“It’s not just the marketplace Chouinard is affecting—it’s the workplace. His flex-time policies allow workers to come and go whenever they want—say, when waves are high at the nearby surf point—as long as deadlines are met. There’s a yoga room available any time of day (I walked in on the head menswear designer meditating there at around 11 a.m. on a Tuesday.) At the prodding of Chouinard’s wife, Malinda, Patagonia was one of the first companies in California to provide on-site, subsidized day care. Even the chief bean counter, COO and CFO Rose Marcario, seems spiritually fulfilled. In previous jobs at other companies, she says, “I might have looked for ways to defer taxes in the Cayman Islands. Here, we are proud to pay our fair share of taxes. It’s a different philosophy. My life is more integrated with my work because I’m trying to stay true to the same values in both.”

— Patagonia

Aug 5 2012 3 notes

A Bike Company Offers a Prescription for America’s Health Care Cost Crisis

n8han:

As part of its wellness program, QBP offers a few inducements for employees to commute by bike: The company provides secure parking and showers at work, and it pays employees $3 each day they ride to work. The cash payments add up to about $45,000 each year.

While the study doesn’t isolate the impact of bike commuting on lower health care costs, the program seems to be paying off. HealthPartners reported that participants in the “Bike to Work” program (about 100 of QBP’s 464 employees) cost the company approximately $200,000 less per year in health care claims annually, based on a comparison with employees who don’t participate in the program.

I prefer to shower at home, but the small cash payment for cycling to work is genius. A small, undisguised subsidy for cycling is the perfect antidote to the “free” parking subsidy for sedentary commutes to most workplaces in the country.

QBP is a great company. They treat their employees well, their products are top-notch, and they continually add better ones. They have great prices (it’s a wholesale distributor)., and ordering with them is almost easier than ordering with Amazon. Finally, they ship orders extremely quickly.

I believe they phased out the product catalog (as in two giant 400-page hard-cover books) for environmental and practical reasons, but each year the catalog would have sidebars featuring employees who ride to work every day in Minnesotta. If I remember correctly, the record is on the order of 20 years. Yes, someone has ridden to work through 20 Minnesottan winters. I think they designed the Pugsley,  a bike with 4” wide tires, simply for their employees.

Mar 26 2012 5 notes

“Under Romney’s leadership in the 1980s and 1990s, Bain was a top-performing private-equity fund. According to an internal 2000 estimate, the fund achieved annualized returns of an astounding 88 percent from 1984 to 1999 for its institutional investors, including state and corporate pension funds that invest the savings of millions of American workers.”

—

Willam Cohan, Washington Post.

Those returns are astounding. 

Jan 15 2012 68 notes

“

“This is an example of a total failure of a company to follow the regulations, keep their pipeline safe and operate it as the regulations require,” Ziegler, who now operates his own pipelines, testified.

For six decades around the world, Koch Industries has blazed a path to riches — in part, by making illicit payments to win contracts, trading with a terrorist state, fixing prices, neglecting safety and ignoring environmental regulations. At the same time, Charles and David Koch have promoted a form of government that interferes less with company actions.

”

— Koch Industries

Oct 3 2011 9 notes