How to attract top-notch talents?

An interesting story on BusinessWeek about Patagonia, an outdoor clothing and equipment company, headquarter in California with 39 stores in 7 countries. Yvon Chouinard is the founder and chairman of Patagonia, who wrote a book called Let My People Go Surfing as a manifesto of sustainable business practice. The 1275-employee, $240 millions revenue-per-year company has a simple yet challenging mission: to produce the highest-quality products while doing the least possible harm to the environment. Are they just hollow words? How about a 2-month full pay sabbatical for employees who choose to work for environmental groups as volunteers (among other things)? The result is a highly motivated and passionate workforce who is not only in for the money but higher ideals, which in turn provides an edge in a highly competitive apparel market. Not a bad company to learn from…