An absolutely
marvelous read of how being an environmentally
responsible business is absolutely possible; it takes corporate social responsibility
to the next level. The book follows the start, growth and philosophy of outdoor wear company, Patagonia, and illustrates how business could, and in fact, should be done to put the environment first.
It’s fascinating how Yvon Chouinard, a reluctant
businessman has taken Patagonia from strength to strength finding solutions with
the least environmental impact. One percent of all of their sales, regardless
of whether they make a profit or not, gets allocated to environmental activism
programs.
Love this very apt quote about being an entrepreneur:
'If you want to
understand the entrepreneur, study the juvenile delinquent.
This one also really resonated: ”you can’t wait until you have all the answers
before you act”.
One of the key things that I have learnt about reputation
management, is the importance of having clearly defined values that need to be top of
mind (it does not help having beautiful posters around the office with random values written on them, but no one knows what the company's values are). I was thrilled when I read Yvon Chouinard's take on it too:
Living
the values and knowing the philosophy of each part of the company aligns us all
in a common direction, promotes efficiency, and avoids the chaos that comes
from poor communication.
Synchronicity fascinates me. They
say a book crosses your path when you are ready for it. There was a key message
in it for me, just when I needed to hear it.
Not so long ago, as I was
ready to go out, my neighbour said to me that my jacket looked like I had
bought it from the local charity shop. He was 100% correct; finding treasures
at charity shops is one of my favourite hobbies. But, being told that I looked like I shop at a charity shop is not exactly the greatest compliment or look
that I was going for.
Not long after this incident,
Yvon Chouinard’s words comforted me, “Buying
used clothing and wearing it as long as possible is the most responsible thing
you can do.”
Yvon Chouinard’s comparison of climbing mountains with business
and life is also fascinating. “Many
people don’t understand that how you climb a mountain is more important than
reaching the top. You can solo climb Everest 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 fee’ on your oxygen bottle and up you go.
Typical
high-powered, rich plastic surgeons and CEOs who attempt to climb Everest this
way are so fixated on the target, the summit, that they compromise on the
process. The goal of climbing big, dangerous mountains should be to attain some
sort of spiritual and personal growth, but this won’t happen if you compromise
away the entire process.
I also found his take
on crisis very interesting:
Just as doing
risk sports will create stresses that lead to a bettering of oneself, so should
a company constantly stress itself in order to grow. Our company has always
done its best work whenever we’ve had a crisis. I’ve never been so proud of our
employees as in 1994, when the entire company was mobilized to change over from
using traditional cotton to organic grown by 1996. It was a crisis that led to
writing down our philosophies. When there is no crisis, the wise leader or CEO
will invent one. Not by crying wolf but by challenging the employees with
change.
You might think
that a nomadic society packs up and moves when things get bad. However, a wise
leader knows that you also move when everything is going too well; everyone is
laid-back, lazy and happy. If you don’t move now, then you may not be able to
move when the real crisis happens. Teddy Roosevelt said, “In pleasant peace and
security, how quickly the soul in a man begins to die.” And Bob Dylan says, “He
not busy being born is busy dying.
Something
else incredibly interesting:
…a study done of
the most successful CEOs in America (not the celebrity CEOs, but those,
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…or had woodshops. [I must
admit when I read this, it did give me nod of approval for all the crocheting I’ve
been doing and for the Re.Bag.Re.Use initiative.]
"Looking for somewhere
to start? Go plant a tree. Only an optimist would that," Amy Kumler.
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’ a big difference between growing fatter and growing stronger.
Wonderful final thought:
I believe the
way toward mastery of any endeavour is to work toward simplicity; replace complex
technology with knowledge. The more you know, the less you need. 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.
A highly recommendable read.
