ACCORD's General Manager, Garry Cronan and visiting guest lecturer, Professor Daniel Côtè, from the University of Montreal, were interviewed recently, by Julie McCrossin on ABC's Life Matters, about the value of loyalty in co-operatives.

Professor Côtè focussed on loyalty as a key competitive advantage for co-operatives. He stressed that loyalty arose out of the principles of co-ops; how they support and nurture a collective approach to decision-making and sharing of common goals. However, he stressed, that the principles are not enough in themselves to sustain loyalty, but that loyalty must be earned. Once it becomes strongly embedded in the organisation's culture, loyalty helps ensure the success of the co-op, not only as a commercial undertaking, but also as a member owned organisation.

Professor Côtè has developed a model for assessing how co-ops balance the important market requirements with the need to maintain a strong member focus.

Garry Cronan highlighted how some Australian co-operatives and credit unions had remained member focused and values lead. Garry also explained how commercial success for some Australian co-operatives had come at the expense of their co-operative character. The balancing of these tensions within co-operatives was a difficult task. Australian co-operatives and credit unions could gain some useful insights from the work of Professor Cote, he added.

Professor Côtè was keynote speaker at a seminar on Revitalising membership, hosted by ACCORD, at the University of Technology, Sydney on 7 November 2002.

ACCORD's next event will be a conference in February on the water reform and co-operation, at Charles Sturt University Wagga Wagga.