Companies (co-)owned by the CPO
Management
Companies which are fully owned by the CPO are handed over open-end to a chief executive, who must run the respective company in a professional and long-term viable way. The chief executive may also be the previous owner of the company.
The business domains and legal forms of the companies which the CPO can participate in are not constrained. The essential criterion is that the company aims for a long-term viable and regional way of doing business.
Financial Support and other assistance
The CPO supports its companies through its financial holdings, making them less dependent on loans from banks. The companies pay less or no interest to the banks. They can use the money saved in this way to become more long-term viable.
Apart from the financial contributions, the companies receive active support from the citizens of their surrounding area. Through the open communication of the companies with the citizens, understanding of each other grows, a broader range of people are involved in decisions, regional customers are gained and the companies find it easier to orient themselves to the needs of the customers. This leads to greater planning reliability for the companies regarding the marketability of their products.
The aim is not to support only those companies which already do business in a long-term viable way, but in particular to support companies through financial and active participation in their endeavour for long-term viability. However, the consistent orientation towards long-term viability is the prerequisite for the participation of the community in the company.
Reporting
The reporting serves to comprehensively illustrate the value of the companies. Apart from the financial performance figures which are nowadays commonplace in company reports, ecological, social and regional criteria play an important role in the assessment of a company. They reveal the state of the company's long-term viability. By taking such criteria into account, the management can communicate decisions which are sensible with regard to the future development of the company, even though they may bring short-term financial disadvantages with them.
The companies (co-)owned by the CPO commit themselves to a comprehensive annual reporting which takes not only economic data into consideration, but also social, regional and ecological criteria for sustainability as well as the other aspects of long-term viability. The criteria to be taken into account for the reporting should be measurable without major effort. They are laid down by the general meeting of the CPO, in cooperation with the affected chief executives, external experts and the general public, and may be adapted annually. The company reports are published on the website of the community.
Transparency
In the interest of long-term viability, the greatest possible transparency within the companies as well as in their relationship with the CPO is expected of them.
Crises lead first and foremost to greater insecurities concerning the assessment of further development. In the interest of resilience, the participating companies report to the CPO as early as possible on the insecurities and risks they have recognized, and work on finding creative and innovative solutions together with capital providers, employees, experts and dedicated citizens.