Utopia called Patagonia

Let my people go surfing

Utopia called Patagonia

Let My People Go Surfing is written by the founder and owner Yvon Chouinard.

This book is simply about values, how they determine what brand your company is (to the public and the employees), and how to minimize the impact of the company on the environment.

The first half of the book is about the history of Patagonia and the second focuses on the philosophies and principles of the brand.

The approach

Yvon broke up the stereotype of a businessman. He had never wanted to be a businessman and look like the one he saw in airline magazine ads.

He understood the importance of enjoyable daily work, of dressing however people wanted, and of flextime needed to surf the waves when they were good, ski the powder after a big snowstorm, or stay home and take care of a sick child.

He wanted to blur that distinction between work and play and family.

That summarizes the way Patagonia is doing things… differently.

As previously said, Yvon had never dreamed about being a businessman. And so did his colleagues. And you know what they did? They learned by doing and by asking experts for help, which was cool to read as long as we use the same approach in Tiimiakatemia.

"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 help them. Because if you just admit that you don't know something— they will fall all over themselves trying to help. So, there Kristine McDivitt started building the company. 

80/20

During the book, I’ve learned so much about the approach of Yvons, and I'm feeling the mindset so much. He writes in the book that he is an 80 percenter. That means, that he loves to try new things, and once he reaches 80% proficiency level he likes to go off and do something totally different.

It was kind of relieving to hear because that is what I do too. I thought about myself that maybe I was a quitter, unable to stick to one thing, but Yvon’s words assured me that it was not a bad thing. Besides that, I’ve recently heard about a „multipassionate" type of person and understood that there could be such a power in that. At the same time, it’s something we are doing in Tiimiakatemia as well. We should be able to try new things on and on. In Skillprofile we don’t need to have 5 levels in each skill. 3 is enough and you can then try to develop in another discipline. 

Philosophies

Patagonia Phylosophies are its guidelines which everyone working for them must be familiar with. These guidelines reflect Patagonia's culture, vision, mission, and values.

Reading them made me want to work for them. All the things mentioned resonated with me and my values. 

I've started to think that by entering Tiimiakatemia I've set an open mindset which was great for accepting new ideas but at the same time I've made off my passion and values. If you go clash with your values, it is very uncomfortable and it taught me a lesson that being open-minded doesn’t mean losing myself and my beliefs.

There is a philosophy of Product Design, Production, Distribution, Image, Financial Philosophy, Human Resources, Management and Environmental philosophy.

For example:

Stores

Must honor its surrounding history and culture and must be prepared to last another 100 years.

Human resources

Here comes the Let My People Go Surfing flextime policy. It’s a benefit, a culture, a mindset that allows the employees to go for example surfing when there are good conditions, not just after hours.

Environmental

Last but not least, is the philosophy of the environment. One of my favorite. It takes a lot of time and energy to understand sustainability. That is why not many people understand and so do the companies. Sustainability is a buzzword that means nothing. Patagonia is trying to take action and really contribute to making the earth a better place for future generations. They are giving 1% of sales to environmental organizations each year.

My thoughts about Phylosophies:

When reading, I was thinking about how dreamy is the approach of the company to me and if everything said is true. What are the thoughts of employees? Does the company provide the benefits they are mentioning in the book? Seems so utopic and even surreal in today's world where everything done in companies must be profitable and has to lead to generating more and more money.

The philosophies started to be written in crisis in 1994 when the management felt the need. In addition, I love this note: „While values never change, every organization, business, government or religion must be adaptive and resilient and constantly embrace new ideas and methods of operation.“

I’ve been thinking a lot about values recently and it made me think that values are the core and vision, mission, and goals are just something around them and making them visible. And there are a million ways to make something visible, right?

Conclusion and ATP

The whole book was so inspiring to me. Took me back to the key of keys - values. Made me think that we don’t need to lower our sights in terms of achieving something. If we stand for our values and believe in them, it always works for us. Even though it could be much harder, it pays off. What is more than living by our values?

The book also reminded me of the importance of the values of our business Zdoběny. Without a clear setting of them, how can we navigate the whole project? The values help us with setting our expectations as founders, it helps us with a clear message to the public and of course with marketing and selling. 

Me, Kačí, and Naty should discuss the values so we know what the brand is standing for so we can build the love brand we dream of.