community Based Enterprise, Inc.

(C2BE)

Community Based Enterprise Innovations Applicable to Detroit

Center for Community-Based Enterprise

P.O. Box 15652, Detroit, MI 48215313-331-7821 www.c2be.org

June 30, 2009at the Skillman Foundation

by Deborah Groban Olson, Executive Director

Key Ideas• Community Based Enterprise (CBE)

starts with people working together for mutual self-help.

• CBE has proven successful in lifting communities out of economic distress.

• Wide range of successful examples of CBEs – large and small

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Key Ideas• The long term major successes have:

– a support structure larger than the single firm

– regional gov’t. supporting business clusters and /or

– co-operation among co-operatives and – a means to grow patient community capital

• C2BE’s vision is to create a resource and support structure to enable scalable CBE success in SE Michigan.

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Center for Community Based Enterprise is

A non-profit organization• Providing education & technical assistance on

using broad, local ownership of businesses to build strong communities.

• Connecting diverse and unique local resources.• Seeking to create a resource center & co-

operative network to help community-based businesses work together to become more successful.

• Similar to those centers - described in our innovation scan & speaker series - in Spain, Italy and Ohio.

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C2BE Mission

C2BE supports and connects entrepreneurs, communities and resources to grow “Community Based Enterprises” (CBEs).

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What is a Community Based Enterprise (CBE)?

A Community Based Enterprise (CBE) is a for-profit or non-profit business that is:– Sustainable– Locally rooted– Intentionally structured to provide

community benefits; and– Committed to paying living wages

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C2BE Strategy – Local Focus

• Reverse of traditional companies that start from products

• C2BE starts with local people, resources, & rootedness criteria

• Seeks viable business opportunities that can pay living wages, such as proprietary products, local resource based products & services

• Capitalizing on local resources.

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Underutilized Local Resources• Thousands of highly skilled professional, technical

and hourly workers, who want to stay in the area• Sophisticated technology, facilities &

infrastructure• Lots of idle intellectual property (IP), with near-

term market potential, at 300 local manufacturing technology companies

• Socially responsible capital seeking investment opportunities

• Excellent education & training facilities• Fresh water & flat land• Urban agriculture/ food security network• Anchor institution supply chains – where not local

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Product Savvy People Need Entrepreneurial Support

• For 100 years people came here to work for big companies.

• We have lots of people who know how to make things, and fewer who are entrepreneurs.

• After entrepreneurship training, if there is not a support system, many businesses fail.

• Shared business resources enable the product people to focus on their strengths, and share scarce management resources.

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C2BE Current Funded Projects

• Global best practices community-based enterprise innovation scan - completed

• CBE speaker series on best CBE practices

• Pre-feasibility study & technical assistance for Detroit Grocery Store Coalition employee/community owned fresh grocery

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C2BE Programs in Development

• Local CBE Scan – Find Detroit CBEs and learn their capacities & needs -

started

• Clearinghouse/ Matchmaker– Connecting diverse resources across all sectors of the economy– Enable Detroit CBEs to network, collaborate, find synergies w/ each

other, share resources & systematic “buy local” marketing

• Scale Up CBEs– Create a resource co-operative as a core business

platform for scaling CBE businesses

• Business & innovation broker – Established Ingenuity US, L3C (IUS) – to seek out &

develop business innovation opportunities & create community capital by reinvesting ½ of profits in CBEs

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C2BE Programs in Development (con’t.)

• Best Practices Education – expand best CBE practices education to businesses, labor, community groups and anchor institutions

• Seeking to make available for development by local talent, large number of local underutilized green patents in the government owned auto companies

• CBE Business Owners Roundtable featuring:– Exploring synergies– Diversification using new IP– Open book management– Employee ownership tax & operational advantages

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C2BE Programs in Development continued

• Sustain Non-Traditional Entrepreneurs (NTEs)

• Expand worker “next step” options from a buy-out or lay-off to consider being a Community Based Enterprise (CBE) entrepreneur

• Shepherd NTEs through incubation programs & funding sources

• Clearinghouse for TA to create CBEs• Business Plan competition aimed at dislocated

workers

Examples Presented in Series

• Local CBE examples• Successful employee owned

companies – including inner city, industrial, old economy businesses that are making the leap to new economy businesses

• Network of 93 employee owned companies in Ohio

• Successful industrial co-operative network in Spain

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Examples Presented in Series

• Spanish labor companies started by groups of workers using their unemployment benefits and assistance from a government supported technical assistance center

• Successful government supported small business and co-op support clusters in Italy

• Cleveland Evergreen Cooperatives borrow from many of these ideas to create the economic inclusion strategy for the Cleveland anchor institutions – to be presented by our speaker, Ted Howard

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Center for Community Based Enterprise (C2BE)

• Non profit with 501(c)3 status• Over 100 diverse advisors• Organization & individual memberships • Ingenuity US, L3C is a mission-driven company

implementing C2BE’s ideas.

ContactDeborah Groban Olson, Executive DirectorCenter for Community Based Enterprise, Inc.P.O. Box 15652, Detroit, MI 48215(313) 331-7821 ofc., (313) 300-6517 cell, (313) 331-2567 fax, dgolson@c2be.org www. c2be.org