The Tutor points out in a comment post that a mutual insurance company is another opportunity for customer-owned enterprise. (Scroll down to the post at 5:56 PM.) Quote: “Another interesting co-op hybrid might be the old mutual insurance company concept. The company is owned by the policy holders and divisible surplus is paid back as policy dividends. In other words, the whole company is a kind of customer owned co-op, at least in theory. Governance, though, is through managers working under the usual kind of corporate board, without policy holder board seats.”
We have a mutual savings bank locally, and I’m friendly with the President. Perhaps we can have a chat about how it works in comparison to Co-ops.
July 20, 2003