Real-Life 'Wonderful Life' Boss Gives Business to Employees

[SoCalDem]

http://gma.yahoo.com/real-life-wonderful-life-boss-gives-business-employees-162546267--abc-news-money.html

http://l3.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/iARbnA1ROOAUrOHUTM9Olg--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MzYwO2NyPTE7Y3c9NjQwO2R4PTA7ZHk9MDtmaT11bGNyb3A7aD0zNTU7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/

"It's a Wonderful Life" has come to life in Bemidni, Minn., with a hero as public-spirited as the George Bailey of the Capra classic movie.

Grocery mogul Joe Lueken, 70, literally is giving away the store, to his 400 employees.

After 46 years running Lueken's Village Foods, he and his family will start transferring ownership of the three-store chain on January 1 to an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Program), in which each employee will own stock. The number of shares will be based on their salary and years of service. Two of Village Foods' stores are in Bemidji; a third is in Wahpeton, N.D.

Asked by ABC News what prompted him to give away his business, Lueken says it just struck him as the right thing to do. He considered other options, including selling out to a private buyer; but when he talked to his family about it, his wife and four sons agreed that handing it off to the employees made sense, considering how much his employees, past and present, had done for him.

"It wasn't just the best option," says Lueken. "It was the only option." It was too, he thinks, best for the community. According to the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Lueken has been famous for years for his generosity to local charities and causes, including the Sanford Health Foundation and the Bemidji State University Foundation. Lueken tells ABC that after he came down with Parkinson's disease in the 1990s, doctors recommended he have electrodes implanted in his brain to help control his trembling. It wasn't until he was being prepped for the operation, he says, that he realized the surgeon was a man whose education he'd helped pay for. That made him feel a lot better, he says, about having the procedure.

Brent Sicard, an employee who started at Village Foods in 1998 as night janitor, will be the company's new CEO and president.

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[ReRe]

1. "Yes, Virginia....

.... there is a Santa Clause." It is nice to be reminded that we have good people in this country like this man and his family. Yesterday, we heard about the CEO/President of Costco, Jim Senegal, who believes that if a company is good to the employees, the employees will be good to the company. Good begets good. Thanks for this good news from MN.

[Sherman A1]

5. Indeed

you treat your workers right and they will take care of your company. Granted there are always exceptions, but in general that will be the case.

[coalition_unwilling]

2. Emphatic K&R! - n/t

[TahitiNut]

3. It seems he also helped raise four sons with a "win-win" attitude.

Why can't we do more to recognize ethical and intelligent human beings in business such as this man? I wouldn't trade him for a thousand Donald Trumps.

[99th_Monkey]

4. Awesomeness Alert! K&R ~nt

[Buns_of_Fire]

6. Bob Moore (Bob's Red Mill Natural Foods) also did this in 2010...

http://abcnews.go.com/WN/owner-multi-million-dollar-company-hands-business-employees/story?id=9875038#.ULc-OqzNb-s

http://www.bobsredmill.com/

There are a few Good Guys among the ever-growing turdpile of American CEOs.

(I propose we eat them last, or perhaps even remove them from the "To Be Eaten" list altogether... )

[SoCalDem]

8. There was a mill owner back east who did this too..

Not all bosses are heartless monsters...maybe most..but not all

[CrispyQ]

7. Kick!

A remarkable man who knows the value of community & that it takes a community for an individual like himself to excel.

I think employee ownership is a great corporate model. Who do you want vested in your company more than the people that make your products, sell your services & deal with your customers?

[woo me with science]

9. K&R They all built that.