Business leader, speaker, and author John Abrams is dedicated to transforming business into a force for good. He co-founded South Mountain Company and served as its President for over four decades. In the late 1980s, he converted the company into a worker co-op and, in 2022, transitioned it to the next generation of leadership. Later that year, he founded Abrams+Angell with his late-in-life partner, Kim Angell, to help small businesses increase effectiveness and achieve social, environmental, and financial goals. He concentrates on guiding worker cooperative conversions. In June 2025, Abrams released From Founder to Future: A Business Roadmap to Impact, Longevity, and Employee Ownership, which introduces the concept of CommonWealth Companies—organizations with common ownership, profits, power, information, and purpose—and provides a detailed guide on how to build and grow them.

During this episode, we discuss:

• John’s history of starting South Mountain Company and converting it into a worker co-op
• His advice for becoming a worker co-op
• The importance of thinking about what happens to your business tomorrow if something happens to your business today
• Focusing on whether or not you’re achieving your mission
• Why working on the business vs in the business is important
• What companies should devote attention to when it comes to converting into a worker co-op
• Why your business has to be something worth buying
• How to become ready for a worker co-op
• What he covers in his book

And more. Tune into this episode as we dive into all things worker co-ops!

Watch the episode on YouTube here.

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