The Idea of Membership

In this book the main emphasis has been on the member-owned business as a business but the question of what is meant by membership has kept on cropping up. The member-owned aspect needs to be explored more carefully, as membership is both necessary to MOBs and problematic. One key finding has been that a business with members at its centre has comparative advantages over other types of business. We can see that from the way in which IOBs are continually trying to persuade their customers that they also offer membership—of clubs that provide trade discounts, loyalty incentives and other kinds of privileged treatment. MOBs have a great advantage here; they can show that they provide a real share in ownership that goes way beyond what the IOBs can offer their ‘members’. It is becoming easier to persuade boards of directors and managers that their businesses have this built-in advantage, because they see the benefits of member-loyalty in the ‘bottom line’. Yet membership comes at a cost; it brings with it the right to take part in governance, and the more members exercise this right the more their leaders are likely to be challenged and their managers called to account.