March 2023
Case
HBS Case Collection

Ownership Works: Scaling a Profitable Social Mission

By: Ethan Rouen, Dennis Campbell and Andrew Robinson

Format:Print
| Language:English
| Pages:18

Abstract

Pete Stavros was on a high after his latest experiment with employee ownership. As the head of industrial investments for KKR, Stavros orchestrated the sale of CHI Overhead Doors, which turned into KKR’s best investment in more than two decades and created $360 million in wealth for CHI’s blue collar workforce through broad-based employee ownership. This case examines Stavros’s attempt to scale this strategy of creating shared value through the creation of a non-profit, Ownership Works (OW). The mission of OW is to create a knowledge base for strategies to implement employee ownership and to encourage other private equity firms to adopt the practice. The case provides an opportunity to examine how to scale a shared-value strategy and the challenges that come with building industry cooperation.

Keywords

Employee Ownership; Knowledge Sharing; Nonprofit Organizations

Citation

Rouen, Ethan, Dennis Campbell, and Andrew Robinson. "Ownership Works: Scaling a Profitable Social Mission." Harvard Business School Case 123-079, March 2023.