Copying Patagonia's flexible work policy fails without early cultural buy-in
Yvon Chouinard · Patagonia: Yvon Chouinard (2016) · Dec 25, 2017 · at 17:08
Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard explains why autonomous workplace policies like 'Let My People Go Surfing' cannot be easily copied by other companies.
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“And you know, I've had other companies come to me and say, oh, I love that idea. I think I'll institute it in my company. I say, forget it. You'll fail. Because you have to start with the very first person you hire.”
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“If you wait for the customer to tell you what to do, you're too late. So we were our own customer, and I think that was the secret of coming out with products that a lot of the products people didn't even know they wanted or needed.”
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“And in fact, that's why the faster a business grows, the faster it dies also.”
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“We're not gonna sell out. We're not gonna go public.”