Yvon Chouinard - Let My People Go Surfing
It’s better to invent your own game; then you can always be a winner.
I had no business experience so I started asking people for free advice. I just called up presidents of banks and said, ‘I’ve been given these companies to run and I’ve no idea what I’m doing. I think someone should help me.’ And they did. If you just ask people for help—if you just admit that you don’t know something—they will fall all over themselves trying to help.
Our philosophies aren’t rules; they’re guidelines. In every long-lasting business, the methods of conducting business may constantly change, but the values, the culture, and the philosophies remain constant.
Here are the main questions a Patagonia designer must ask about each product to see if it fits our standards:
- Is It Functional? Every design at Patagonia begins with a functional need. All the more reason, when we consider the purchase of anything, to ask ourselves, both as producers and consumers: Is this purchase necessary? DoI really need a new outfit to do yoga? Can I do well enough with somethingI already have? And will it do more than one thing?
- Is It Durable? Because the overall durability of a product is only as good as its weakest element, the ultimate goal should be a product whose parts wear out at roughly the same time and only after a long life.
- Does It Fit Our Customer?
- Is It as Simple as Possible? The functionally driven design is usually minimalist. Complexity is often a sure sign that the functional needs have not been solved.
- Is the Product Line Simple? People have too many choices these days. The best performing firms make a narrow range of products very well.
- Is It an Innovation or an Invention? Innovation can be achieved much more quickly because you already start with an existing product idea or design.
- Is It a Global Design? You’ll never know if you’re making the best products in the world until they’re sold and used all over the globe.
- Does It Have Any Added Value? The Patagonia label is evocative and valued in the marketplace. But we don’t use it as a crutch for mediocre design. A product independent of the label should stand on its own merits and not rely on the label to “carry” it.
- Is It Timely? Coming in second, even with a superior product at a better price, is often no substitute for just plain being first. This doesn’t mean we should be “chasing” trends or products. It applies more to “discovering” a new fabric or a new process. Again, the key word is discovering instead of inventing. There’s simply no time for inventing. Maintaining a sense of urgency throughout a company is one of the most difficult challenges in business.
“I never forget Thoreau’s advice: “I say beware of all enterprises that require new clothes…”
“WhenI die and go to hell, the devil is going to make me the marketing director for a cola company.“ Involve the Designer with the Producer. Borrow Ideas from Other Disciplines.
PHILOSOPHY OF ARCHITECTURE
The philosophy of clothing design is really no different from that for other products, including buildings. The following are guidelines we use in creating a new retail store or office building that will optimize aesthetics, function, and responsibility.
- Don’t build a new building unless it’s absolutely necessary. The most responsible thing to do is to buy used buildings, construction materials, and furniture.
- Try to save old or historic buildings from being torn down. Any structuralchanges should honor the historical integrity of the building. We rectify misguided “improvements” made by previous tenants and strip away fake modern facades, ending up we hope with a building that is a “gift to the neighborhood.”
- If you can’t be retro, build quality. The aesthetic life expectancy of the building should be as long as the physical material’s life span.k.
- Use recycled, and recyclable, materials like steel girders, studs, remilled wood, and straw bales. Install fixtures from waste materials like pressed sunflower hulls and agricultural waste.
- Anything that is built should be repairable and easily maintained.
- Buildings should be constructed to last as long as possible, even if this initially involves a higher price.
- Each store must be unique. The heroes, sports, history, and natural features of each area should be reflected and honored.
Patagonia’s image is a human voice. It expresses the joy of people who love the world, who are passionate about their beliefs, and who want to influence the future. It is not processed; it won’t compromise its humanity. This means that it will offend, and it will inspire.
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. —Francois Auguste Rene Chateaubriand
When you look to hire management, it is important to know the difference between leaders and managers. For instance, a branch manager o fa bank is expected to avoid risk [not make loans without approval from higher up). Managers have short-term vision, implement strategic plans, and keep things running as they always have. Leaders take risks, have long-term vision, create the strategic plans, and instigate change. The best leadership is by example.
The owners and managers of a business that wants to be around for the next hundred years had better love change. The most important mandate for a manager in a dynamic company is to instigate change.
Just as doing risk sports will create stresses that lead to a bettering of one’s self, so should a company constantly stress itself in order to grow.
New employees coming into a company with a strong culture and values may think that they shouldn’t rock the boat and shouldn’t challenge the status quo. On the contrary, while values should never change, every organization, business, government, or religion must be adaptive and resilient and constantly embrace new ideas and methods of operation.