"Cultivate values"
The social cooperative Il Giardinone is a community social enterprise, rooted in the territory and able to understand the needs of the collectivity and to promote the answer in a strong social cohesion framework. This WISE is specialised in the design, the construction and the maintenance of gardens and green parks, in large and small spaces for individuals and companies. Laura Gallo is the Chairman and the Chief Executive director within Il Giardione.
What is your role and duties in Il Giardinone? What previous experience are you bringing in and which new competences are you hoping to acquire thanks to INNO-WISEs?
I am the chairman and the Chief Executive director, I am actively engaged in managing the commercial aspects of the social company, coordinating office activities and the R&D. I serve on the board of various sustainability and SROI-focused organisations involved in fair trade. The academic background in economics and experience in performance auditing, supporting HR, taxes and finance offices have given me the support to actively manage the duties of my organisation.
I would like to increase my competences by using management tools so as to manage the duties of my collaborators.
How do you think the tools and competences gained throughout the project will improve your day-by-day skills and in general your WISEs competitiveness?
The digitalisation and innovation technologies will help us to save time and resources and to avoid wasting time in automatic and manual operations. The production process will speed up and the office work team will definitely increase their efficiency and happiness.
The world of WISEs in Europe is rapidly changing, what kind of innovation do you think is necessary to improve their business and to be more competitive on the market?
The first step to innovate the image of the WISEs relies on designing an easy and accurate communication brand with a high impact. That is useful for highlighting the quality of services offered by the WISEs and also for increasing awareness about the social role of WISEs for people and the environment.
What could be the three aspects that could help your WISE to grow its profitability?
First of all, it could be very useful to have a better and easy access to finance.
Also we need to include new high-skilled workers with specific knowledge and improve some sustainable aspects of the management as well as the communication of our enterprise. The awareness regarding the value of people in the WISEs is an input which will lead to the profitability increase, therefore I think that the investment in marketing and in communication - what and who we really are - could make the WISEs people feel prouder and more precious and consequently able to sell the organisation's services more effectively.
-2.jpg "Laura Gallo & workers")
What dream do you have for the future of your social enterprise?
The investment capacity of Il Giardinone has been reduced over the last 5 years as we have invested in new projects, but if we want to be able to invest again and more, it is necessary to raise patient capitals and find partners who are able to also participate in the investment capital.
Moreover, we need to increase solidity (financially speaking) and the capacity to invest in innovative projects.
Why do you find the project interesting and why did you decide to participate in the experimental phase (pilot action)?
Exchanging experience and points of view with the other European stakeholders is always important to understand yourself and your organisation and to think about your reality with a different angle.
How would you evaluate the advantage for your WISE to create links with other European social enterprises and to participate together in a project in order to improve your skills and competitiveness on the market?
It could be a good starting point for settling durable relations with academics, researchers or actors of the European WISEs.
The comparison between Il Giardinone and other European social enterprises allows me to learn about new practices and trends that I can apply in my organisation and market. Moreover, it is useful to create networks for a creation of continuous comparison, and better understanding of management tools and access to European finance.
-1.JPG "Il Wokers")
