Why We Launched the EO Community Catalyst

When I-COM became employee owned in 2019, we realised that employee ownership isn’t something you work through alone.

Some of the most helpful moments in our own EO journey came from speaking with other employee-owned businesses. Conversations with peers helped us think differently about governance, engagement, communication and leadership. The openness and willingness to help others within the EO community make these exchanges possible. We also recognised early on that these conversations need to happen regularly. Business moves quickly - each quarter can bring new priorities, new challenges and new questions. Being able to talk things through in the moment, rather than waiting for the next major touchpoint, makes those discussions more relevant and more useful.

Events run by the Employee Ownership Association (EOA) have also played an important role. Attending a national employee ownership conference provides perspective - you hear how other organisations approach similar challenges, and you leave with ideas you can adapt to your own business.

In 2025, our client services director and EO trustee, Kate Smith, attended the Employee Ownership Conference in Telford. The experience reinforced how valuable it is to step outside your own organisation and connect with others who understand the model in practice. Hearing real examples from EO businesses at different stages of maturity brought useful clarity and fresh thinking. It also highlighted how much the face-to-face element matters. Panel discussions and structured sessions are valuable, but some of the most useful conversations happen before and after the agenda - when trustees speak with trustees, leaders compare notes with leaders, and follow-up coffees are arranged.

One thing we consistently notice is how open the EO community is. There’s a level of transparency that comes with employee ownership, and that tends to shape how businesses interact with one another. There’s less sense of competition and more recognition that we’re working within the same model, facing similar responsibilities and trying to make it work well for our people.

Those EO events reinforced something simple: the employee ownership community works best when we talk to each other – and when we create space to do that consistently. The support, perspective and openness we’ve experienced have played a meaningful role in our own development as an employee-owned business. Creating Employee Ownership Community Catalyst felt like a natural way to contribute to a community that has helped and inspired us, and to create more opportunities for those conversations to continue closer to home.