Reflecting on Our First Year: Navigating the “Big P”

The “Big P” of the last year…The Pandemic. Or was it Pivot? For most of us, it was of course both. But for ISAIC as we launched our factory in April 2020, it was also Perseverance. And Partnership. And as always, People.

As we near the one-year anniversary since we started production in the amazing factory that we’d dreamt about and planned for three years, I can’t help but reflect on some of the important positive elements that came out of the past 12 months.

It all feels like a bit of a dream. March 13, 2020, we were working in temporary offices, busily preparing for an April launch of a space that was still very much under construction. Then, bam. As our world shut down, including work to complete the factory, the next few weeks were heavily focused on the pivot. Paused was the apparel manufacturing we’d lined up so we could focus on PPE production. Partnerships were critical during that time – to keep businesses open, to protect frontline workers and of course funders to helped make it happen. You can read more in our 2020 Impact Report .

One of our mantras is that people are central to all we do. This has been true since the early planning days. During the past year, these people showed up with a resiliency to get the job done. Now that we aren’t in crisis mode any longer, we turn our attention to building people up for the future. Training for new skills, not only in our students, but also our employed staff.

Some of my favorite reminders for “P words” - other than pandemic - of the past year:

Partnership: We are stronger together than we are individually. There is space for everyone at the table and collectively we can make the seemingly impossible happen.

Pivot: It taught us all to be nimble. We could have let the shutdown derail our plans to launch. Whether a crisis or a mere conflict, today we’re taking what comes our way, assessing and looking for the opportunities.

People: Investing in people is the key to the future of our industry and should be central to any business plan. None of this could have happened without people.

Perseverance: Startups by their nature require perseverance. Whether it was seeking funding, sourcing materials or navigating COVID protocols for safe in-person classes, we’ve worked hard to make things happen…and to be better at what we do. Every day.

Plan…to fail – We plan for success, but we also need to expect to fail sometimes. We learned a lot in the past year and gave ourselves space to try new things knowing that not everything would work. We learned and move on more informed.

Positivity: There were unexpected positive moments as well, like new connections made, new ways of doing things and an accelerated launch that thrust us in the spotlight in a way we couldn’t have imagined. (sidenote: We’ll be celebrating some of these unexpected positive connections at a virtual cocktail and networking event on May 13. More on that later.)

As we move into year two in full production and training, we thought it was a perfect time to launch this blog to dig a little deeper. Members of our team will regularly be sharing their experience and insights about what we’re doing, how it’s contributing to our greater ecosystem and how you can get involved. They have been doing amazing work in sustainability, training, innovation and so much more. We hope to not only inform about our activities, but also help you think differently. If there’s anything you’re curious about or hope to see from ISAIC in the next year, be sure to reach out.

Jen Guarino, President and CEO of ISAIC, is one of the industry leaders who conceived and created ISAIC. Connect with her on LinkedIn.