Living Ecosynomics: Brand Stewardship at THORLO

Past-cast Series — Seeing relevance in earlier publications

Ritchie-Dunham, James, James Throneburg, and Michael Puleo. 2010. Living Ecosynomics: Brand Stewardship at THORLO, White Paper, Belchertown, MA: Institute for Strategic Clarity, October.

This is a story about a company whose idealistic and successful leader has long been engaged in re-inventing it as an American-based, community-rooted, sustainable manufacturer and retailer. Entrepreneurial leaders, at their best, are valued for a capacity to read the changes taking place in the world and respond creatively to open up new value creating opportunities.

Jim Throneburg (JLT), owner and CEO of THORLO, a well-known hosiery company in Statesville, NC, sensed several years ago that as he got older, he was facing a management succession issue not uncommon to entrepreneurial companies. After several failed attempts at stepping back and letting his management team run the business, transforming THORLO’s business model into a something that was high performing and sustainable became a very strong mandate. The main issue was that nobody, including JLT, was able to make explicit and put in practice what JLT knew how to do unconsciously – what he calls his unconscious competence.