The Balcony: Black Wednesday

The Balcony takes the strongest story in Let My People Go Surfing, by Yvon Chouinard: Patagonia's 1991 crisis. Vera: the history chapter, sales from $20 million to $100 million by 1990. Augie: then they planned 40 percent more growth and hired a hundred people. Vera: 1991, recession, sales rose only 20 percent (the bank cut the credit line twice). Augie: July 31, Black Wednesday, 120 people let go, a fifth of the workforce. The lesson: try to have it all, and you die; growth has been held to about 5 percent a year since. Split verdict: keep the numbers; keep Black Wednesday, he never hides it.

The strongest story in Let My People Go Surfing is Patagonia's 1991 crisis: sales had grown from twenty million to one hundred million dollars by 1990, the company planned another 40 percent and hired a hundred more people, then a recession held growth to a 'mere' 20 percent, the bank cut its credit line twice, and on July 31, 1991, Black Wednesday, it laid off 120 people, a fifth of the workforce; Chouinard's lesson is that a company that tries to have it all dies, and Patagonia has grown about 5 percent a year since.

On the book: Let My People Go Surfing by Yvon Chouinard

Starring

DotVera LindqvistAugie Castellano