Nygard’s Golden Jubilee Review
It’s not an everyday occurrence to discover an individual who has pulled himself up by his bootstraps to achieve phenomenal success with a business that’s still breaking barriers, still achieving firsts, and still innovating fifty years later. What does it take? How did he achieve it all? And how can we achieve similar successes?
That’s what we’ll explore in this tri-weekly series. We’ll break down fashion mogul Peter Nygard’s achievements and look at how his accomplishments can serve as practical applications to others in business and life.
How Kindheartedness In Business Pays
It seems counterintuitive for a business leader to substantially increase business cost with external spending that’s not really required for the business. However, the idea that spending that may not be required always takes away from the bottom-line is a misconception that can result in missed opportunities for business growth.
If fashion mogul Peter Nygard thought that seeking bottom-line profits is mutually exclusive to generosity, chances are his business would not have made the exponential gains it did over the years.
The secret he has discovered is that it pays to invest in external stakeholders.
Nygard created a win-win situation for much of the unrequired external investments he made. Here are several examples of how his generosity benefitted his business.
- Nygard developed an electronic purchase order system that tied together vendor sales and production orders that connected to the company’s accounting systems. This eliminated the need for invoicing with them using a paperless method instead.
When he couldn’t get some buyers to purchase the computers to streamline the ordering process using the new ordering system software, he bought the computers for them. This was back in the late 90s before computers were such a major part of businesses.
Eliminating the entire manual process drastically increased his company’s efficiency and productivity levels. It eventually saved money and had other unexpected consequences. For the technological advancements Nygard made and the creation of new software, his company won a Microsoft award for building ‘next generation applications using Microsoft tools.’
- Once Nygard started sourcing his materials from East Asia and using factories around the world, an extended production timeline was created because of the limited communication channels at the time.
They would have to create paper patterns, write down the specifications for each product like the fabric choice, the fabric style, the labelling etc., and then mail it all to the factories.
Nygard found a way to extend the use of his technology to his sourcing partners by simply purchasing computers for them. He then paid for their training on the use of the computers and systems for streamlining the production communication process.
So instead of mailed written instructions, production instructions were sent by computers from his Canadian offices to the Far East. This created a more efficient process for his business and decreased the potential for errors. Nygard is credited with modernising the garment industry in parts of East Asia.
- He also provided other business resources to factories and gave small business loans for any improvements they wanted to do. Nygard realized that all of this would only accrue to his benefit—he gained loyalty, goodwill, and a commitment to his business objectives from the beneficiaries.
- Contributing in various ways to the communities these factories were located in helped to create good will among not just the workers but the community members well as. It only makes sense for Nygard to help meet the needs of the local communities; it allowed the factory workers to be motivated to work hard and be productive.
When you generously give the way Peter Nygard did in so many countries around the world, government leaders can’t help but stop and take notice. The way Nygard conducts business has had a cascading positive effect on his business results.
It would behoove business leaders to take note and to take a look at where there might be missed opportunities within their own businesses that can create a win-win situation for themselves and others.
Too strict of a bottom-line focus can lead to a close-mindedness that ends up debilitating the business instead of improving business results.
