Tired of all the workplace clichés, buzzwords, and politically correct trends? Well, don’t loose faith. Go to American Apparel and see what real team empowerment, diversity, collaboration, open book management, product differentiation and employee growth are all about. It’s a beautiful thing to see. They are walking the talk. They make T-shirts. Nothing more, nothing less, and certainly not fancy. We know you can’t visit it tomorrow because it’s based in Los Angeles, California but you can go now by visiting their amazing web site at www.americanapparel.net. They have movies and tours you can take online (go to the “Movies” tab and you can even attend their Holiday Party from last year!). And, oh yeah, you actually can go visit the company next time you are in LA…they have factory tours.

Why are we so pumped up about this company? Well, in an age where Business 101 says that you can’t make a low cost commodity product in the U.S.A. without paying minimum wage or going offshore to a sweatshop ala Kathy Lee Gifford, this company is paying so-called unskilled garment workers above minimum wage while making a high quality product. But it would be an injustice to call them “unskilled” because they aren’t—they are highly trained. Not only does American Apparel offer training to their employees in a variety of areas, they offer English As a Second Language (ESL) classes to help many of the newly-arrived Americans learn English. These people work normal hours in well-lighted space and have lots of breaks and rotate tasks to avoid the burnout associated with production. They promote from the shop floor. Many of the people in team management roles (we would call them “executive positions” in any other company) started out working at sewing machine after being hired right off the streets of LA. They have profit-sharing, day care for the employee’s kids and everybody has the title of partner. Even Dov Charney, American Apparel’s founder, calls himself the “Senior Partner.” At the operational level, teams make all the decisions. They use their employees as models for their clothes—go to their website to see these great looking people.

So next time you are discouraged from a meeting you just came from and think there is no hope for Corporate America and are looking for a company that inspires its employees (they are partners!) and puts all those best-seller business book concepts to work, take a tour of American Apparel. And also, BUY AMERICAN. We just think they would want us to say that…