The new business philanthropy – the Patagonia way?

Patagonia has always been one of those businesses that seem to have excelled at combing and embedding their values as a business (and of their founders) and the success of their business built upon those values. They could easily be described as the “poster child” of the business that doesn’t let business get in the way of trying to do the right thing. (And if you are interested in this area and haven’t read “Let My People Go Surfing” by the founder Yvon Chouinard you really should do so!).

Early adopters of the B Corp movement and very vocal in their philosophy as a business, trying to be best in class in sustainability and putting it at the heart of their culture, there is much that was already to admire about the Patagonia approach to the business world. 

As one of the most successful private companies in the world arguably, the unknown was always what would happen in the future, and with this announcement now we know. 

While in the UK we have some recent examples of owners and founders creating an Employee Ownership Trust (Richer Sounds founder selling 60% of the company to an EOT), this would appear to be (in practice) a very similar structure in terms of concept but in this case the beneficiary being organisations that are facing the environmental crisis.

It will be interesting to see if this approach is followed by other businesses or if they go for the route that appears to have been previously considered: a standard exit by sale or listing and then use the funds to set up a foundation or to give it away to charities. Regardless, it seems to me that this cements the combination of business and purpose in all that Patagonia do (and appear set to continue to do in the future).

"Even public companies with good intentions are under too much pressure to create short-term gain at the expense of long-term vitality and responsibility,"

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-62906853
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