2022 Book Report #2 - Let My People Go Surfing (Yvon Chouinard)
2/12 — Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard
This book is a playbook for how Patagonia thrives as a business, gives its employees full autonomy and is a company that cares for the Earth.
You have to be true to yourself; you have to know your strengths and limitations and live within your means. This is true for business.
Having our philosophies in writing – as well as the shared cultural experience of the classes – played a critical role in the turnaround . Philosophies aren’t rules, they are guidelines. There must be communicated to every employee.
Product Design
We are a product driven company, and without a tangible product there would obviously be no business and the either goals of our mission statement would thus be irrelevant.
Here are the main questions a Patagonia designer must ask about each product to see if it fits our standards:
Questions that a Patagonia designer must ask about each product
Production
If you decide to make each of your products the best of its kind, you cannot hand off your pattern or blueprint or model to the lowest bid contractor and expect to get anything close to what you had in mind. We do business with as few suppliers as possible.
Patagonia puts quality first, period.
The three main elements:
Quality
On-time delivery
Low Cost
All are super important and would be ideal to hit all three, but quality is #1
Borrow ideas from other disciplines. Because the world is changing, we can never assume that the way we have done things in the past is adequate for the future.
No one at McDonalds ever says, "Sorry, we’re all out of lettuce today." "It successfully organized on-time delivery every day of the week and I think Patagonia could learn a lesson from McDonalds and the sympathetic relationship it enjoys with its suppliers."
Distribution
If you can connect with users at the beginning of their journeys, you can really make loyal customers for life
Marketing
Even if he or she isn’t aware of it, every individual spends an entire lifetime creating and evolving a personal image that others perceive. A company, too, creates and evolves an image that can stem from its reason to be in business.
Our branding principles are simple - tell people who we are.
We have two kinds of copy - personal stories that illustrate one of our values or promote a cause, and descriptive copy that sells products
Financial
We recognize that we will make the most profit by selling to our loyal customers. A loyal customer will buy new products with little sales effort and will tell all his friends
Human Resources
Culture - you have to be careful whom you hire, treat them right and train them to treat other people right.
As much as possible, we hire within, to keep the company strong. And then we train like our future depends on it -- because it does.
Management
We don’t want drones who will simply follow directions.
We want employees who will question the wisdom of something they regard s a bad decision.
The best democracy exists when decisions are made through consensus, when everyone comes to an agreement that the decision made is the correct one.
Decision based on compromises often leave the problem not completely solved.
Groups sized between 4 and 7 were most successful problem solving, largely because small groups are more democratic, equalitarian, mutualistic, cooperative and inclusive
The most successful CEOs enjoy working with their hands
The longevity of a CEOs career is directly proportional to his or her problem-solving skills and ability to adapt and grow with the job.
Other “book reports” from 2022:
