

The Food Movement, Rising (Michael Pollan) • Americans have not had to think very hard about where their food comes from, or what it is