A Sportsman's Life: How I Built Orvis by Mixing Business and Sport - Hardcover

Perkins, Leigh; Norman, Geoffrey

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0871137577 ISBN 13: 9780871137579

Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr, 1999

Synopsis

The sportsman who turned the failing Orvis company around in 1965 chronicles three decades of transforming his passion for hunting and fishing into a financial gold mine. 75,000 first printing. Tour.

About this title

About the Author

Leigh Perkins was CEO of The Orvis Company, Inc., from 1965 to 1992.

Reviews

In this combination of personal and company memoir, Perkins, former CEO of the sporting goods company Orvis, discusses how he merged his love of the outdoors with his professional life. Perkins, who once was kicked out of school for going fishing, presents himself as a born salesman who worked for various companies before buying Orvis in 1965. For nearly 30 years, he ran the company, expanding its fishing franchise into clothing and hunting outposts before retiring in 1992 so he could spend his time fishing, hunting and traveling. Perkins has traveled extensively, and the descriptions of his trips to fish in China or hunt in India are quite vivid. Less successful is his consideration of his business experiences. Perkins's voice is more matter of fact and less enthusiastic talking about the work that paid for his outdoor adventures than about the adventures themselves. But to his credit, he presents his story not as the key to life or retailing or business growth, but merely as the story of one man's very fulfilling marriage of business and pleasure. (Oct.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Perkins, former CEO of Orvis, has never had a bad day fly fishing or bird hunting, nor many selling the sports and their accouterments to the public, as reported in this memoir written with sporting journalist and Forbes FYI contributor Norman. Perkins was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but his father encouraged him to go into business: ``He knew only a few men who did not work and were happy and that they were inevitably men of very high intelligenceHe added that he didn't think I qualified.'' Perkins keeps this self-effacing tone brewing throughout the book, giving credit to his co-workers and his customers and his own native wits to turn Orvis into the grand sporting emporium it became under his near 30-year stewardship. Equal emphasis is placed on Perkins's business philosophy and his days afield. In a twangy voice, he'll drop his nuggets of business wisdom, most of which possess a Dale Carnegie common sense: love your work, be serious, innovate and stay ahead of the curve, listen to the customer, don't be governed by a cash push but rather by the pull of an idea. These points, and the various tactical moves he made situating Orvis to capitalize on the fly-fishing boom of the 1980s, are invariably nestled in well-paced stories of hunting red-legged partridge in Spain, rough shooting in northern Scotland, going after salmon in Norway's Alma River, trout in the chalk streams of England, and tarpon off Belize. And always he's out there putting the Orvis equipment through its paces: ``I tested that rod on the Malleo River in Argentina in late March when the red stags were bugling in the hills and the geese were gathering to migrate.'' Hunters and fishers will weep with envy at Perkins's life, and those who don't may well be tempted to try them as he writes of these pursuits with humility and genuine relish. (photos, not seen) (First printing of 75,000; $100,000 ad/promo; author tour) -- Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

Orvis is a nearly 150-year-old Vermont-based sporting goods and mail-order company with sales approaching $200 million. Although overshadowed by such rivals as Eddie Bauer and L. L. Bean, Orvis is known for selling a "way of life" and connection to its customers. Certainly anyone who has ever fly-fished in New England is familiar with the name. Perkins bought a foundering Orvis in 1965. His innovations in catalog marketing and his use of technology turned the company around. He ran the company until 1992, when he turned it over to his eldest son. In this memoir, he celebrates the outdoors and offers down-to-earth, usable advice on business and management. Perkins inherited his love of hunting and fishing from his mother, who was his "principal sporting companion for the first 18 years of [his] life." The family was financially well-off, but Perkins discovered a flair for selling and found himself in the enviable position of being able to combine successfully the two things he loved most: sport and business. David Rouse

Perkins gives the reader an enjoyable as well as insightful account of his years as CEO of C.F. Orvis Co., the pioneering Manchester, VT-based mail-order fishing- and hunting-gear company that has existed since 1856. From 1965 to 1992, he used good business acumen, learned while working in sales management, to turn an ailing company that he had bought for only $400,000 into a successful one that grossed over $200 million in sales at the time of his retirement. With seasoned writer Norman, a contributing editor at Forbes FYI, Perkins tells how he did it, beginning with the lifelong love for fishing and bird hunting his mother instilled in him as a child. Delightful prose detailing many outdoor scenarios, along with accounts of successful business decisions, give hunters, fishermen (and women), managers, and even CEOs an adventure and business history difficult to put down.
-ASteven J. Mayover, Free Lib. of Philadelphia
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Edition details

• Publisher: Atlantic Monthly Pr
• Publication date: 1999
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0871137577
• ISBN 13: 9780871137579
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 193