Patagonia's founder is REALLY putting his money where his mouth is... by donating the company to the environment.
👉Background: Patagonia is the US-born outdoorsy clothing brand that was started back in 1973. The aim was to create high quality outdoor gear for hikers...and more recently, tech bros in Silicon Valley.
👉 What happened: Patagonia’s motto is ‘we’re in business to save our home planet’. Now, the Patagonia founder Yvon Chouinard is REALLY putting his money where his mouth is… by donating the company to a not-for-profit fighting climate change.
👉 What else: Yep, that’s a $4.4 billion company given away in exchange for nothing… It’s all part of a fundamental shift in how we view businesses’ responsibilities.
💡In the past, there was a dominant view that a business' only responsibility was to increase profits for shareholders.
💡But with great power now comes great responsibility. Over the last 10 years, we've seen an a number of companies promote corporate activism (like Ben & Jerry's). But Patagonia has always had this attitude… they say they’ve deliberately made ‘earth their only shareholder'.
💡 And putting purpose in the driver’s seat can be good for the bottom line too. Purpose-driven companies score more market share gains and grow an average of three times faster than their competitors, according to research from Deloitte.
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