I recently caught up with Mark Price, Firewire Surfboards
CEO, who shared some of his insights into what it takes to be a company and an
industry that is striving to respond to the sustainability imperative.
What's your interpretation of Sustainability?
We operate on the premise that the world doesn't have enough
resources to keep growing the global economy indefinitely. We are chewing
through finite resources, creating too much toxicity and running out of places
to put waste. Therefore from a macro perspective, sustainability for us is
about right-sizing the overall level of economic activity in the world and
changing the nature of that activity to improve/reduce inputs and waste so that
the world can sustain itself into the future.
Are you sustainable in your everyday life?
Not yet. I think I'm similar to Firewire and certain other
industries in that I'm a work in progress - for example we replaced our
backyard grass with hardscape, because it makes no sense to live in a drought
environment and use water to irrigate our lawns. We've also installed a
rainwater catchment system so that our vegetable garden can be watered without
using municipal water as much as possible, and we have a large array of solar
panels. My wife has a hybrid electric car so we are doing the basic stuff but
there's more work to be done both professionally and personally.
You have said before that sometimes the business you
don't do is more important than the business you do. Can you say a bit more
about that?
As is well documented on the website Peak Prosperity, if we take the 'usual' economic
projections based on 3 - 4% compounded growth - are economists really saying
that in 18-24 years, which is not that long, the entire global economy is going
to double in size? Where is the purchasing power to buy all of those products,
where's the additional energy to produce them, and where is all the waste going
to go? There's a marketing term called
'market permission'. As you have some
success in one product category or service, the market gives you permission to
offer a broader range of products, because consumers like your brand or product
etc. I think a lot of companies don't have enough discipline when it comes to
product extensions so they just start making more and more stuff because they
were successful in a certain area.
What would a company of the future look like?
I think that the
companies of the future will be the ones that specialise in a particular
product or service and operate in the most sustainable way possible, thereby
building an authentic relationship with their customers. Creating customers who really appreciate what
they are doing, not just from a design and function point of view, but also in
the way that the company actually does business. In other words, it will become
as important how you do business versus today's focus which is mainly on how
much business you do. It's not a subtle shift, and it has important
implications for how companies go to market.
How do broader organisations instil this sense of
quality?
I think that a lot of pressure is going to come from the
consumer because in too many cases, if companies are just left to their own
devices they are going to work on that compounded growth philosophy producing
as many products as possible and excessive waste and pollution in the
process. I believe that in the future a
sea change will occur where the consumer appreciates the self-imposed
limitations of a particular company and rewards them with intense loyalty and
long-term financial sustainability in the process. Patagonia is an example that
has also scaled successfully. However, in the case of the surf industry, and
probably many other industries as well, you have to get out of the traditional public
company business model because I believe that it is generally in opposition to
long-term sustainability on a finite planet.
There seems to be more scope for what Non Profits are
doing - why do you think that is?
I think it's a combination of things. On the one hand you
have private citizens who are realising the enormity of the problem that we
face and they want to do something about it. Although with a few exceptions,
the surfing industry is not supporting our endemic Non Profits enough.
You've come from Gotcha, Tavarua, Ripcurl right through
into Reef. How have things changed in the surfing industry since your days at
Gotcha?
I think the biggest change probably applies to all industry
and products. In the 80s the companies and the media, ‘conspired’ is probably
not the right word, let's say 'worked together' to decide what consumer
preferences would be. Brands ran ads and in return they received a measure of
editorial support, and it was a fairly symbiotic relationship creating the
wants and desires of consumers. It still does exist today, but its not nearly
as impactful because it's the other way around now. Firstly, the companies can
go direct to the consumer without needing 3rd party media to reach them, and
secondly, because of the power of, and information on the internet, the
consumer is much better informed as to what they want and its now more difficult
to dictate to them.
Surfing is really aspirational - do you think this is a key point to the
surfing industry becoming a leader for sustainability in other industries?
I think we must do an exponentially better job moving
towards increased sustainability as an industry before we can influence others.
There certainly are companies that are noteworthy but in general I think it's
fair to say that we are still largely a group of businesses selling products in
a manner not much different to any other industry. But we should also recognise that it is
challenging to make these changes because increased sustainability, at least
today, does generally increase the overall cost structure.
