The Power of Cooperation

by iMFdirect

The planet’s most successful species are the great cooperators: ants, bees, termites, and humans.

In an article in the new issue of Finance & Development magazine, President Bill Clinton shares his experience working with governments, business, and civil society as part of his Clinton Global Initiative.

He says they are making the most progress in places where people have formed networks of creative cooperation where stakeholders come together to do things better, faster and cheaper than any could alone.

4 Responses

  1. “to do things better, faster and cheaper than any could alone”. I think it is true but also how many miss out? How many get ripped off? How many lose out? So it can be cheaper for the stakeholders!

    “When people are able to take control of their own destinies”. Yes but only if you have the money and networks of relatives/friends in the right places, then anything can be achieved but the vast majority people do not have it this way and so they have little no to choice in what they do.

    All we hear is talk, all we see is talk. It seems that is all we will ever see because as long as the employer has 100% of the say and the laws favour them 100% it will just get worse!

    • That is true, but education and training empowers workers. Well-trained workers are more powerful then their less trained counterpart. They have the power to demand better pay and conditions. They are also better informed about their rights. Elevating ourselves through education and training is the only option we have–especially during difficult economic times.

    • Because of globalization and interconnectedness among the economies, cooperation gives better results than needless competition which can lead to waste of man hours and material.

  2. The President’s role in drawing together the resources to enable what are seen to be be economically beneficial producer and consumer cooperatives is to provide loans to cooperatives who are just not well served by what he calls traditional capital markets.
    Would be much better to ensure that the problem is resolved by changes to the capital markets system so that it served the economic needs of the national economy.
    This is not a problem limited to Colombia.
    Unfortunately, the cooperative business model is not seen as a priority business partner for the privately organized capital markets.
    While the work of the President and the foundations will be much appreciated, the real systemic causes of capital scarcity for cooperatives will continue until the money system itself is used as a tool to national self-betterment.

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