Tuesday June 10 – Laboral Kuxta, Cooperative Values, Copreci, Laboral Kuxta – Juan Maunel Sinde

Monday June 9 – International Strategy, Mondragon Management Model, MU and MIK

Sunday June 8th - Group Discussion and San Sebastian

Saturday June 7th - Basque History and Culture, and Internationalization

Parliament of the Basques

Guernica Peace Museum

Anjel Errasti presentation on MCC Internationalization issues and concerns.

Friday June 6th - Research, Culture Change, Entrepreneurship

Koniker (R&D) a division of MIA (Mondragon Industrial Assembly)

Unai Elorza Culture Change Research Presentation

Saiolan Business Incubation

Saiolan is a non profit cooperative and sustainable business incubation center affiliated with Mondragon University. It helps to carry on the Caja Laboral entrepreneurship activities, working with start ups as well as existing cooperatives.

Arrasate Rugby fundraising event in Mondragon.  

Weisswurst and frankfurters.

Friday nights are festive with pinxtos bars packed to the gills...

Thursday, June 5th - Lagun Aro, On Cooperative Education @ Ortalora, Eroski

Wednesday, June 4th - Where it all comes down on the cold hard ground...

We were introduced to Mondragon by Mikel Lezamiz, Director of Cooperative Dissemination.  15,000 visitors a year.  Mikel speaks tirelessly, listens keenly, and teaches with intensity.

The 14th century home to MCC's Otalora management training arm.  

We met with Mikel Uribetxeberria (President of the cooperative, three years into his second four year term).  Plant tour and Q&A.  Fagor Ederlan is supplier to the automotive sector and beyond.  Mikel is a gracious and focused host with a firm grasp on the big picture.  A humble and powerful man.

Tuesday, June 3rd - On the way to Mondragon

We stopped off at a Laboral Kuxta credit union office in Bilbao this morning for a quick walk through. Language barrier aside, it looked like you would expect any credit union office to look like.  I didn't see dedicated messaging  about cooperative values, but those may be ingrained in the brand already.  More to learn about Caja Laboral.

MCC graciously provided passes to the Guggenheim Museo in Bilbao this morning.  The building wowed from the inside, as much and more as the trademark titanium exterior.  Gehry's sensitivity to the siting of the building, knitting it together with both the river and city was powerful.  The building has a simultaneously organic and engineered feel.  A Serra sculpture gallery (there's small scale Serra work at the Walker Art Center) was both a labyrinth and an echo chamber.  The main atrium was especially striking and cathedral like, but the entire museum was saturated with details.  The Yoko Ono exhibit on the third floor will satisfy Yoko Ono fans specifically.

Today included an informal tour of an Eroski Hypermarket to begin to answer "What is an Eroski Hypermarket, and how does it fit into the big picture?"  It's another type of cooperative animal.  It's roughly a Super Target + Iberico ham + affordable wine and beer + worker/member hybrid ownership.   Retail exceeds industrial in annual turnover at Mondragon.  Eroski is just part of the picture.  I thought there was surprisingly little attention paid to organic (Bio) prioritization.  The growth in the North American natural foods market and a trip I made to an EU organic trade fair in Nuremburg in 2006 have me hungry to know what strategies Eroski might be formulating.

(Photos googled.)

Monday, June 2nd - Fracking Lost

Rented a car and took a drive around today.  Enjoyed getting lost in a Southerly direction and encountered anti-fracking signage in a very picturesque area of small farms, mixed with small industrial factories.  Interestingly Bilbao has a lot of public transportation infrastructure (trains, subway, light rail, bus), and the urban density to support its use , but also a very car (less bicycle) oriented culture.  Fracking represents a huge "boom" in domestic oil production in North America, so it should not be a surprise that it's here too. What will the costs be and who will pay them?

https://www.facebook.com/frackingezaraba

Drove on to Santander, West on the Atlantic coast.  Northern Spain is an industrious land.  Freeway infrastructure was very well maintained.  As heavy manufacturing has systematically been "off shored" in the U.S. we've shifted to a puzzling "new" economy featuring real estate bubbles, tech booms and a much reduced industrial core.  It appears that Spain has kept a strong commitment to an industrial base.  I don't have a complete picture, but it's an interesting contrast.

Sunday, June 1st - Cohort Regroups

Chanced into meeting Matthew Epperson of the Daily Grocery (Athens, GA)  yesterday early afternoon.  We walked the city for about four hours noting stunning architecture, a Sunday calm, a plethora of dogs, Caja Laboral and Laboral Kutxa signage, an Eroski city market, an HVAC coop service van, a chicken co-op delivery van.  Co-op culture is percolating as expected.  The Cooperators contingent (Sandra, Karen, Lee) joined us for a stroll and late dinner.

 Caja Laboral

Global singlehanding contender at the Maritime Museum