The pitfall is that in case of significant changes to the industry it may become politically impossible to make certain unpleasant decisions - e.g. if the indus

The pitfall is that in case of significant changes to the industry it may become politically impossible to make certain unpleasant decisions - e.g. if the industry gets a new option for automation which enables reducing costs through laying off half the employees, then it could be the case that the employee-owned company refuses to do that while their competitors do, and then some time goes out of business as it's costs are uncompetitive, and then have to lay off everyone because they could not make a timely decision to lay off half of them. But that's a hypothetical scenario which is not that common (but high stakes).