Reference no: EM133278943

Question - Tiny Paws is a BC based Canadian, eco-friendly, and sustainable pet clothing and accessories production. Tiny Paws is a small batch manufacturer from a 32-year old immigrant woman and, also solo-entrepreneur Maria, who is a Product Design and Specialist on Sustainable Fashion. She moved to Canada five years ago and came up with the idea of starting her own brand. Maria has a contract with salvation army, gets her supply of fabrics for free, and in return donates them 10% of her monthly profit.

She has a small number of employees under contract paying them minimum wage:

Emily: 25 years old fashion design student. She works part time at Tiny Paws.

Eric: 24 years old. He is Emily's boyfriend and studies fashion design at the same school with her. He works part time too, and is a pet lover.

Martin: 43 year-old professional stitcher who used to run his own shop, but since the pandemic hit, he lost his business. Since Maria knew her, she asked him to help her. Martin does not have a long-term contract with Maria and is helping Maria around 20 hours a week. His mind is always busy with restarting his own business.

Jane and Jackie: 50 year-old twins. Jane never married and took care of her twin sister after she had a major accident and lost the ability to walk. They both know how to sew by hand and with a machine very well and work 40 hours a week for Tiny Paws.

Before the pandemic, Emily and Eric used to go Maria's garage after school every afternoon and would help Maria from 4:00 to 8:00 pm. Since the pandemic hit they started to work from home, but getting their hands on the supply have not been easy. Jane and Jackie work from home and Maria have been sending her nephew to their place for pickup and delivery of their work. Since Maria is very conscious about her carbon footprint she asks him to ride his bicycle for delivery and pickups from their house.

Maria wants to raise awareness about sustainability and to increase production at the same time. She is in touch with local pet stores, vets clinics, and is waiting for her bank to approve her business loan so she can open her boutique store in Vancouver. But what she needs the most would be to keep the spirit high and motivate her employees to increase the quality of their work. In the long run, she needs more stitchers to work with. She likes Jane and Jackie like her family and Emily is like a sister she never had. There are personal bonds between all of them but Martin is out of the loop. She started to feel she needs to rethink working with Martin since he is never on-time in delivering his work.

1. Would you suggest cutting ties with Martin? If so, what are the consequences of such action?

2. How would you advise Maria to share her values on sustainability with her employees and make them consider their carbon footprint while working at Tiny Paws?