Sponsored: Small Business Stories | Columbia Sportswear | 2
Business Wars
Wondery
4.6 • 13.2K Ratings
🗓️ 14 May 2021
⏱️ 32 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
This episode is brought to you by Wondery in partnership with Dell Technologies. In honor of small businesses, we're featuring inspiring stories of successful companies that started out small.
It’s 1970 and Gert Boyle’s life is in ruins. Her husband’s just died, and now, as a middle-aged stay-at-home single mom, she’s become the boss of the family’s debt-ridden outerwear company.
No one – herself included – thinks she can save the business.
But she’s about to find an inner strength that will enable her to yank the business back from the cliff’s edge and haul it straight to the summit.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hey, prime members, you can listen to business wars, add free on Amazon music. |
| 0:04.6 | Download the app today. |
| 0:19.0 | December 1970, Portland, Oregon. |
| 0:22.4 | Gert Boyle freezes in her tracks outside the entrance to Columbia Sportswear's modest |
| 0:27.1 | brick factory. |
| 0:28.7 | Her 21-year-old son, Tim, looks back at her. |
| 0:32.9 | Mom? |
| 0:34.4 | I... I don't think I can do this. |
| 0:38.4 | Gert has walked through these doors many times before, but now, what lies inside, |
| 0:43.8 | terrifies her. |
| 0:45.6 | Three days ago, her husband, Neil Boyle, the boss of Columbia Sportswear, died from a heart |
| 0:51.0 | attack at the age of 47. |
| 0:53.8 | Their marriage was typical for the times. |
| 0:56.6 | When Neil made the money, Gert raised the kids. |
| 0:59.6 | Now, Neil's gone and she's the new boss of the family's struggling outdoor apparel |
| 1:05.5 | business. |
| 1:06.7 | The rare female executive in an industry run by men. |
| 1:12.6 | Tim clutches his mom's hand. |
| 1:15.5 | Come on, mom, you got this. |
| 1:19.4 | Gert steals herself and enters the building. |
| 1:22.7 | From the factory floor, Columbia's 40 employees huddling groups, their whispered conversations, |
| 1:28.8 | stop the moment they see Gert. |
... |
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