Let my people go surfing — Yvon Chounard

Notes

· Yvon didn’t like to be a businessman. He traveled, tested the products and came back with feedback on making them better.

· He had to choose. Whether to keep growing and becoming a billion dollar company or stay a boutique company and maintain quality. McDonalds VS a 5 star Michelin restaurant.

· He gave office space for free to people fighting for environmental issues.

· Donated 10% of their profits or 1% of their sales each year. Depending which was higher.

· Patagonia reason to exist is to be a role model to other companies.

· Patagonia Philosophies:

o On Product Design: Make the best product. Without a tangible, high quality product there would obviously be no business and other goals.

§ Is it functional? Function must dictate form.

§ Is it multifunctional? Buy less, buy better. Make fewer styles, design better.

§ Is it durable?

§ Reparability? They teach the customer how to repair the product; instead of making them buy a new one.

§ Does it fit our customer?

§ Is it as simple as possible?

§ Is the product line simple? Fewer parts mean a faster, simpler manufacture process. Fewer parts mean less to go wrong. Quality comes built in.

§ Is it an innovation or an invention? Invention takes too much time.

§ Is it a global design?

§ Is it easy to care and clean?

§ Does it have any added value?

§ Is it authentic?

§ Is it beautiful? Fashion is only happening now. Art is timeless.

§ Are we just chasing fashion?

§ Are we designing for our customers?

§ Does it cause any unnecessary harm?

o On Production:

§ If you want to have the best product, you can not hand a blue print to the lowest-bid contractor and expect to get anything close to what you had in mind.

§ There is no time to “inventing”. The correct word is “discovering”.

§ You cannot get information on focus groups to be a leader. That information is too old. Customers are not visionaries.

§ Rules: Involve the designer with the producer. Develop a long-term relationship with suppliers / contractors. Weigh quality first against on-time delivery and low cost.

§ Go for it, but do your homework.

§ Measure twice, cut once.

§ Fair trade certified products.

§ Borrow ideas from other disciplines.

o On Distribution:

§ Selling our philosophies and ourselves is equally important to selling the product.

§ Distribution Channels: Mail order, E-commerce, Retail and Wholesale.

o On Marketing:

§ Our branding efforts are simple: Tell people who we are.

§ 4 areas of Marketing: Telling the entire story. Photography. Copy. Promotion.

o On Financials:

§ Profit happens when you do everything else right.

§ Businesses are responsible to their resources base. Without a healthy environment there are no shareholders, no employees, no customers and no business.

§ We are a product driven company. That means the product comes first.

§ Growth is only by a natural rate.

§ We never wanted to be a big company, but to be the best company.

o On Human Resource:

§ First principle of hiring: Be a Patagonia customer. We don’t think like the customer, we are the customer. We are our customers. This way is easier to make products we are passionate.

§ We hire diverse people to bring in a flexibility of thought and openness.

§ We hire slow and as much as possible. We hire from within. We don’t advertise for job opening, we hired friends and families.

o On Management:

o SEAL team soldiers have a leader, but they are not self-manage, as they have bought into the mission. They know what their individual job is, and know the others job as well. If the leader is disable, anyone can take over.

o Is important to know the difference from management and leader. The same as a Chef and a Cook. They both cook, but the Chef’s take risks and creates recipes, the cook just follows the recipes.

o The best leadership is by example.

o Study shows the best CEO’s have one thing in common: They love to work with their hands. They see a problem and fix it, rather than looking for a fixer.

o When there is a crisis, it creates stress that leads to a bettering of one’s self. When there is no crisis, the wise leader will invent one.

o Values should never change, but it must be adaptive on embracing new ideas and methods of operating.

o In a small Sherpa town there is no need to hire firemen; everyone takes care of the community’s problems.