10 Business Lessons From Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard
In a world of hacks, tips, tricks, and shortcuts (especially for those of us working in tech/startups) there’s a lot to learn from a guy who never even wanted to be a businessman in the first place.
Yvon Chouinard made tools for rock climbers.
And that’s really all he cared about: making products that people like him could use and enjoy:
“I had always avoided thinking of myself as a businessman. I was a climber, a surfer, a kayaker, a skier, and a blacksmith. We simply enjoyed making good tools and functional clothes that we, and our friends, wanted.” — Patagonia Founder Yvon Chouinard
So how did he go from climber/surfer/kayaker,/falconer/fisherman to billionaire businessman?
Here are 10 lessons (actually, these are more like rules) from Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard.
Yvon Chouinard’s Top 10 Rules For Business Success
1) BUILD THE PLACE YOU WANT TO WORK
“One thing I did not want to change, even if we got serious: Work had to be enjoyable on a daily basis.”
2) MOVE FAST
“You can’t wait until you have all the answers before you act. It’s often a greater risk to phase in products because you lose the advantage of being first with a new idea.”
3) MAKE THE BEST PRODUCTS — IF YOU TAKE THE LOGO OFF, WHO’S PRODUCT IS IT?
“Make the best product,” is the raison d’être of Patagonia and the cornerstone of our business philosophy.”
“Make the best” is a difficult goal. It doesn’t mean “among the best” or the “best at a particular price point.” It means “make the best,” period.
“A Patagonia product should be identifiable even from a distance by the quality of workmanship and attention to detail. The Zen master would say a true Patagonia product doesn’t need any label.”
4) GOOD DESIGN IS LITTLE DESIGN
“Every design at Patagonia begins with a functional need.”
“Complexity is often a sure sign that the functional needs have not been solved.”
“The best-performing firms make a narrow range of products very well.”
5) INNOVATION OR INVENTION?
“I’d much rather design and sell products so good and unique that they have no competition.”
“Successful inventing requires a tremendous amount of energy, time, and money. The big inventions are so rare that even the most brilliant geniuses think up only a few marketable inventions in their lifetimes. It may take thirty years to come up with an invention, but within a few years or months there can be a thousand innovations spawned from that original idea. Innovation can be achieved much more quickly because you already start with an existing product idea or design.”
“Some companies are based on having proprietary designs and patents, but far more successful ones are based on innovation.”
“Like creative cooks, we view “originals” as recipes for inspiration, and then we close the book to do our own thing.”
6) THE BEST BRAND IS HUMAN
“Our branding efforts are simple: tell people who we are. We don’t have to create a fictional character like the Marlboro Man or a fake responsible caring campaign like Chevron’s “we agree” advertising. Writing fiction is so much more difficult than nonfiction. Fiction requires creativity and imagination. Nonfiction deals with simple truths.”
7) WRITE AS THOUGH WE WERE THE CUSTOMERS (BECAUSE WE ARE)
“As for style, we write as though we were the customers. In fact, since we are still some of our own best customers, this is not too difficult. We don’t speak to what is perceived as the lowest common denominator. We speak to each customer as we want to be treated, as an engaged, intelligent, trusted individual.”
“Branding is telling people who we are. Promotion is selling people on our product. Our promotional efforts begin with the product.”
8) BE A PRODUCT-DRIVEN COMPANY
“We are a product-driven company. That means the product comes first and the company exists to create and support our products. This is different from a distribution company whose primary concern may be service rather than product.”
9) THE CEO ALWAYS HAS TO LIGHT THE FIRE & BE PARANOID
“When there is no crisis, the wise leader or CEO will invent one. Not by crying wolf but by challenging the employees with change.”
10) ALWAYS HAVE A SENSE OF URGENCY
“Continuous change and innovation require maintaining a sense of urgency — a tall order, especially in Patagonia’s seemingly laid-back corporate culture. In fact, one of the biggest mandates I have for managers at the company is to instigate change. It’s the only way we’re going to survive in the long run.”
David Cancel and I talked about these lessons from Patagonia on our podcast Seeking Wisdom (just search for it everywhere you get your podcasts):
And yet he wrote one of the best books I’ve read about business.
(His book Let My People Go Surfing and Phil Knight’s Shoe Dog are the two best books I’ve read in the last year.)
With our tendencies (especially in tech/SaaS) to get so caught up in all of the hacks, tips, tricks, and shortcuts
