This case study invites focused discussion on core business issues: goal choices, sustainable culture, succession, and rewards. The discussion’s focusing instrument is the perpetual purpose trust, an ownership structure that challenges common views about mergers, brand acquisitions, and selling a company.
The perpetual purpose trust (PPT) combines principles established centuries ago with 21st century realities. It enables a business ownership to indefinitely continue the attributes that made the company uniquely successful. The trust can perpetuate, for instance, a profit-sharing program, stakeholder inclusion in governance, or brand exclusiveness. By 2024, more than 50 versions of PPTs were under way in the United States. This case chiefly examines the details of three of them—Patagonia, Organically Grown Company, and Zingerman’s—as well as how and why this structure may be value-enhancing in every way.
Exploring a PPT essentially requires a defining of a company’s purpose. That can lead to, in the words of scholar-author Ranjay Gulati, “an existential statement that expresses the firm’s very reason for being.”