The cooperative is not among the easiest of legal forms because its democratic decision making and the acting of different people in a group require good cooperation and management. When incorporating a cooperative enterprise, one should openly discuss the most suitable management practices. Some members might expect a strong person to stand up and pilot the group; some others may want everybody to have a say in every matter. According to the law, the management practices are clear: the board manages the cooperative, the general meeting elects and supervises the board. Especially in small and starting cooperatives, it is crucial that the board keeps the cooperative members fully aware of the essential matters in the cooperative and consults the members when making decisions.
Vis-à-vis their customers, the cooperative members must be able to work to reach their common goal. The members of the cooperative must have targets agreed on commonly, and every member needs their tasks. To represent the cooperative towards the customers, it can appoint one member if customers prefer to deal with one person instead of the whole team.
After the initial bout of action, the group’s life cycle comprises inevitable crises, disappointments, and problems, as expectations, ideas, and feelings of different people start to conflict. The life span of the group depends on its ability to solve problems. Once the difficulties are overcome, the guidelines can be refined, as the members are more cooperative than ever.
The internal dynamics of all groups are in constant change. No group is eternal. A cooperative, however, if it is a healthy undertaking, can function for decades, even if its members have gone through different stages in their mutual relationships, everything from symbiosis to independence and alienation, too. This will require that the individual has a relatively permanent advantage from the cooperative membership.
Life cycle of a group:
- Enthusiasm
- Honeymoon
- Crises, disappointments, detection of unscrupulousness
- Recognition of the realities and humaneness; rifts and abandonment are possible
- Problem solving
- Trimming of the guidelines
- Goal-directed cooperation
Conditions for success of a cooperative:
- a good business idea compliant to market needs
- in-depth planning and budgeting
- commitment of the members to shared goals and action plans and practices
- skillful management and responsible board
- sufficient financing guaranteed
- rigorous implementation and efficient supervision
- well-functioning marketing
- right pricing
- evolutive guidelines
- uncompromising quality policy
- training of the members and elected officials
- quick response to changes
- ability to solve internal problems in the group
- ability to put the interests of the whole before direct personal interests = the cooperative ideal
- ability to see things on long term