Scott Bader was founded by Ernest Bader in 1921. The company was family owned and conventionally managed for 30 years, but Ernest was never comfortable with a capitalist governance structure.
For many years he and his family sought a 'third way' of distributing the capital of the company in a less divisive manner and a method by which all employees could have a 'real' say in the company. They believed that labour should employ capital acknowledging the equality of everyone as individuals and that only a restructure of the way industry was managed would bring this about.
In 1951 a radical decision was made and The Scott Bader Commonwealth was created. This changed the fundamental structure of the company and shared out responsibility for its long term future to its employees.
United Kingdom
