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Retooling in Times of Crisis

Breweries and perfumeries making hand sanitizer. Maker spaces transforming into factories and distributors for face shields. Cities inventing new modes of coordination and collaboration to scale hospital equipment like never before. These are just some of the stories emerging as a result of the 2020 COVID-19 crisis — stories of reinvention, retooling, and reorientation around mission by entities of all types and sizes across the globe. But how do they do it? And how does it affect their sustainability today, as well as after the crisis passes?

This page, built in partnership with Catherine Banat and Shivani Patel of RBC, is dedicated to exploring the creativity, stories, and methods of retooling in during the COVID-19 crisis, with a particular focus on collaborations involving smaller businesses and social enterprises. We'll also look at historical disruptions to glean insight from patterns of the past. This project is a work-in-progress and is continuing to be refined: explore the map below as we get started on collecting shining examples from the field. (Roll over examples for a summary or see chart below. Best viewed on desktop.) As we build this page, please reach out to us using this survey form with your story! And please email us to share your insights or research as we pull collected knowledge to support the field.