By Alex Richmond, Partner & Trustee
It’s been inspiring and heartening to come together to celebrate Employee Ownership Day 2025 (EO Day), and the first for us as a fully employee owned business. As well as celebrating and spending time with Partners, this has been a moment to reflect on the values that make our business model at Saxton Bampfylde so special. The sense of shared purpose, mutual respect, and collective pride was tangible as Partners connected from across communities, shared stories, and celebrated the achievements made possible through working together as co-owners. Events like this remind us that when people feel empowered and valued, incredible things can happen, not just for the business, but for the individuals and communities it touches. Today has been a powerful affirmation of what we can achieve when we own it together.
Video: hear from our Partners about what the employee-owned difference means to them
As we come together to celebrate EO Day, we do so at a time of enormous technological upheaval and global uncertainty. This prompted some reflection on the nature of our business model, where it came from, and why I believe it is both a compassionate and resilient model that is even more relevant to us today than it was over 10 years ago, when we first became employee-owned.
To understand why, it’s worth having some historical perspective to the roots of employee-owned businesses in the UK. The earliest examples of worker-owned businesses in the UK emerged during the Industrial Revolution, with the rise of the co-operative movement. This emerged during another period of enormous technological change, and a radical re-thinking of the workplace and people’s roles in the context of a rapidly-evolving society and economy. Pioneering figures like Robert Owen, a social reformer and factory owner, advocated for improved working conditions and the establishment of mutual societies, where workers would own shares in the business and have a say in its management. Owen’s vision materialised in the form of the ‘Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers’ in 1844, one of the first successful co-operatives, which sought to provide workers with not just wages, but also a stake in the profits of their labour.
As a business model it continued to evolve through the rest of the 19th and 20th century, but its emergence was ultimately an attempt to create fairer and more equitable employment, that would ultimately be more productive and beneficial for all in the context of profound, and for many people unsettling changes. Although our model of employee-ownership is distinct to us and the nature of our business, Saxton Bampfylde’s model of employee-ownership has its roots in this time of enormous technological change.
Fast forward to 2025 and the UK, along with the rest of the world, is embarking on the largest technological upheaval in modern history. The advancement of AI, automation, and other digital technologies is reshaping every industry. Roles are being displaced, and the very nature of work is being transformed. As companies integrate these new technologies into their operations, the question of who benefits from the gains of innovation is as pressing now as it was in the Industrial Revolution of the 19th Century.
In this context, Saxton Bampfylde’s model of employee ownership offers a compassionate and resilient alternative to other models that dominate much of the business world, including executive search. We have the potential to harness these technological changes to make us more efficient, productive, and find new and innovative ways to deliver the incredible work we all do. Our model, rooted in another period of technological upheaval, allows us to navigate these waters in a way that is more compassionate, resilient, and for the benefit of all of us as Partners.
Video: Saxton Bampfylde’s EO Day celebrations 2025