Why not give the company to the company

In 2010, Bob Moore, founder of Bob’s Red Mill Natural Foods in Milwaukee, Oregon, decided that instead of selling his company when he retired, he’d give it to his employees.

So he just gave all 320 of them stock, depending on seniority. Sounds a little kumbayah-ish, so here it is three years later — let’s check in with Bob and see how much his new co-owners might stand to get when they cash out.

“Oh golly. Partly because of people like yourself keep talking about it, the stock keeps going up. I would guess several hundred thousand dollars.”

Several hundred thousand. Plus, the company already provided a regular retirement plan and a 401K. Which makes you think, why couldn’t any company do this? It seems like the fair thing to do.

“I don’t think there is any reason why people couldn’t do this. It’s something I feel deeply and profoundly about, but I don’t know how to put it into others.”

It doesn’t seem to mesh with America’s current business culture, he says.

“I quit reading Forbes because everything is every dollar you can possibly think of and I decided that that philosophy is not for me,” says Moore.

So Bob Moore, at 84, is not quite as wealthy as he could have been, but he seems pretty happy: Busy making videos as the living symbol of Bob’s Red Mill Natural foods.

“They’re trying to get my face out as much as possible so that they can use it – say, like they did with Col. Sanders.”

Although among his employees, he’s probably achieved immortality already.