Patagonia: Looking Through a Hr Perspective

PATAGONIA: LOOKING THROUGH A HR PERSPECTIVE

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Founded in 1973, by Yvon Chouinard, Patagonia, Inc. is an outdoor clothing company, based out of Ventura, California. It initial started by making tools for Alpine climbers. Over time it grew to become one of the most predominant retailer for selling merchandise for skiing, surfing, fishing, trail running, snowboarding, paddling, as well as its original focus of climbing.

Looking Through the Lens of Human Resource

There are many variations of human resources among the many companies. There are some that stick out from the rest. These companies stray from the normal practices of human resource. Patagonia, Inc. is one who exemplifies unique practices. Patagonia begins its trailblazing by its environmental impacts.

Most companies focus all of their energy to management, marketing, and other business related processes, rather than their environmental impacts. Patagonia sets the bar by looking further. They personally see to it the entire life cycle of their products have the least possible impacts. The company’s mission statement, “Build the best product, cause no unnecessary harm, use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis,” explains the personal accountability of each employee (Our Reason for Being, n.d.). In addition to the mission statement, they pursue greater quality in everything that they do; they believe that relationships build on integrity and respect; they serve as a catalyst for personal and corporate action; last but certainly not least, their success depends in developing innovative ways of doing things. All of this adds up to a significant method of retention and appeal for prospective employees.

Patagonia’s human resource mindset is based on hiring people who follow the very same values that they instill as well as Patagonia product users. In one of Yvon’s books, he stated that he “could not imagine any company that wants to...