Few business models can claim to have demonstrated, for over a century, that economic profitability and democratic participation are not only compatible but also mutually reinforcing. This is precisely the message that the cooperative world is once again bringing to the fore on 4 July, International Day of Cooperatives, celebrated under the slogan chosen by the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA): ‘Cooperatives for a peaceful world’, which positions these organisations as bridge-builders in a global context marked by social fragmentation and a loss of trust in institutions.
The occasion, promoted by the United Nations since 1995 – although the global cooperative movement has celebrated it without interruption since 1923 – is not merely a symbolic gesture. According to the UN itself, cooperatives are autonomous associations of people who voluntarily come together to meet common economic and social needs through a jointly owned and democratically managed enterprise, governed by the principle of ‘one person, one vote’. This year, moreover, the theme ties in with the ICA World Conference to be held in September in Panama, which will focus on how the cooperative model can build bridges between communities and strengthen social cohesion.
A model that accounts for 10 per cent of global employment
The figures underpin the significance of the date, according to data released by the Spanish Business Confederation of the Social Economy (CEPES). More than three million cooperatives operate worldwide, employing around 10 per cent of the working population and bringing together more than 12 per cent of the world’s citizens. In Europe, the cooperative movement comprises more than 250,000 organisations, employing 5.4 million people and with 163 million members. Spain, for its part, is one of the continent’s leading examples: it accounts for around 26 per cent of European cooperative employment and 9 per cent of the European Union’s cooperatives, with more than 24,000 active organisations spread across the country.
Arizmendiarrieta and the origins of a unique experience
The story begins in 1941, when a young priest, José María Arizmendiarrieta, arrived in Arrasate/Mondragón in the immediate post-war period, to find a town that was impoverished and offered hardly any opportunities. Convinced that people’s dignity depends on access to knowledge and work, he first established a vocational school and, in 1956, founded the first industrial co-operative, Ulgor (now Fagor), the seed of what would later become the Mondragón Group. His philosophy, rooted in Christian humanism and the belief that business must serve the individual and not the other way round, laid the foundations for a model that combines participation in ownership, management and profits.
That legacy lives on almost seventy years later. Mondragon Corporation closed 2025 with sales of 11,322 million euros and a workforce of 71,415 people following the creation of 1,346 new jobs. With these figures, the cooperative group remains the leading private employer in the Basque Country, the second largest in Navarre and the fifth largest in Spain as a whole. Its sectors of industry, distribution, finance and knowledge – the latter with an investment of 218 million euros in R&D – continue to promote the model internationally, with production facilities in over a hundred locations outside Spain.
The Inclusive Participatory Model: a legacy with a vision for the future
Today’s organisations face challenges very different from those of seventy years ago – digitalisation, attracting talent, sustainability and generational renewal – yet the solution proposed by Arizmendiarrieta remains surprisingly relevant: involving people in the business project. Building on this idea, the Arizmendiarrieta Fundazioa has for years been promoting the Inclusive Participatory Business Model (MIPE), its natural evolution – a management framework that applies the principles of cooperative humanism to any type of organisation, including limited companies. The proposal is based on grounding business competitiveness in the development of people and in cooperation between the various stakeholders within the organisation, replacing confrontation with collaboration as the driving force behind results. Each year, through the Arizmendiarrieta Awards, the Foundation recognises Basque and Navarrese organisations that best implement these values, demonstrating that the cooperative spirit can extend far beyond the legal form of a cooperative.
The Basque Country and Navarre: a cooperative region par excellence
Beyond Mondragón, the Basque and Navarrese cooperative sector is one of the most extensive in Europe. According to Konfekoop, the Confederation of Cooperatives of the Basque Country, the autonomous community has around 1,400 cooperative enterprises, providing some 62,500 direct jobs and with more than 1.5 million members. Statistics from the Ministry of Labour rank the Basque Country as the second autonomous community in terms of the number of people employed in cooperatives, second only to Andalusia. Navarre, for its part, stands out particularly for its cooperative density: it is the region with the highest rate of cooperatives per inhabitant in Spain. Both regions share an ecosystem in which the social economy is deeply rooted in sectors such as industry, distribution, education, finance and social services.
Why start or transform a business as a cooperative
For those considering launching a business venture, the cooperative model offers advantages worth considering: it spreads the risk amongst several members, links remuneration to the business’s actual results, facilitates access to specific grants and funding, and builds, from the outset, a stronger commitment from people to the project, which usually translates into greater stability and resilience in the face of crises. It is no coincidence that Konfekoop itself highlights the greater average longevity of co-operatives compared to other legal forms.
But the model is not exclusive to projects started from scratch. An increasing number of traditional businesses are considering transforming into a co-operative as a means of generational succession, particularly where there is no family succession or where the owners wish to safeguard the business against relocation. Converting a limited company or public limited company into a co-operative helps retain talent, strengthen the team’s commitment and anchor the business to the local area.
Professional support: key to the project’s success
Setting up a co-operative, or transforming an existing company into a participatory organisation, requires specialised legal and management advice: from drafting the articles of association and designing the internal regulations to defining the profit-sharing model. Experience shows that the success of these processes depends as much on people’s commitment as on specialist support throughout the journey. In this regard, ‘TREBEki Combining Efforts‘ has been supporting cooperatives, companies and entrepreneurs for many years in the creation of new participatory organisations, cultural transformation and business management.
CORPORATE CONSULTANCY, LEGAL ADVISORS
With an experience of more than 35 years, the group of people that composses Trebeki, is joining efforts and knowledge for the improvement of the development of business, legal and professional activities of our clients; small companies, medium sized companies and big corporations that require effective solutions and bet for our values and efficiency.
TREBEki Combining Efforts combines present efforts, implicating in future projects, helping to born, grow, consolidate and settle projects in other regions and countries, counting with each own team in our country, Europe, Asia and America.
Objectives
- We offer ethical, efficient and close advice: those are our best tools
- We want to be participants and colaborators of the business model transformation processes
- We provide experience, compromise and versatility. We want to accompany you throught the whole process, especially when problems arise.
WE ARE ‘NER‘
We are part of an Association of organizations joined by the New Style of Relations: sharing experiences, knowledge and synergies, combining efforts to improve, progress, be more efficients and obtain better results; we accompany each other in the path of a profound cultural change that entails NER Style.
An association with a clear worry for the Society, seeking a fair and sustainable Human Development.
