{"id":14465,"date":"2024-07-29T09:56:56","date_gmt":"2024-07-29T08:56:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ee.yelkdev.site\/?p=14465"},"modified":"2024-12-09T15:16:42","modified_gmt":"2024-12-09T15:16:42","slug":"the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/","title":{"rendered":"The EE network trust in their own words"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/whats-new\/employeebuyout-equalexperts-announcement\/\">network owned<\/a>?<\/p>\n<p>At this year\u2019s Equal Experts Annual conference, EE associate Neha Datt sat down with the group for a panel discussion to find out more about the newly created Equal Experts Trust, and what happens next. Watch the video below or read on to find out more:<\/p>\n<p><iframe title=\"Equal Experts Trustee Group panel discussion - Annual Conference 2024\" width=\"500\" height=\"281\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/zLl40OtJTs8?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>Sreekandh Balakrishnan (Sree), CTO at Travelopia and Trustee, opened the session by explaining the benefit of a trustee group compared to being funded and run by private equity or venture capital. \u201cWhen companies are funded that way they operate on short [term] models that don\u2019t allow for long-term thinking,\u201d he said. \u201cThis model is radical because it takes a long-term balanced view that focuses on generating value for the network, customers and employees first &#8211; with profit coming along naturally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Neha asked the panel whether they will operate according to the principles of transparency that are a hallmark of EE\u2019s culture. Although it\u2019s still early days, the hope is to be extremely transparent, said Sofie Jenson, an associate at EE and Trustee. \u201cWe should share and document our journey, meetings, agendas and learnings, potentially through a Slack channel. It\u2019s important we document those learnings and leave them for whoever comes after us.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Next, the discussion moved on to the trust\u2019s guiding principles and guardrails that the team will be following. Sree explained that members of the group have a tenure of two years, with the possibility to renew or appoint new trustees thereafter.<\/p>\n<p>While guiding principles are still being developed and will be shared in future, he said that the trust has a very different role to the executives. \u201cTrustees won\u2019t replace the execs, we\u2019re more like the conscience keepers of the company\u2019s growth,\u201d said Sree. \u201cThe execs continue their roles and we guide them, and nurture the journey.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Trustees are appointed to the board for two years, although this can be renewed. \u201cWe don\u2019t know how much progress we\u2019ll make in two years but it will depend on how quickly trustees get to grips with what the business really is,\u201d said Thomas de Cad\u2019oro Granier, EE\u2019s founder.<\/p>\n<p>The trustees all felt that they were excited to be invited to join the group, and agreed that they bring very different skills and experiences to their roles. \u201cReflecting on the conversations I\u2019ve had with Thomas and Ryan over the years, I think I tend to ask probing and difficult questions. There would be easier people to invite, but I think that\u2019s part of why I was chosen,\u201d said Alun Coppack, EE employee and Trustee.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI think there\u2019s a leadership lesson here about building a team based on energy and connection, rather than just ticking off a list of skills. I believe there was a connection and vision alignment felt by both Thomas and me,\u201d Sree added.<\/p>\n<p>Alun was then asked what the group\u2019s response was to potential unionisation among EE employees. Alun started by saying that while he was an associate and is now an EE employee, he does not represent employees as a whole &#8211; he represents the entire network. \u201cThe trust is here to provide governance to the execs rather than make decisions about how the company runs. If a decision like that needed to be made, it would come to us for approval, but we don\u2019t drive that decision.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In a related question, Neha asked the panel how decision-making will change in EE because of the trust. Thomas explained that major decisions for the execs, like where to invest money, where to open new offices, will still be driven by the exec team, but will come to the Trust for approval. \u201cMost day to day decisions won\u2019t change, but significant investments and strategic decisions will involve the trust,\u201d Sree added.<\/p>\n<p>Finally, Neha pointed out that the company now owes a debt to Thomas and Ryan that will be repaid over the next 6-8 years. She asked whether this would mean different pressures on the business around cash flow, compensation or associate day rates?<\/p>\n<p>Thomas replied by saying it was a deliberate decision not to use bank lending to finance the employee buyout, and this made the deal achievable. \u201cWe pay everyone\u2019s salaries, then other costs, then profit share for employees, then taxes, then future investments,\u201d he said. \u201cWhatever is left goes towards repayment. We are very happy to be last, whereas the bank would always be first.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The panel discussion concluded with Ryan Sikorsky, EE\u2019s Co-Founder, reiterating Sree\u2019s point earlier in the conversation about the fact that the Trust is in the early days of forming, so the plan is to follow an iterative approach, figuring things out as they go along, and communicating openly with the network every step of the way.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned? <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[463],"tags":[478,571,462,477,371],"location":[418],"class_list":["post-14465","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-employee-ownership","tag-conference","tag-equal-experts","tag-network","tag-panel","tag-trust"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v25.9 (Yoast SEO v25.9) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>The EE network trust in their own words | Equal Experts<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_GB\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The EE network trust in their own words\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Equal Experts\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-07-29T08:56:56+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-12-09T15:16:42+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Trust-panel-FACEBOOK.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1000\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"525\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Thomas Granier\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@EqualExperts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@EqualExperts\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Thomas Granier\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Estimated reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Thomas Granier\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c64dcd2874912b890df2e7fb005d21ed\"},\"headline\":\"The EE network trust in their own words\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-29T08:56:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-09T15:16:42+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/\"},\"wordCount\":842,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"conference\",\"Equal Experts\",\"Network\",\"panel\",\"trust\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Employee Ownership\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/\",\"name\":\"The EE network trust in their own words | Equal Experts\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2024-07-29T08:56:56+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-12-09T15:16:42+00:00\",\"description\":\"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"The EE network trust in their own words\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/\",\"name\":\"Equal Experts\",\"description\":\"Making Software. Better.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Equal Experts\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Equal_Experts_Logo_CMYK_Colour.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Equal_Experts_Logo_CMYK_Colour.jpg\",\"width\":719,\"height\":340,\"caption\":\"Equal Experts\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/x.com\/EqualExperts\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/equal-experts\/?viewAsMember=true\"]},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c64dcd2874912b890df2e7fb005d21ed\",\"name\":\"Thomas Granier\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-GB\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/923ac2a78e6d88781d4b0c0834cae1d3650e3cb7f6df45e51ebc2b96d6da925f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/923ac2a78e6d88781d4b0c0834cae1d3650e3cb7f6df45e51ebc2b96d6da925f?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Thomas Granier\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"The EE network trust in their own words | Equal Experts","description":"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/","og_locale":"en_GB","og_type":"article","og_title":"The EE network trust in their own words","og_description":"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?","og_url":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/","og_site_name":"Equal Experts","article_published_time":"2024-07-29T08:56:56+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-12-09T15:16:42+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1000,"height":525,"url":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/Trust-panel-FACEBOOK.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Thomas Granier","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_description":"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?","twitter_creator":"@EqualExperts","twitter_site":"@EqualExperts","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Thomas Granier","Estimated reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/"},"author":{"name":"Thomas Granier","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c64dcd2874912b890df2e7fb005d21ed"},"headline":"The EE network trust in their own words","datePublished":"2024-07-29T08:56:56+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-09T15:16:42+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/"},"wordCount":842,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#organization"},"keywords":["conference","Equal Experts","Network","panel","trust"],"articleSection":["Employee Ownership"],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/","url":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/","name":"The EE network trust in their own words | Equal Experts","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#website"},"datePublished":"2024-07-29T08:56:56+00:00","dateModified":"2024-12-09T15:16:42+00:00","description":"What is the newly formed Equal Experts Trustee group, and how does it work now that Equal Experts is network owned?","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-GB","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/blog\/employee-ownership\/the-ee-network-trust-in-their-own-words\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"The EE network trust in their own words"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/","name":"Equal Experts","description":"Making Software. Better.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-GB"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#organization","name":"Equal Experts","url":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Equal_Experts_Logo_CMYK_Colour.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/08\/Equal_Experts_Logo_CMYK_Colour.jpg","width":719,"height":340,"caption":"Equal Experts"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/x.com\/EqualExperts","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/equal-experts\/?viewAsMember=true"]},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/c64dcd2874912b890df2e7fb005d21ed","name":"Thomas Granier","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-GB","@id":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/923ac2a78e6d88781d4b0c0834cae1d3650e3cb7f6df45e51ebc2b96d6da925f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/923ac2a78e6d88781d4b0c0834cae1d3650e3cb7f6df45e51ebc2b96d6da925f?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Thomas Granier"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14465","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14465"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14465\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14465"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14465"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14465"},{"taxonomy":"location","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.equalexperts.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/location?post=14465"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}