Differences between a co-operative society and a company Limited by Guarantee. A Co-operative society is an association of different individuals coming together to achieve an economic, cultural and social aspiration. On the other hand, the aim of a company Limited by guarantee is to promote its objective(s).

Most incorporated bodies have limited liability – this means that the responsibility of individual members for the co-op’s debts is restricted – often to a nominal amount such as £1 or £10. Should the business go bankrupt, the individuals involved won’t have to find the money themselves to pay all the co-op’s debts.

The difference between corporation and cooperative is that a corporation is a legal entity that stands separate from its owners. A cooperative, however, is an association of individuals voluntarily cooperating for the promotion of mutual, social, cultural, and economic benefits.

Cooperatives provide services in areas where private for-profit businesses don’t see sufficient profit potential. Common examples of cooperatives include agricultural cooperatives, electric cooperatives, retail cooperatives, housing cooperatives and credit unions.

Types of Co-ops

• Consumer Cooperatives. Consumer cooperatives are owned by members who use the co-op to purchase the goods or services that they need.
• Worker Cooperatives.
• Producer Cooperatives.
• Purchasing or Shared Services Cooperatives.
• Multi-stakeholder Cooperatives.

The purpose of a cooperative is to realize the economic, cultural and social needs of the organization’s members and its surrounding community. Cooperatives often have a strong commitment to their community and a focus on strengthening the community they exist in or serve.

The main objective is to provide support to the members. Nobody joins a cooperative society to earn profit. People come forward as a group, pool their individual resources, utilise them in the best possible manner, and derive some common benefit out of it.

Even though some co-operatives do not follow all the principles, they act as important aspirational aims of ‘human value’ and serve as useful guideposts for achieving desired social objectives through economic activities.

It is composed of four maxims: quality,composed of four maxims: quality, quantity, relation, and manner.

Objectives of a Cooperative The primary objective of every Cooperative is to provide goods and services to its members and thus enable them to attain increased income and savings, investments, productivity and purchasing power and promote among them equitable distribution of net surplus through maximum utilization of …

Cooperatives are based on the values of self-help, self-responsibility, democracy, equality, equity and solidarity. In the tradition of their founders, cooperative members believe in the ethical values of honesty, openness, social responsibility and caring for others.

The definition of cooperation is people working together to achieve results or people helping each other out to achieve a common goal. An example of cooperation is when one person hands you a brick and you lay the brick. The act of cooperating or being cooperative.

Cooperation promotes a good working environment, encourages peace, and advances humanity. In order to cooperate we must first tackle our own feelings of greed or jealousy, often accompanied by wanting to achieve something by ourselves.