Let My People Go Surfing’ is the story of the Author’s Company called Patagonia Inc. which has been seen as a great Pioneer of Sustainability. Nowadays, Business ethics are understood and well implemented but at that time without even so much of involvement about this topic Patagonia Inc has put purpose over profit and this made their business as a great example of sustainability and growth in the long run.
Yvon Chouinard writes, “In every long-lasting business, the methods of conducting business may constantly change, but the values, the culture, and the philosophies remain constant”. This was the key take away from the book.
Other businesses put profit before anything else. The basis mentality of the people is that businesses are run to earn profit and other things are secondary. However, the approach of Patagonia is altogether different. When a business is run with ethics, the profit is automatically generated.
The marketing strategies of Patagonia Inc. are: to sell the line successfully, to influence the rest of the apparel industry to use organic cotton, and to encourage growth in organic cotton farming. The rules of marketing are: 1. Making yourself Known2. Taking the competition seriously3. Relate to your Audiences4. Progress at the speed of the Audience5. Making your customers happy.
The Patagonia Inc. has followed all the rules of marketing except taking the competition seriously because the company also helped their competitors to grow more and survive in the competitive environment. This helped the competitors grow which is against the rule of marketing. (Olenski, 2022)
The aim of the Patagonia is to make the best product design after following business ethics. Patagonia’s strategy for the best design is that the product should be functional, multifunctional durable, simple, easy to care for, authentic and thoroughly tested, and that provide added value and don’t cause unnecessary harm. The aim of providing added value is an example of business ethics being followed as a product design strategy where value is created at priority and wealth is automatically generated.
“What we take, how and what we make, what we waste, is in fact a question of ethics. We have unlimited responsibility for the Total. A responsibility which we try to take, but do not always succeeds in.” This summarises the ethics which are followed and implemented by Patagonia.
Customer’s emotions are attached with product after it uses for a long term. The Patagonia respects the customer emotions and recycles it to make the same product at a very reasonable cost. These are the part of business ethics as customer’s feelings are put at foremost place.
In my opinion the foremost responsibility of a citizen is to consider that environment comes first. The existence of environment is the most important of all the things. I as a citizen try to help environment sustainability as I try to plant trees on any occasion and try to donate to the orphanages and old age homes and help homeless people as much as I can. This is why I relate to Patagonia’s value above money philosophy and agree to the strategies followed by them under business ethics. (Sonsev, 2022)
Works Cited
Olenski, S. (2022). Simple Rules of Marketing
Sonsev, V. (2022). Patagonia’s Focus On Its Brand Purpose Is Great For Business.
4 March 2022 at 7:54 am
Reviewed KM March 4
17 March 2022 at 12:14 am
Sustainability by design simply means the generation of products in such a way to reduce the negative impacts on the environment by minimizing the use of harmful chemicals to create a healthy environment. Businesses can achieve sustainability through design by implementing various ways like optimization of the supply chain to lower greenhouse gas emissions, relying on renewable sources of energy. If businesses are implementing such ways in their design of products which means they are contributing to saving the environment, it means people are doing business by ethics.
Patagonia, a US-based apparel company, is a private benefit corporation. This company faced criticism for using live-plucked down feathers and over the practice of mulesing in 2015. Patagonia considered this and released a set of new wool principles that leads to sustainability. Patagonia donates 1% of its total sale to environmental groups. In my opinion, change in design was necessary for the company to run for a longer period and they did it which helped them in becoming sustainable. That is why Patagonia is considered ethical. It prioritizes impact in its branding, both social and environmental.
People have the opinion that businesses bring them financial benefits. But, they have to keep the environment in mind.
The topic is related to applied ethics because the moral considerations are practically applied. As Patagonia focuses on purpose rather than profits, it implemented the changes in the design of its products with respect to real-world action and moral considerations in public and private life. Patagonia also respects the choice of its customers by providing them with recyclable products at a reasonable price.
Sustainability by design is very important for businesses to grow. Consumers have a more positive image of a company when it supports an environmental cause. we have an example of Patagonia. It includes designing products, their packaging, and the marketing of the business. At last, people should do business in an ethical way by respecting the consumer’s needs and environment. Sustainability by design is the best way for them to grow.
Reference;
Carroll, A. (2015). Corporate social responsibility: The centerpiece of competing and
complementary frameworks