Scott Bader was founded in 1921 and conventionally managed for 30 years. However, Ernest Bader, the founder, was never comfortable with a capitalist governance structure. Having become Quakers, Ernest and his family believed that ethical and moral action to improve this world was vital. For many years they sought a ‘third way’ of distributing the capital of the company in a less divisive manner and a method by which all employees could have a ‘real’ say in the company. They believed that labour should employ capital, acknowledging the equality of everyone as individuals and that only a restructuring of the way industry was managed would bring this about.
