In this blog, my book club partner Lakayla and I will be discussing a comparison between the author / main person of the book we were assigned to read. The author we are going to talk about is Yvon Chouinard, the founder of Patagonia, an apparel and (previously outdoor gear) company that focuses mostly on outdoor and extreme expedition, travel, trail and other outdoor related sports. He has been with Patagonia ever since its founding in 1978 and we still believe that he is still the majority stockholder of the company, though this cannot be confirmed directly. Patagonia is still a privately held business, one of the very few of the same age or older that is still not listed in any public stock exchange. By the way, we are going to compare and contrast this very real billionaire with a very popular (dare we say notorious) fictional character: Thanos.
Yes we believe that Yvon Chouinard and Thanos (as a supervillain of the Marvel comics and MCU fame) have similar attributes, because of the following reason:
First of all is the determination and single-minded focus on goals. Now we are not saying that Yvon is a genocidal maniac and warlord like Thanos! Far from it, he is steadfast in his belief on what is right and just, and the preservation of nature and the environment for future generations. What we want to highlight is how Yvon has a commitment on doing what he believe is right, even if everyone else is doing something exactly opposite. Yvon states (2006) that in Patagonia,“ the first priority for the company is the product, and the company is primarily there to create and support those products.” (pp. 158, p1). This was stated in 2006, when only a few companies do this, like Apple, Inc. and most are just copycats that want to turn quick profits. But Apple, just like Patagonia believed that products and processes are the key for company longevity, NOT PROFIT OR GROWTH per se – but longevity. This is evidenced by his statement (2006) that “There is nothing in Patagonia’s mission that prioritizes making profit, and they view the amount of good they’ve created over the years is at the bottom of their list.” (pp. 158, p4).
This statement and truism should blow your mind! As business students, we are literally drilled and trained with the fact business = profits, ALWAYS, and “shareholder supremacy” is the number one rule. If you think about these last 8 months, the accounting courses that you took allow you to literally count and predict, to the last penny, earnings and losses and project those in on how many time scales needed. The economics courses actually provide insight on what works for business, on how people’s minds tick, on how to create decisions based on those. Business maths taken this term is basically an amalgamation of the accounting and economic concepts and the equations taught are basically that tactics that can be used to – you guessed it, earn MORE. But Yvon Chouinard, builder of a billion dollar business, basically said, MONETARY PROFITS DOESN’T REALLY MATTER. Only a singular focus doing the most amount of good in the world does. That sounds familiar, right?
And for those not familiar with Thanos, we tell you that he is also of a single focus, and of determination and discipline of thought and action. And in fact, his actions come from a place of care and concern. In fact we know that his “objective was to bring stability to the universe by wiping out half of all life at every level, as he believed its massive population would inevitably use up the universe’s entire supply of resources and perish” (Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, 2018). As seen in cinemas, this Thanos character had, over the years, tried to bring stability and conserve nature as much as he can, first on his home of Titan (one of Jupiter’s Moon). And he proposed to have “quick population decline” as the most efficient, quickest way to do it. That means he suggested, then eventually completed, the mass murder of half of the population of the citizens. And he believed this “business model” is “exportable” and definitely required everywhere in the universe. What started as a simple idea to preserve and take care of nature turned him into someone who justifies means to get to ends, AT ANY COST! Just like Yvon, Thanos will not stop to get to his objective. And we all watched what happened when Thanos finally succeeded. After he amassed multiple powerful artifacts called “Infinity Stones”, he gained ultimate power to do what his heart has always desired. And he can do it instantaneously. So he did kill half of all life in the universe, and then the genocidal maniac literally stopped and retired, feeling content, and accomplished his mission.
HOWEVER, that is where the comparison stops. We know that unbridled passion to do something risks breaching ethics, morals and laws of the land. More than that, it risks hurting people which is missing the point. Just as Thanos and Yvon are very direct, very intentional and very regimented in doing their bidding, Yvon has rails and guidance in doing the ethical things. In fact, he had stated before that :
“It’s also important that we have a clear idea of what the limits are to this “experiment” and live within those limits, knowing that the sooner we expand outside them, the sooner the type of company we want will die” (pp. 161 p2)
In this statement, we can see that Yvon knows and is determined to follow guidelines and rules to achieve his goals and not just be obsessed with what he wants to accomplish without regards to others. And this is important.
It should be a truism to us, as we learn about instructions, teachings, dogmas of the business world. These things are just thoughts and opinions, not rules set in stone. They are handy principles, but as we learned in our economics class, eventually, all models are wrong, some are useful. We can use what we have learned in this ethics course about how to decide and what to decide to, if there are things that we may think are ethically ambiguous to us. Because it matters as much as how we accomplished the final result, as the result itself.
References:
Chouinard, Y. (2006). Financial Philosophy. In Let my people go surfing (pp. 158–162). PENGUIN PAPERBACKS.
Thanos. Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki. (2018-Apr-27). Retrieved April 14, 2022, from https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Thanos
22 April 2022 at 9:40 am
Hello Alfredo and Lakayla,
The topic you have discussed was very interesting. To be honest, I have no idea about the business philosophy that Yvon Chouinard has with Patagonia. I am also not a fan of Marvel and so, I do not also know about Thanos. I was amazed at how you created an idea of comparing or relating Yvon to a fictional character. I commend both of you for the uniqueness of your article. While reading your article, I have gained so many ideas and learned a lot from it considering that I have not heard about it before. I was also inspired to know more about it, and so, I did my research.
As Yvon said, “Patagonia promotes the idea of sustainable clothing in the sense a jacket should last a lifetime, not a couple of years. We will repair your clothing items, help you to sell or even swap your clothing items for other Patagonia clothing.” Having this in mind, it makes us think that Patagonia is really doing a good business but at the same time, the idea also contradicted the capitalist approach to business.
In addition, knowing and learning about Patagonia, I would highly recommend highlighting first about this business. And starting from that topic, you can include that Patagonia aims to take back the clothing and recycle it, talk about their marketing philosophy, and why being a big corporation is important for them. After, you can already talk about Yvon on how he handles his business, his values, or even when or how he started Patagonia. From there, you can now elaborate more about Thanos. You can include his biography like what Marvel Entertainment mentioned, “Thanos saw the danger his people were in from overpopulation and suggested a severe solution—the elimination of half the population, at random and without prejudice, to make life better for the planet as a whole. He was shunned as a madman, but his planet did indeed eventually die, lacking the resources needed to keep up with the demands.”, and many more.
With all of these, now that you have stated the facts about Patagonia and the characters in the article, it will be a good start as it will help you support your statement of comparison. It will give you an idea of how you can state your ideas or even expound on them whenever you say that they are both single-minded and determined with their goals and whatnot.
Alfredo and Lakayla, I like how you relate this topic to our lessons in ethics and even in our economic class. I want the advice you have stated for us business students. Moreover, the last thing, I want to say is that you can still improve your writing skills. In-text citation would have been a norm of writing required. Avoid having too many exclamation points and capital letters. Overall, you both did great work, and I wish you luck on our finals!
-Camille
References:
Endeavorglobal. (2017, June 6). 2017 endeavor entrepreneur retreat: Fireside chat with Yvon Chouinard. YouTube. Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y_dF4vKm7Bc
Thanos (the mad titan) powers, history, & abilities: Marvel. Marvel Entertainment. (n.d.). Retrieved April 22, 2022, from https://www.marvel.com/characters/thanos/on-screen
22 April 2022 at 4:47 pm
Hi Alfredo and Lakayla!
I found your blog interesting and informative. Company’s have their own philosophy which guides them in decision-making where they incorporate some specific activities and relationships and the behaviors expected of employees and management. As quoted, “Great things in business are never done by one person. They’re done by team of people” (Steve Jobs). A company tends to be more efficient and productive if they had positive culture that they work together. As example, in Patagonia company 91% of there employees says it is a great place to work which means that this company is doing well because they have good teamwork in achieving the same goals. Having a good determination and discipline will makes a company succeed just like Patagonia and Thanos. Their positive goals motivated them to focus on achieving it successfully. Setting a strong goal can continuously grow your business in the right direction. Its good to know that businesses who are considering not only to make profit but also focusing on social responsibility nowadays are growing.
I also agreed on what you mention about the business students, that we are trained more on making profit but I’m thankful that through business ethics, I am enlighten and it broaden my knowledge that doing business is not always aimed at making profit but also includes a positive purpose on social responsibility that we should also work as way of contributing to the society.
Steven Mintz,(December 08,2016). Retrieved April 20, 2022, from https://www.workplaceethicsadvice.com/2016/12/what-is-a-company-philosophy.html
23 April 2022 at 4:21 am
Hi Alfredo and Lakayla,
This blog is very interesting and I found it very unique. I like how you compare Yvon Chouinard to a fictional character, Thanos with regards to business philosophy. While reading your blog post, it made me want to research more about Yvon and Thanos as I’m not very familiar with the both of them.
Patagonia is a product driven company which views profit as necessary but not the end goal. They also prove that they are an ethical company because they reject fast fashion and believe that the best way to produce sustainable and environment friendly clothing is to make the products as low impact at their origin but also as high quality as possible so they last the test of time and then if they do become worn, they offer repair and reuse program. Patagonia is also widely recognized in promoting corporate social responsibility which it pursues to attain both directly through donations of its profits and internal sustainability initiatives and indirectly by raising awareness for environmental issues.
On the other hand, Thanos end goal of making the future living beings to ultimately live a more fruitful and blissful lives may be somewhat understandable and it may be immoral but he is considered as a utilitarian because he believes in actively taking control and eliminating half of the world in order to let the remaining half survive a better life.
In conclusion, we can now see that they are both single- minded and the similarity of their philosophy and objectives is doing the best action for society and for the environment. Having a business philosophy distills your beliefs about your business and explains your vision for your organization. It also serves as the company’s blueprint which explains the organization’s overall goals, values, and purpose.
I would recommend enumerating all the business philosophies of Patagonia, how they are socially responsible and talk about how their values and mission statements inspire solutions to the environmental crisis and societal problems. In addition, you could elaborate more about Thanos, and relate how his objectives affect the society as a whole. With this information, it will help you to write better compare and contrast expositions. I also advise you to use a quotation mark to enclose the important words or sentences, instead of using capital letters and be more careful in using punctuation marks.
Overall, I really like the topic that you have chosen and how you relate it to business ethics. You both did a great job!
“In every long-lasting business, the methods of conducting business may constantly change, but the values, the culture, and the philosophies remain constant”
-Yvon Chouinard
References:
Fiona Stephen. (2016, March 29). Sustainable Business Network. “Let My People Go Surfing” – 8 philosophies from Patagonia for your business from https://sustainable.org.nz/learn/news-insights/let-my-people-go-surfing-8-philosophies-from-patagonia-for-your-business/#:~:text=Financial%20philosophy,sell%20stock%20to%20outside%20investors.
Viewpoint. (2018, May 23). The Thanos Complex: What an Avengers Villain Can Teach Us About Ethics from https://viewpoint.pointloma.edu/the-thanos-complex-what-an-avengers-villain-can-teach-us-about-ethics/