PPB April 2021

Resilient And Resourceful How six industry companies successfully made it through the pandemic and what they learned. by Tina Berres Filipski A year ago, as the coronavirus pandemic wrought major changes in lives and businesses around the world, companies on both sides of the industry doubled down to meet customers’ needs and creatively reimagined how best to retool their teams and operations. Todd Gabel, founder and CEO of Chicago, Illinois-based supplier Toddy Gear, was watching the news one fateful day in March 2020 when the governor of Illinois announced the state was shutting down to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The next day Gabel and company president Jason Emery announced to their team of about 25 that they were being furloughed until further notice. The two then met with Viktorya Kooistra, the supplier’s director of marketing and communication, at their suburban warehouse to discuss an idea. The company had been founded on the production of a dual-sided microfiber cleaning cloth for phones, computer screens and eyewear, so it had employed people to cut and sew the cloths, and it had equipment. While those cut-and- sew operations had been outsourced to Mexico a few years Resilient And Resourceful | FEATURE | APRIL 2021 | 27