The Co-op’s uniqueness will be its route to salvation

These are clearly tough times for the Co-operative Group.  Something has clearly gone wrong in the business and real change will be needed to put things right. The outgoing Chief Executive, Euan Sutherland is obviously a man of considerable intellect and ability. However, he clearly feels that he cannot be a successful CEO for the Co-operative Group and therefore it is right that he has resigned.

The Co-operative Group is an important British business.  It is a presence in every community and a major employer and clearly this will remain a critical focus for those co-operators who govern the business. But equally importantly, the Co-operative Group embodies the idea that there is a different, more socially responsible and more sustainable way of doing business.

It has been more than 5 years since the collapse of the de-mutualised Northern Rock, the wider banking crisis and since the start of the long and damaging recession that has followed. But as a country we are still looking for answers.  As a nation we feel failed by a failed utility market which sees the Big 6 energy companies making vast profits regardless of whether wholesale prices rise or fall. We feel uncomfortable that life chances remain so unevenly shared and that the proceeds of (any) growth are not distributed more fairly; we feel saddened by the resulting rise in payday lenders and food-banks and we feel angry when corporate remuneration is not linked to long-term success.

In other words, the British public don’t want business as usual they want something else – something more accountable, more fair, more long-termist, more sustainable, more co-operative. The Group’s members, democrats and executives have a critical role in shaping the Co-operative Group for the future and appointing the right person to lead this work.

There will clearly be a fierce debate in the months ahead about what to do to move the business onto a better footing. For some, ‘normalising’ the business – cutting its century old political ties, ending the ‘divi’ for members, and paying executives ‘telephone number’ salaries – is the solution.  But this would be a historic mistake.  As Hugh Gaitskell noted in the 1950s the Co-operative is special because it isn’t like every other business, and its uniqueness will be its route to salvation.

A rebuilt, refocused and more resilient Co-operative Group – something many of us passionately want to see – should be a part of inspiring a more co-operative society and can do so with the benefit of a legion of dedicated customers that share its values.  The Group’s corporate results will be published at the end of March, and will no doubt make for pretty grim reading. However the answer is to heed the public’s call for a better way of doing business; one that is fair to employees, customers, suppliers and the environment – and a better way of doing politics – as exemplified by the Group’s own democratic structures but also in its transparent engagement in politics in Westminster and beyond.

Gareth Thomas MP is the Chair of the Co-op Party