Question 1

describe what kind of organisation Quid is and its main characteristics (e.g. size, industry, sector of business etc.).

Question 2

explain

• a.what a STEEPLE analysis involves, and
• b.based on the information provided in the case, the business environment for Quid in the form of a STEEPLE analysis.

Question 3

Following from your analysis in Question 2, explain which trend (only one) in the external environment you consider most relevant for Quid? Give reasons for your assessment.

Case study

This case study features a winner in the European social innovation competition, a competition promoted by the European Commission across all EU countries. When reading, concentrate on what the case study tells you about the organisation and the external environment in which QUID operates.

Post-Covid Recovery: the story of Quid, the social enterprise for ethical fashion now producing face masks certified by the Italian health service

After a postgraduate degree in International Management and working in humanitarian and social projects in India and Haiti, Anna Fiscale found a way to combine her passion for personalising clothes with a project to help vulnerable women in her home-town of Verona, Italy.

In 2013, Anna set out to create Progetto Quid: a social enterprise start-up that recovers unused or slightly damaged textiles from fashion companies and uses them to hand produce fashion and limited-editions (small numbers of luxury pieces) clothes collections, creating employment opportunities for women coming out of difficult situations, who find in Quid a new beginning. Although women's employment has increased through globalisation, gender inequalities have concentrated women in the lowest-paid jobs and insecure forms of self-employment. Thus, Quid offers their women a permanent job, promoting their integration in a more secure labour market. A manager of the organisation highlights that 'Quid aims to offer something more, in terms of both uniqueness and its contribution to resolving urgent social issues such as the protection and economic growth of disadvantaged population groups, providing equal working conditions for women, enriching our products with cultural diversity' (Cisullo et al., 2019, p. 219).

In 2014, after receiving an important award and thanks to an increasing consumers' interests and behavioural changes in ethical consumption, it opened stores in Milan, Genova, Verona, Bassano del Grappa, Vallese, Mestre and Bologna.Quid has grown from three employees in 2013 to more than 140 today earning an income of 3.2 million in 2019.

The organisation works with fabric factories and fashion brands to recover high-quality textiles that would have been thrown away, aiming at reducing the environmental waste. Quid has an extensive supply network of organisations that are interested in employing their fabric in a social project and reducing their carbon footprint (Ciasullo et al., 2019). The workforce of Quid is more than 80% women, and most of them come from some kind of vulnerable situation. Some are refugees, some are older women laid off by the textile industry, some are in recovery from substance abuse and addiction. Quid aims at providing working security to people that struggle to access the labour market. For doing so, it works in collaboration with famous fashion brands like Calzedonia, Ferragamo and Elena Mir, as well as companies operating in cosmetics and design with a commitment to sustainability, such as, Ikea, L'Oreal, Unilever and NaturaS.

At the beginning of 2020, the Quid team was planning to open new stores and launch the online commerce platform while investing at the same time in hiring an increasing number of vulnerable women.But all of that came to a sudden stop when as the organisation founder, Anna Fiscale, recalls on 24 March 2020, 'we switched off all the sewing machines in compliance with the government's instruction' to tackle the Covid-19 emergency. All the stores were also closed.

This was indeed a heavy blow, but as Fiscale explains 'that future held challenges that were swiftly turned into opportunities'. First and foremost came the opportunity to think up a new product for which there was a demand. But which one? In that period, and for most of the last two years, in Italy masks have been mandatory by law both inside and outside. Then it was easy for Quid to think what kind of products they could develop and sell. 'In our own small way, we are also trying to make a difference,' Fiscale explains, 'we prototyped various models of re-usable face mask made of anti-bacterial, droplet-blocking fabric and developed two of them.' Quid adapted the production line and developed the first face mask model online and began distribution at the beginning of April 2020. This took more than a simple diversification of production. The organisation had to transform in the most industrial meaning of the term. As Anna recalls 'Though switching production was necessary to ensure Quid could continue to work, we also had to take on significant costs to cover supplies and the Research & Development function. We wanted to make this into an important initiative believing that 'together we are stronger' and we worked with other social organisations across Italy. Many social enterprises in Italy are indeed switching and redesigning their production to deal with the current situation. Quid created a starter pack for the production of the first samples and a tutorial with packing instructions. The other organisations joined the project, got organized to start up production and respond together to market needs.'

The team decided to focus on reusable masks with less environmental impact and they introduced a quality system to meet the specific standards required by the health service and they received orders from public authorities, healthcare enterprises and large supermarket chains. In April the Italian health service approved one of the models. Quid masks (Co-Ver) are now available online and Quid workers went back to work, and as the Vice President of Progetto Quid said, 'Coming back to work was like a party, like a celebration. We are many threads of one single fabric - and so, if we are connected for worse, we can be connected for better as well.'