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INTRODUCTION
The development of what is now known as the Mondragón Corporación Cooperativahas, throughout its long history, been based on the firm conviction that the“Experience”, as it is commonly called within the organisation, is a phenomenon inconstant evolution, in tune with what occurs in its social environment, to which it aimsto make a positive contribution. It has therefore been obliged to continually reinventitself.Adaptation to the environment in which it carries out its activities, an environment inconstant economic, social and political evolution, is seen as a vital necessity, not onlyin order to ensure survival, but also to enable the Corporation to continue pursuing itsestablished objectives.In the effort to turn this theory into a reality, MCC has always, and continues to strivefor balance, albeit tenuous, between apparently paradoxical aspects of the co-operative business environment such as:
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Efficiency and democracy
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Economic and social concerns
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Equality and hierarchical organisation
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Private interests (of staff and the companies) and the general interest
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Identification with the co-operative model and co-operation with other business models.
And yet, it is from this tension created by the coexistence of a co-operative businessculture and the pressing need to adapt to an ever-changing reality that theCorporation’s innovative approach to organisation springs, an innovative approach thatinfluences each co-operative, the organisation as a whole and its relations with theoutside world.
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striving for business efficiency in ever-changing markets
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discovering ways of resolving conflicts through co-operation, not confrontation
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experimenting with original management styles in keeping with the Basic Corporate Principles
This process of constant adaptation that characterises the Corporation’s history hasdemonstrated its worth time and time again during the periods subsequent to itsimplementation. Yet there is a price, sometimes very high, and we have often hadoccasion to discover for ourselves just how hard it is to leave the well trodden path andembark on an adventure into the great unknown.
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