A-kwadraat - The Argonauts - Innovation 'at your service'

Together for an inclusive economy

2018

Turnhout

Social economy

Business design

Towards proactive unburdening in an inclusive economy

A-kwadraat is a manufacturing company and offers adapted, rewarding and meaningful work to more than 500 people with a work disability. A-kwadraat is historically embedded in the business community around Turnhout with healthcare, nutrition, greenery care and the printing industry as the most important sectors. The main activities of A-kwadraat are the packaging and repacking of food and non-food products, processing and finishing of graphic and promotional products and the labeling, assembly and assembly of products for the manufacturing industry. A-kwadraat has 4 own branches and also works at the location of its customers. In 2017, a brand new building with cleanrooms for the healthcare sector was opened in Turnhout.

Jan Boeckx

CEO A-kwadraat

‘The co-creation sessions have given a boost to our relationship with AZ Turnhout. We are now setting up concrete pilot projects and preparing investments’

Tim Tilsley

Marketing & Sales Manager

'I never thought that design thinking could be such a powerful tool for business development. Not only did hundreds of ideas emerge from this, but the translation was immediately made to concrete new business'

Jan Boeckx

CEO A-kwadraat

‘The co-creation sessions have given a boost to our relationship with AZ Turnhout. We are now setting up concrete pilot projects and preparing investments’

Challenge

A-kwadraat regularly suffers from peaks and troughs in production, greater complexity and more competition between the customized companies. The big challenges are to keep everyone continuously at work and less financially dependent on large customers and subsidies. The development of new value propositions will be crucial here. In addition, A-kwadraat wants to raise its employees to a higher level and integrate them into the regular economy.

Tim Tilsley

Marketing & Sales Manager

‘I never thought that design thinking could be such a powerful tool for business development. Not only did hundreds of ideas emerge from this, but the translation was immediately made to concrete new business’

Approach

A-kwadraat appealed to The Argonauts to tackle these challenges. This resulted in the redefinition of the role that A-kwadraat wants to play in relation to its existing and potential customers and, in the longer term, to the regular economy.

Results

“Proactive unburdening” is what A-kwadraat wants to stand for in the future by offering new services, products and processes to existing and new customer segments. To make this possible, strategic co-creation sessions are facilitated with selected customers and prospects. The aim is to better understand the strategy and the needs of the customers and to respond proactively to this with new ‘horizontal’ and ‘vertical’ products and services (eg sourcing, logistics, coordination, advice, …). Through these strategic partnerships with customers and suppliers A-kwadraat will be able to offer total solutions tailored to the customer.

The ultimate goal, however, is to anticipate the achievement of an inclusive economy, in which the activities of tailor-made companies and the regular economy are intertwined, in the two directions. Amival goes a lot further than offering meaningful and adapted work for people with an occupational disability.