Business class: Patagonia founder hands company to trust to tackle climate crisis

This article picked by a teacher with suggested questions is part of the Financial Times free schools access programme. Details/registration here.

Specification:

• Corporate strategy, shareholders vs stakeholders

Click to read the article and then answer the questions:

Patagonia founder hands company to trust to tackle climate crisis

• What is meant by a business’s distinctive capabilities? Support your answer with a reference to Patagonia

• Explain how a business such as Patagonia can respond to issues such as environmental destruction or waste disposal

• Stock market flotation could have been an ownership option for Patagonia, but this was seen as a potential ‘disaster’. To what extent would stock market flotation have conflicted with Patagonia’s aims and objectives?

• The article states: “Instead of extracting value from nature and transforming it into wealth for investors, we’ll use the wealth Patagonia creates to protect the source of all wealth,” he said. “Each year, the money we make after reinvesting in the business will be distributed as a dividend to help fight the crisis.” Assess the importance of considering all stakeholders in decision making rather than prioritising shareholders

Peter McGinn, Harton Academy