Case Study: Patagonia Inc.

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Patagonia Inc. is an American clothing company that produces and sells outdoor gear, sports clothing and equipment for men, women and children.
The company was founded in 1957 by Yvon Chouinard, a passionate and well-known outdoorsman who, since he could not find pitons he liked anywhere, started producing his own. Within a few years the business exploded and became a big success. Due to its particular mission and values, Patagonia is an unusual company. Corporate profit is not a primary goal. On the other hand, their ultimate goal is to be as sustainable as possible without being of a harm for the environment everyone in the company cares about. Their mission is dominated by the word “quality” which describes an entire way of doing business …show more content…

As mentioned above, senseless growth and corporate profit are not among Patagonia’s primary goals. Actually, Yvon Chouinard even considers it as “really bad”. He is comfortable with a 3-5% annual growth, a range that would make the company earn sufficient profit to continue its environmental actions. They, as a company, are aware that their business activity represents an environmental harm since it creates pollution. For this reason, they work steadily to reduce those harms trying to find solutions to this environmental crisis. Patagonia even partners with other corporations to reduce environmental issues. The company aims to create the circumstances under which humans and nature can occur in a productive harmony. For this reason, the primary objective of Patagonia can be identified in the desire to make the whole business sustainable by creating an elastic and free working environment, increasing employee’ satisfaction, having a good influence on the planet and, last but not least, making the best quality product for their customer. Quality is a keyword in their mission and describes a whole way of doing business. Quality is not only correlated with products but it also linked to customer satisfaction, workplace and stakeholders’ relationship. All this without being of harm for the …show more content…

Hence, culture refers to the beliefs and behaviours that regulate a company. Patagonia open culture and unconventional approach is something that really makes the company unique. Its culture is transparent and employee oriented. Dress code is casual and there is maximum informality. Bureaucracy is minimized with top managers dealing directly with employees at many organizational levels. Open forums with management take place twice a month and everyone can participate contributing to the discussion. People working there can make money by contributing to the company in the aspects which capture their interest. Thus, most of the employee within the company share the love for outdoor activity and the environment and during their breaks they are allowed to climb, paddle or surf. People within the company are not there just because they need to work and they want to make money but they want to be there because the company wants to achieve something bigger, something that goes beyond profit. Moreover, the company’s care for its employees can be seen in the programs run for parents.

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