The Cautionary Tale of Outdoor Voices with Sammi Cohen

From its origin as a modest rock climbing equipment shop, Patagonia has become not only a globally recognized outdoor gear and apparel company but also a beacon of sustainable business. In Let My People Go Surfing, the company’s founder Yvon Chouinard shares his journey from nature enthusiast to creator of the eco-friendly company. He critiques traditional profit-first business practices and encourages companies to be conscious of their environmental footprint. With Patagonia’s unique business model, Chouinard aims to demonstrate that success is possible when a company puts its customers, employees, and the planet before profits.

In this guide, we'll trace Patagonia’s journey, the obstacles it faced in its growth, and the principles that serve as the company's guiding light for conducting business while being responsible to its employees, its customers, and the planet. Along the way, we'll provide additional insights about how business and the environment intersect, and we’ll explore other authors' ideas and tips for applying forward-thinking business philosophies to your life and businesses.

From its origin as a modest rock climbing equipment shop, Patagonia has become not only a globally recognized outdoor gear and apparel company but also a beacon of sustainable business. In Let My People Go Surfing, the company’s founder Yvon Chouinard shares his journey from nature enthusiast to creator of the eco-friendly company. He critiques traditional profit-first business practices and encourages companies to be conscious of their environmental footprint. With Patagonia’s unique business model, Chouinard aims to demonstrate that success is possible when a company puts its customers, employees, and the planet before profits.

In this guide, we'll trace Patagonia’s journey, the obstacles it faced in its growth, and the principles that serve as the company's guiding light for conducting business while being responsible to its employees, its customers, and the planet. Along the way, we'll provide additional insights about how business and the environment intersect, and we’ll explore other authors' ideas and tips for applying forward-thinking business philosophies to your life and businesses.

During the 2007-2008 financial crisis, even successful companies such as Starbucks struggled to stay afloat. The company's former CEO, Howard Schultz, recognized the decline and took charge once again in January 2008, determined to steer it back on track. In Onward (2012), Schultz highlights the obstacles he faced at a time of worldwide instability and explains how he managed to save the company while preserving its unique value.

In our summary, we’ll provide background on Starbucks' rise to the top of the global coffeehouse industry and the troubles it experienced leading up to the crisis in 2007. Then, we’ll explain the reasons Schultz came back as CEO and his strategies to make the transition as smooth as possible. Finally, we’ll discuss how Schultz revived the company by altering its corporate culture, improving the coffeehouse experience, and reinstating Starbucks’ commitment to uplifting humanity. In our commentary, we’ll delve into the financial crisis, provide context regarding the coffee industry, and offer insights on leadership and business management from various experts.

How do formidable companies lose their footing and fall into irrelevance—or even cease to exist? And how can other companies avoid the same fate? Jim Collins seeks to answer these questions in How the Mighty Fall. Backed by years of research into once-mighty companies, Collins contends there are five phases leading to a company’s downfall: overconfidence, overreaching, ignoring the signs, overcorrecting, and surrendering.

While the book is a warning to companies that have grown complacent, it also gives hope to those in the throes of decline. Collins says that by staying vigilant of the threat of failure, you can rechart your course, keep pushing forward, and ensure your company’s survival.

In this guide, we’ll discuss the five phases that lead to a company’s decline. We’ll then break down Collins’s advice for resuscitating a faltering company. As the book was published in 2009, we’ll also include updates on the companies he mentions, as well as connecting his ideas to concepts in his other books and examining the perspectives of other experts.

Ben Horowitz was a public CEO through the dotcom bubble and burst. He learned a lot of hard lessons about how to build a company and get it to survive. Now co-founder of the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz, he shares his advice to other founders and senior executives on getting through your company’s inevitable hard times.

The book covers a wide span of topics, including handling the psychology of a failing company, building a good place to work, scaling a company, and being a good CEO. It’s targeted to startup founders and CEOs, but there’s good advice here for anyone who wants to help build a better company.

From its origin as a modest rock climbing equipment shop, Patagonia has become not only a globally recognized outdoor gear and apparel company but also a beacon of sustainable business. In Let My People Go Surfing, the company’s founder Yvon Chouinard shares his journey from nature enthusiast to creator of the eco-friendly company. He critiques traditional profit-first business practices and encourages companies to be conscious of their environmental footprint. With Patagonia’s unique business model, Chouinard aims to demonstrate that success is possible when a company puts its customers, employees, and the planet before profits.

In this guide, we'll trace Patagonia’s journey, the obstacles it faced in its growth, and the principles that serve as the company's guiding light for conducting business while being responsible to its employees, its customers, and the planet. Along the way, we'll provide additional insights about how business and the environment intersect, and we’ll explore other authors' ideas and tips for applying forward-thinking business philosophies to your life and businesses.