A development process in ownership, community and animated organizing
Boot Koffie is a beautiful specialty coffee roastery, store and café in Baarn, with 24 inspired employees. As a family business since 1973, Boot Koffie has been operating from motives focused on quality, fair cooperation and social prices for coffee farmers.
Barend Boot, second-generation owner and with no successor in the family, would like to pass the company on to the future. In 2024, he started a development process with Economy Transformers. Together we explore what it means to pass on a business in a new way, in ownership as well as in spirit. This process unfolds in three steps, which we explain below.
1. Letting go as an act of forward-looking leadership
In the first phase, Barend explored questions such as:
“How do I pass on the company?”
“What are my key principles?”
“How do I find a way through my personal financial uncertainty without burdening Boot Coffee's future?”
At the end of 2024, Barend took an important step: he formally renounced the possibility of ever selling Boot Coffee again. In doing so, he gave shape to a fundamental premise:
Boat Coffee is of itself.
Property is henceforth removed from the market, and permanently serves the greater good: shared well-being, cooperation and community.
Boot Koffie shares are now held by the Donor Impact Invest Fund (DIIF).. Thanks to Jaap Doorman, Heleen Kuijck, Gijsbert Koren, Ignaz Anderson and the DIIF team for their contribution to this careful handover.
2. Anchoring the principles of Boot Coffee
Together with Darja Koster and the broader team, Boot Coffee has entered a second phase:
What are the supporting principles of the organization? And how do we secure these for the future? Some of the guiding principles that have been put in the middle of this process:
- Profit is not an end in itself, but a means of creating value for the entire coffee community.
- Meeting and connecting are not means but ends in themselves.
- Each employee is invited to work from their own passion and strengths and to take initiative.
Because Boot Coffee now ‘belongs to itself’ - and thus ownership can no longer be traded for individual gain - there is room for these principles to live on.
3. Space for flourishing and shared leadership
The third, and most challenging, phase has now begun. That one is about the question: “How do we build an organizational form where everyone can thrive and the principles of Boot Coffee become a reality?”
How do we translate our principles into concrete forms of work? How do we create space in which people can connect to the whole, without losing themselves?
Experiences about the process so far:
Barend puts it this way:
“The most beautiful insight for me is that I no longer have to see every struggle, internally or with myself, as a problem or frustration, but as nourishment for development. I experience this process as a shining pearl.”
Darja adds:
“A year ago I was introduced to this innovative way of doing business. A year full of (self) insights, confrontational and inspiring. Extremely instructive in all respects. I am curious to see how BOOT Coffee will continue to blossom this coming year.”
Economy Transformers continues to be involved in this development process as a participant in the steps ahead. We wish companies like Boot Coffee that ownership, cooperation and inner inspiration come together, enabling everyone within this coffee community in a human- and Earth-worthy way.
—
Jennifer Benson
Economy Transformers