Wild and wonderful: A book review of Wild Company
Here’s an unconventional book that should be required reading in business school: Wild Company: The Untold Story of Banana Republic by Mel and Patricia Ziegler. It’s both a fun read and a wonderfully instructive tale of what happens when right-brain marketing genius meets traditional left-brain business thinking.
Banana Republic founders Mel and Patricia Ziegler, a journalist and artist/illustrator, had no business training whatever. As they founded and grew their safari-inspired clothing company, they got many things wrong. But they got the most important things very, very right. Their creative instincts and uncanny understanding of human nature led them to establish one of the most exciting, thriving and profitable clothing companies ever. Their undoing—and that of the company—came from the collision of their (wildly successful) approach with the linear, left-brained world of business “professionals.”
This is a cautionary tale for every b-school student and hotshot MBA who probably knows today’s Banana Republic only as the mall-based high-end brand in The Gap’s company portfolio. Today, it’s a bit like Ann Taylor, a bit like J. Crew, a bit like…lots of other companies. But it used to be something remarkable. From its chaotic origins selling exotic, often peculiar surplus clothing from other countries, it became a sensation with a wide, devoted, and celebrity-studded public.
In lively prose, with Mel and Patricia alternating as narrators, the Zieglers recount how, by following their own passions, they tapped a deep, thriving connection with consumer yearning for adventure, whimsy, and style. Unlike most business biographies, Wild Company is filled with humility, remarkable self-insight and great humor. With scrupulous evenhandedness they describe how acquisition by The Gap allowed the company to expand and flourish under initially loose reins. Ultimately, the founders lost control as their inventiveness and business innocence clashed with a commercial and financial world preferring standardization and process over originality and instinct, even though these drove the company’s success. This clash, abetted by insecurities among top managers and a weakening economy, ultimately killed the golden goose.
Business schools teach the very formulas, values and processes that choked and ultimately killed the real Banana Republic. In fairness, some businesses knowledge would surely have helped the Zieglers avoid some of the bumps they encountered along the way. In addition, funding and functional expertise supplied by The Gap helped fuel and smooth their expansion. But their extraordinary success was primarily attributable to their vision, passion, and creativity—right-brain skills no business school can teach and which few value. Today’s Banana Republic may well add to The Gap’s bottom line, but the world is a poorer place with just another perfectly fine mall store.
The Zieglers went on to found the Republic of Tea, another richly imagined and beautifully executed brand which they sold after a couple of years—this time to someone who seems to have had the sense to maintain its integrity. I’m eager to know what they’ll do next—and you will be, too, after reading Wild Company. We need the Zieglers, and many more like them.
