Vermont Magazine Fall 2019 | Page 15

Brothers Perk and Dave Perkins work-environment for folks who love the outdoors. Employees are encouraged to bring their dogs to work. There is a pond outside – and employees skate on the ice in winter. The employees truly “live the brand”. Per Simon, “Right now one of the buzzwords going around is ‘purpose-led’. I don’t even know if I know what that means - and I think it’s because… that’s what ORVIS has been doing since its beginning. And being a family business allows you to take that even further - as far as, what you believe in, what’s important, how you do things, why you do things . . . And it’s important to us (everyone at the company, and all the way up through the ownership, I mean) to be energized. Every day, we come to work and are doing stuff that’s meaningful, that’s important to us and to a lot of other people. And so this idea of not only what you say, but who you are, and what you do, and how you act, it all needs to line up - or else it kind of falls flat; it’s kind of hol- low. So - having a dog business where you don’t allow dogs in the office doesn’t make a ton of sense to us. Dogs bring joy and happiness and health to people. And that’s what we’re promoting through our brand. And so - to use another cliché - kind of ‘walking the walk’ [matters]. It’s important to have that foundation; to have something that you believe in; how you behave; and how you act every single day. Brothers Charley and Simon Perkins 17 VTMAG.com VTMAG.com 13