how private equity kills Manduka's DNA - Anonymous employee Manduka Employee Review

Thank you for your post. We respect your points and thank you for sharing them. For the benefit of potential applicants, we would like to share our perspective on the many exciting changes at Manduka, and why, if you are ambitious, talented, driven by mission, enjoy challenging projects and want to be with a company you are proud of, Manduka may be right for you. As noted, Manduka has embarked on an effort to shift from a pure product company to one driven by our mission and values with products and services that are valued by our customers. This effort has required us to change many things including expanding our staff by over 50%, creating 32 new jobs, promoting 20+ people, rebuilding our sales, technology and supply chain processes all of which have dramatically improved our products, growth rate and the profitability of the company. We also launched projectOM, a yoga class to raise money for women with breast cancer. The event had 600+ locations, bringing together over 750,000 participants to help raise funds for Susan G. Komen. This was the largest charity yoga event ever held and was driven by the highly passionate people at Manduka. Further, our live and on-demand yoga classes give busy people the ability to practice with Manduka instructors from their home, our industry-leading products continue to distance themselves from the competition, and most importantly, our community of 2M consumers, 4,000 yoga studios, and 1,000 ambassadors remains strong and drives us to continuously improve all we do. You are correct to point out that these changes have not been easy, in particular for those who prefer an environment where one can "surf" their way to success. We are very thankful for the many great people who have helped make these changes happen. They are making a difference at Manduka and in the lives of yoga practitioners all over the world. Like Facebook, Google, Patagonia and many other great companies, we are inspired by purpose. At Manduka our purpose is to "Inspire the practice of yoga." We believe that when people practice yoga, they become stronger, more confident, less stressed, and more thoughtful of others and our environment. To accomplish this, we are building an amazing team of incredibly talented, dedicated and resilient people. People who believe in our mission and practice the core values that are the DNA of Manduka: 1. Honor the legacy of yoga 2. Recognize its larger purpose 3. Create great products 4. Think big in everything we do 5. Go green - it is the right thing to do 6. Work holistically 7. Be kind to each other, and Practice On These values are practiced by the great people leading Manduka and are the attributes we hire for. If you are considering working at Manduka, you will fit right in if you are smart, ambitious, talented, identify with our mission, practice our values and want to build a company based on purpose and mission. In addition to building a great company, we believe in having a good time! While working hard is required, you would still have time to ‘surf’, skate, paint, or play ball…whatever your preference. And, like many of our team you would be able to take any of the 4-5 yoga classes we offer at the office each week. If you would like to visit Manduka one day our doors are always open. We would love to meet you and show you all the great things that we have happening.