| ||||||||||||||||||
 Trade In this Item for up to £2.00
Trade in Let My People Go Surfing: The Education of a Reluctant Businessman for an Amazon.co.uk gift card of up to £2.00, which you can then spend on millions of items across the site. Trade-in values may vary (terms apply). Learn more
|
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, and more.
Product Description
Let My People Go Surfing is Yvon Chouinard's take on running his successful company - Patagonia. An interesting read describing how Chouinard, through his love of climbing and then surfing started Patagonia and continues to run it today with a very radical 'hands-off' approach - believing it is important to 'let me people to go surfing'.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
To young kid growing up ever dreams of someday becoming a businessman. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
To young kid growing up ever dreams of someday becoming a businessman. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Back Cover
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
33 of 33 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
Most people want to read about what Jack Welch, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett have done as managers. They would learn a lot more by reading about what Yvon Chouinard has to say about how he developed Patagonia.
This case history is filled with the kind of common sense wisdom that almost all companies and business leaders lack, including the best-known celebrity CEOs. Accounting rules don't require us to look at environmental damage so most companies don't think about the harm they cause in this regard. Yet if we don't do what we can to do less environmental harm, what's the point of having money in a spoiled world?
Most people don't really want to run or work in businesses full time. They would rather be doing something they enjoy more. Mr. Chouinard's approach to Management by Absence and letting his people use flex-time to go surfing when conditions are good examples of how such flexibility can be created in a successful enterprise.
Most importantly, Mr. Chouinard is a good example . . . a model leader. That's true because, in part, he wants to set a good example . . . something most business leaders don't care about today. They just want to make money.
A hundred years from now, people will be reading this book as a model of doing the right thing . . . long after everyone has forgotten the names of the best selling business CEOs today. Get ahead of the curve by starting with this book.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
You see its all just plain old common sense. You find something you can be passionate about and turn it into a business. Then you surround yourself with like minded others and you can change the world, a bit at a time. Yvon puts it all beautifully. He even seems a little embarrassed about having been so successful without any formal training, however, he is very proud of his team's achievements. Formal training doesn't exist for the leadership he displays, you either have it in your heart or you don't. The book takes the concepts of the service profit chain model and walks you though their genesis in, Patagonia. I can't recommend this book enough. Sadly, I have only recently read it and wish I had come across it several years ago before I had to learn much of this the hard way from personal experience at Rackspace and itlab.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful
By T. Day
Format:Paperback|Amazon Verified Purchase
Read this after having various people rave about it to me. Should probably have taken a closer look at what it actually contains than I actually did (although I'd have probably have read it anyway). The first third, which is fairly autobiographical, is quite wonderful but I found myself somewhat bemused by the pace it whizzes through the decades and disappointed by the lack of detail on some things I'd have assumed would get more coverage (e.g the accident claims which led to the formation of Black Diamond). What took me by surprise is that the last two thirds or so of the book are devoted to Patagonia's "Philosophies" and it often feels a more like reading catalog copy or company PR/investor relations material than the initial, much more personal part of the book (although there is plenty of personal anecdote in the latter part too). Just to be clear though: if I was rating Patagonia as a company or its founder's achievements on just about any scale, they'd get a 6/5.
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
›
Go to Amazon.com to see all 105 reviews
4.6 out of 5 stars
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Environmental Educational
Recommended read for anyone who is interested in the conservation and improvement of the environment. Should be read by anybody setting up in business.
Published 3 months ago by Pamela Jane Jackson
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fantastic
A truly inspirational and truthful story from an amazing human being! Everyone who reads this will want to start making climbing equipment.
Published 7 months ago by Craig
5.0 out of 5 stars
Revolutionary common sense management
Yvon Chouinard is one of the first to document the common-sense humanitarian approach to managing employees. Read more
Published 11 months ago by roxy
4.0 out of 5 stars
Sustainablity
This book takes any man's conscience to early childhood. For those who were born prior to the eighties they may have had an opportunity to see a different earth to what it has... Read more
Published 19 months ago by Francy
5.0 out of 5 stars
Superb business philosophy book
Let my people go surfing tells the tale of Yvon Chouinards business life, starting with learning blacksmithing using an old forge he bought in a scrap yard at 18. Read more
Published 23 months ago by DK
5.0 out of 5 stars
A surprise read
Having used Patagonia clothing for years, my local retailer asked if I knew much about the company, it's history and ethos, which I didn't. Read more
Published on 2 Jan 2011 by robinh
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inspirational reeding
fantastic book a garte insite in to one of the outdoor worlds longgist standing companies we could all do with taking a leef out of this book
Published on 23 Aug 2010 by Kitesurf Scotland
5.0 out of 5 stars
Makes you think outside the box...
Creating a succesfull business is not all about what is being taught in MBA courses. Much of the capital needed is non-tangible, as is much of the profit. Read more
Published on 18 Aug 2010 by Adventurer
3.0 out of 5 stars
Truth
Read digest apply , Drucker, Maslow, Belbin et al mmm...Chiounard there you go, reluctant but real, curved picks & anti bailing to curved balls & "left-field thinking" to some (the... Read more
Published on 13 Mar 2010 by weedwabit
3.0 out of 5 stars
Surfing or Business?
Not about surfing! But a very good read nonetheless. Probably more about expanding a philosophy about surfing into your working life...
Published on 6 Nov 2009 by powerwest
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
- Books > Biography > Historical > Social & Urban History
- Books > Biography > Historical > United States > Social & Urban History
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Biographies & Histories > Biographies & Memoirs
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Biographies & Histories > Business & Economic History
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Biographies & Histories > Company Histories
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Reference & Education > Ethics
- Books > Business, Finance & Law > Small Business & Entrepreneurship > Entrepreneurship
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
