039: Vincent Stanley, conversation 1: business success through environmental support
Vincent shares several stories of Patagonia growing from a few dedicated outdoors people to discovering business growth, the usual ways businesses abandon values besides profit, and their not accepting that abdication of responsibility.
The company grew financially, its employees grew emotionally and socially, and its community grew numerically.
If you think you’re alone in wanting to act, Vincent and Patagonia go farther. Vincent shares how the company made difficult decisions to protect the environment, its employees, its suppliers, their employees, and so on—decisions most people think would hurt companies financially—but didn’t.
As someone who dislikes many major corporations for what many consider standard business practices, I find in Patagonia and its decision-makers role models we can learn from. Having been there from nearly the start, Vincent gives an inside view.
His personal challenge also differs from many others’, but I expect you’ll like it. Mechanically simple, I bet he’ll find it insidiously difficult and incredibly rewarding.