Founders
Episode 51 #51 Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic
Founders

Episode 51: #51 Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic

Founders

Episode 51

#51 Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic

David Senra is the host of Founders, where he studies history's greatest entrepreneurs. This is what he learned from reading Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic by Mel and Patricia Ziegler

What I learned from reading Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic by Mel and Patricia Ziegler

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For every business, there is an appropriate scale [0:01]

Fundamentally Unemployable [5:18]

the prehistory of Banana Republic [10:02]

"We didn't have any money, we didn't have any technology, and we didn't have a plan." –Jack Ma [14:30]

A republic is born [18:13]

when something is not selling, increase the price [20:45]

relentlessly resourceful [25:45]

finding assets hiding in liabilities [28:30]

the catalog! [30:33]

Eddie Murphy on why you shouldn't have a backup plan [36:40]

media was the initial distribution strategy [42:15]

Understanding the internet before the internet existed. A lesson on publicity/attention [45:22]

when all else fails, expand [51:05]

selling the company [56:24]

the end of freedom [1:04:40]

Misfits, quotes from Steve Jobs and what this has to do with the podcast industry [1:08:00]

I have listened to every episode released and look forward to every episode that comes out. The only criticism I would have is that after each podcast I usually want to buy the book because I am interested so my poor wallet suffers. ” — Gareth

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#51 Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic

Introduction

"For every business, there's an appropriate scale. That one we got wrong twice. But I'm not complaining. We actually got what we wanted. Today, we are happy and grateful. Our kids are in their early 20s, and although they've heard from a lot of other people that their parents started Banana Republic, they haven't heard much about it from us. Kids love to look forward, so we did very little looking back. We tell this story now for them, hoping they will one day find the time to read it.

We also hope our story will suggest to restless, creative people everywhere that creation begins with creating the life you would like to live without fear or inhibition. It's never a straight or smooth road, but in our experience, it was the bumps and the breakdowns, the mishaps and the wrong turns that stimulated the breakthroughs we needed to get where we wanted to go. A special bonus for us in the process of writing: we got to do it together, and it brought back all over again how much fun it was."

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