Book recommendation: Yvon Chouinard – Let my people go surfing, the education of a reluctant businessman
- Written by Henna Kaariainen
- Published in Archive, English
- Permalink
I guess all the monkeys have read this piece of art! I’d say this book is a massive marketing input from Yvon. After reading the story of Patagonia I honestly felt a need of well performing clothes like Capilene underwear and Synchilla fleece that is made out of recyckled plastic bottles.
Behind this manifestation for quality I still knew that Tatu had bought his yellow jacket and hiking shoes from Patagonia store in NY a year ago, and nowadays only the jacket is performing perfectly, shoes went broken soon after the deal was made… And Tatu noticed that none of the clerks in the retail store had read this Patagonia business philosphy book, even if it has been available for 5 years already (published in 2005). So we came up with a conclusion that Yvon has written how he’d like to see his company performing – and the book is a description of a dream company. However this book has inspired all the monkeys to think, live and go surfing when the feeling is right. Thank you for that, Yvon!
The main question in here is: What’s quality in Monkey Business services? What’s the best performance in Monkey Business? Guiding questions for defining this case were found in the product design philosophy of Patagonia.
When doing something, you need to ask yourself: Is It functional?, Is It Multifunctional?, Is It Durable?, Does It Fit Our Customer?, Is It As Simple As Possible?, Is the Product Line Simple?, Is It an Innovation or an Invention?, Is It a Gobal Design?, Is It easy to Care For and Clean?, Does It Have Any Added Value?, Is It Authentic?, Is It Art?, Are we Just Chasing Fashion?, Are We Designing For Our Core Customer?, Have We Done Our Homework?, Is It Timely? (”If everyone thinks you have a good idea you are too late.” – Paul Hawken), Does It Cause Any Unnecessary Harm?
Sure, our business is unmaterial and more close to Service Design than Product Design. Anyway we can think of these questions in relation to our website, offers, user experiences and other key elements in our daily business. It’s important also to think of distribution, like the ease of buying from us, ease of using anything we offer, ease of finding us and getting us to work… Today has been a really enriching day in Monkey office. Johanna was full of energy with a Creative Hub offer that w edo together with Monkey friends Henna Rauhala and Malla Heinistö, Tatu made all the needed decoration in our new nest staring from hanging the hammock and fixing the bar table, and Janne was getting closer and closer to a couple of deals for coaching. Myself I got enthusiasted about one creative expedition and a possible bunch of camps to be organized for vocational school entrepreneurs at my home region in northern Finland.
It seems that the work starts to push us for quality solutions that are As Simple As Possible, Durable, Authentic (which has always been our streght!) and Planned for Our Core Customer.
Rocking it steady and keeping it yellow, Henna Monkey
