Chouinard, Yvon

Let My People Go Surfing

p.74 – “We have made many mistakes during the past decade, but at no point have we lost our way for very long. We have the philosophies for a rough map, the only kind that’s useful in a business world whose contours, unlike those of the mountains, change constantly and without much warning.”
p.86 – “The best-performing firms make a narrow range of products very well. The best firms’ products also use up to 50 percent fewer parts than those made by their less successful rivals. Fewer parts means a faster, simpler (and usually cheaper) manufacturing process. Fewer parts means less to go wrong; quality comes built in. And although the best companies need fewer workers to look after quality control, they also have fewer defects and generate less waste.”
pp.100-101 – “Our organic cotton program has been a success, but not just because our customers are making the same choice we made– to pay more now for organics rather than pay the hidden environmental costs down the road– but because our designers and production people now have to begin their work with a bale of raw cotton and follow it all the way through the process of becoming a finished garment. They had to learn how to make clothing. The extra effort translated into products that are carefully thought out, and as a consequence they sell well. The fact that it’s a natural product is not the reason most people buy it, but it’s an important ‘added value.’ "
p.114 – “To work effectively on a single endeavor with so many other companies, with no compromise in product quality, requires a level of mutual commitment much deeper than the traditional business relationship. Mutual commitment requires nurture and trust, and those demand personal time and energy.”
p.117 – “The problem with risk taking, of course, is that it’s risky! Reefwalkers were not a financial success. Capilene was. You can minimize risk by doing your research and, most of all, by testing. Testing is an integral part of the Patagonia industrial process, and it needs to be included in every part of this process. It involves testing competitors’ products; ‘quick and dirty’ testing of new ideas to see if they are worth pursuing; fabric testing; ’living’ with a new product to judge how hot the sales may be; testing production samples for function and durability, and so on; and test marketing a product to see if people will buy it.”
p.117 – “Again, like the Zen approach to archery or anything else, you identify the goal and then forget about it and concentrate on the process.”
p.122 – “My first principle of mail order argues that ‘selling’ ourselves and our philosophy is equally important to selling product. Telling the Patagonia story and educating the Patagonia customer on layering systems, on environmental issues, and on the business itself are as much the catalog’s mission as is selling the products. This has several practical implications, including how we measure the success of a catalog, how we format the information, and how we allocate space. Above its values as a sales tool, the catalog is first of all an image piece, presenting the company’s values and obligations.”
p.123 – “We have set the quality standards at Patagonia to meet our most demanding customer, the Japanese. If American car companies had realized that, they could be selling American cars in Japan– if they had also put the steering wheel to the right side.”
p.131 – “The way to get our message across is to develop a partnership with our dealers. The partnership we seek with dealers is similar to that which our product development and production staffs seek with vendors and contractors. The only difference is that in this case Patagonia wholesale is the supplier. Why should we want to put in the effort to develop these partnerships with dealers when that requires much more time, energy, and fortitude than does the traditional semiannual ‘buffalo hunt’ for new dealers, where it seems far easier to open one or two hundred new dealers every year and just get rid of the ones that don’t work out?”
p.137 – “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.”
p.147 – “The ‘Clean Climbing’ essay in the 1972 Chouinard Equipment catalog not only encouraged climbers to climb ‘clean’ but also was the first piece ever written about how to use the new chocks. As a result, Chouinard Equipment’s piton business dried up, and its chock business exploded, nearly overnight. To show its impact, far beyond a business tool, that catalog was reviewed as a mountaineering book in the American Alpine Journal. A 1991 introductory essay, ‘Reality Check,’ reminded customers that every product we make causes environmental harm and encouraged people to buy better and to buy less.”
p.149 – “Our approach to public relations is aggressive: If we have a news angle, we play it. We work hard to bring our stories to reporters, whether about new products, our stands on environmental issues, or our child-care program. But we don’t produce glossy PR kits or throw elaborate press parties at trade shows. We believe the best way to get press is to have something to say.”
p.151 – “The third part of our mission statement, ‘use business to inspire and implement solutions to the envionmental crisis,’ puts the responsibility of leadership directly on us. If we wish to lead corporate America by example, we have to be profitable. No company will respect us, no matter how much money we give away or how much publicity we receive for being one of the ‘100 Best Companies,’ if we are not profitable. It’s okay to be eccentric, as long as you are rich; otherwise, you’re just crazy.”
p.155 – “We get approached by prospective buyers at least weekly, and their intent is always the same. They see an undervalued company that they can rapidly grow and take public. Being a publicly held corporation or even a partnership would put shackles on how we operate, restrict what we do with our profits, and put us on a growth/suicide track. Our intent is to remain a closely held private company, so we can continue to focus on our bottom line: doing good.”
p.157 – “A master in the art of living draws no sharp distinction between his work and his play; his labor and his leisure; his mind and his body; his education and his recreation. He hardly knows which is which. He simply pursues his vision of excellence through whatever he is doing, and leaves others to determine whether he is working or playing. To himself, he always appears to be doing both. -L.P. Jacks”
pp.171-172 – “A study done of the most successful CEOs in America (not the celebrity CEOs, but those who, without fanfare and jumping jobs every few years, get the work done) found one factor they all have in common: They enjoy working with their hands. The older ones had cars that they worked on in high school (when you could still work on your own car) or had wood shops in their garages where they made furniture. When a faucet needed a washer or a door wouldn’t close properly, they did it themselves. When there’s a problem of any kind, these people have the confidence to think it through and solve it themselves instead of looking for a repairman or a consultant. The longevity of a CEO’s career is directly proportional to his or her problem-solving skills and ability to adapt and grow with the job.”
p.173 – “Climbing mountains is another process that serves as an example for both business and life. Many people don’t understand that how you climb a mountain is more important than reaching the top. You can solo climb Everest without using oxygen, or you can pay guides and Sherpas to carry your loads, put ladders across crevasses, lay in six thousand feet of fixed ropes, and have one Sherpa pulling and one pushing you. You just dial in ‘10,000 Feet’ on your oxygen bottle and up you go.”
p.173 – “And as Bob Dylan says, ‘He not busy being born is busy dying.’ "
p.178 – “I’ve found the cure for depression is action, and action is the basis for the environmental philosophy at Patagonia. Since our main reason for being in business is to try to make governments and corporations stop ignoring our environmental crisis, action is absolutely necessary. Evil always wins if we do nothing.”
p.188 – “For example, if you want to feed your family healthy food, you have to start asking a lot of questions. If you merely ask, ‘Is this salmon fresh?,’ you may feel good about the answer. But if you follow that question with ‘Is it wild or farmed?,’ of ‘Does this chicken have added hormones?,’ or ‘What do all those chemical ingredients mean that are listed on the label of Twinkies?,’ you’ll start to reach the truth. Unfortunately, the grocery clerk usually can’t help you. You’re going to have to educate yourself.”
p.198 – “Sometimes the most impactful solutions are the simplest ones, and we don’t need a technological savior. By keeping clothing in use just nine extra months, the related carbon, waste, and water footprints are reduced by 20 to 30 percent each, according to the UK-based group WRAP.”
p.202 – “When my generation was young, we were unaware that the health of our planet was endangered, and certainly no one imagined that one day a business would need an environmental as well as a financial policy. Not until Rachel Carson’s book Silent Spring came out in 1962 did some of us awake from our torpor. Today most Americans are aware we are facing an environmental crisis. But you are what you do, not what you say you are.”
p.204 – “Even here, where everyone knows how bad all this stuff is, environmental values are a hard sell.”
p.210 – “I’ve learned from a lifetime of being outdoors that nature loves diversity. It hates monoculture and centralization. A thousand activist groups, each working on a specific problem that the members are passionate about, can accomplish much more than a bloated organization or government.”
p.213 – “Patagonia could have given the money to a large river conservataion organization to make a film, but we felt we could do a better job with the right outside help. To make sure the film’s message was both compelling and captivating, it was important to hire coproducers with a history of studying and removing dams, and powerful storytelling.”
p.221 – “Now, what does a clothing company know about food? That’s a question I hear a lot, and it’s a good one. And I can honestly say that when we started Provisions, the answer was, ‘Next to nothing.’ But I like to remember that when we started Patagonia more than forty years ago, the question was, ‘What do a bunch of climbers know about clothing?’ And the answer was the same.”
p.224 – “I’d like to be able to get companies to give just 1 percent to the environment and to feel the same commitment and satisfaction that Mormons feel when they give 10 percent of their incomes to their church every year. Their tithing assures the church will take care of them if they should lose the farm.”
p.227 – “In these trying times, when we are seeing the results of our high-tech, high-risk, and highly toxic economic system, many of us are questioning our frenetic consumer lifestyles. We yearn for a simpler life based not on refusing all technology but on going back to appropriate technology.”
p.228 – “When I look at my business today, I realize one of the biggest challenges I have is combating complacency. I always say we’re running Patagonia as if it’s going to be here a hundred years from now, but that doesn’t mean we have a hundred years to get there! Our success and longevity lie in our ability to change quickly. Continuous change and innovation require maintaing 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.”
p.231 – “It seems to me if there is an answer, it lies in these words: restraint, quality, and simplicity. We have to get away from thinking that all growth is good. There’s a big difference between growing fatter and growing stronger.”
p.231 – “From my feeble attempts at simplifying my own life I’ve learned enough to know that should we have to, or choose to, live more simply, it won’t be an impoverished life but one richer in all the ways that really matter.”