1999 Planning Retreat

In April, 1999, Mountain Hardwear had its first formal planning retreat. It was structured to review our first 5 years and set goals for the next 5. It included employees, reps, investors, and (doing double service) JT adding insight from the retailer's side of the business.

We split into groups. Returned to combine and compare findings.  Argued out different approaches and spent the evening in the bar trading ideas. The result was my favorite mission statement ever.  

Our Mission:

• Make the best stuff.

• Be the easiest company in the industry to do business with.

• Make money (expressed as an EBIT target of over 10%).

• Have fun,

You could always return to this as a touchstone and tell if you were on target.

I've attached some snapshots of the meeting minutes originally made on large sheets of butcher paper taped to the walls.

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