Patagonia CEO Rose Marcario spoke with BuzzFeed about why she left private equity, how business can do well by doing good, and the future of consumption.
Rose Marcario outside of Patagonia's headquarters
Macey J. Foronda / BuzzFeed
Patagonia is the kind of retailer that holds an "Anti-Black Friday" event and urges customers to think twice before buying its $139 fleeces and $99 backpacks. It's happy to share new materials it helped develop with rivals, and for the last three decades it has given 1% of its sales, or $61 million, to environmental causes.
In short, money isn't the motivating factor underlying business decisions at Patagonia. Yvon Chouinard, whose family founded and still owns the private company, has said publicly he holds "a fairly skeptical view of the business world." The paradox, of course, is that the company's socially and environmentally conscious practices have proven to be a big business. Patagonia posted annual sales of more than $600 million last year, and has tripled profits and doubled operations since 2008.
Despite Chouinard's skepticism, Patagonia still appointed Rose Marcario as its new CEO in February, an unusual choice and not just because she's one of the few women to lead a retail company. Marcario's CV is filled with roles that might raise suspicion among a business world doubter like Chouinard — she's worked in private equity, leading mergers, acquisitions and private placements at the now-defunct Capital Advisors in Los Angeles, and as chief financial officer of General Magic, a spin-off of Apple Computers.
Marcario joined Patagonia as its CFO in 2008 after realizing she "wanted to find a company that was more aligned with my value system," she told BuzzFeed from the company's headquarters in Ventura, California. In an extensive interview, Marcario spoke about how her view of business and how its role in the world has evolved over the course of her career, the value in being a B Corp — or "benefit" corporation — and how today's twentysomethings might change the way the world consumes. Below is an edited version of the discussion.
Some of Patagonia's fabrics
Macey J. Foronda/BuzzFeed
What compelled you to leave the world of private equity and public companies?
RM: It was an accumulation of experiences ... when I went into business I felt like I had to conform to all the models that existed, which included, in most cases, putting profit and earnings per share above pretty much everything else. When you're looking at those metrics, you're missing the boat on the metrics around the environment, what we're doing to the planet, how we affect people, how employees are affected, how communities are affected. I just had an experience of realizing that was not a healthy way to proceed and I wanted to find a company that was more aligned with my value system, and Patagonia was that company.
