The latest Employee Ownership Blog post, Future of ESOPs, contains a discussion of where the ESOP industry sees ESOPs and employee ownership in twenty years:

• With the global economy, business practices are changing fast and companies that have an advantage over their competitors are going to flourish. An ESOP will be a competitive edge.
  
• With education of business leaders and owners, we will begin to see more ESOP companies as people realize the potential employee ownership can bring to the company.
  
• Companies understand that employee ownership is a performance booster and will begin using it to make the company more competitive here at home and abroad.
  
• Universities will take the lead in research efforts and redefine the way capitalism works using employee ownership as the model.
  
• Models of employee ownership will become more diverse as well as more common in the next 20 years.
  
• Government relations efforts are now more important than ever and we need to stay on top of the game.