Brazilian companies carry out innovation mission in Silicon Valley

Last Monday, November 10, executives from Santista, Cedro, Textil Farbe, Audaces, Moovexx, Dellas Lingerie, Bia Brazil and Rhodia kicked off a benchmarking agenda for the Texbrasil Innovation Mission USA in San Francisco, California. The goal of this stage of the trip was to understand the profound changes that Silicon Valley companies undergo. “Missions like this show new outlooks on business and management processes, while also presenting experiences that help Brazilian companies to follow the path of innovation,” says Fernanda Backer, of Apex-Brasil (Brazilian Trade and Investment Promotion Agency, which maintains Texbrasil along with Abit).

The schedule included a meeting with Reinaldo Normand, the founder of the Satomi app, a technology that creates prints using algorithms. “Silicon Valley companies have begun to direct their business towards different segments of technology. For better or for worse, an innovation is already underway and sooner or later, it will affect textile industry companies worldwide. This process is real in other sectors and companies like Google and Facebook, among others, rely on exceptional financial health that allows them to funnel investments to areas that were never imagined before,” he said.

Brazilian executives were able to learn about the work of the Cradle to Cradle Institute, a non-profit organization that grants a special quality certificate to products. “Being less evil doesn’t cut it. A company has to be good. We eliminated the concept of loss, since we understand that product and material use cycles should be continual to evolve. It is a process that takes time, but the company knows that in the future they will be working at a different level of interaction with society, developing raw materials that are safe for humans and for the environment,” says Bridgett Luther.

On Tuesday the Brazilian executives began their visit to Singularity University, which offers educational programs, innovative partnerships and a start-up accelerator to help people, companies, institutions, investors, NGOs and governments to understand innovations and state-of-the-art technologies, capable of impacting the lives of billions of people. “It only makes sense to study technology if its applicability actually promotes improvements for all of humanity. A project is very welcome when it is able to positively change the lives of 1 billion people or more,” says Ann Rogan, the spokesperson for the educational institution.

On November 12, the executives visited IDEO, an international design company with a human-focused approach to promoting innovative projects. Brazilian Belmer Negrillo, who runs the company, presented cases of success focused on design thinking, considered as the ability to combine empathy in the context of a problem.  “Our measure of success the positive impact on the world and not just on the client’s business. We have a very important process of preparation to avoid executing superficial projects,” he says.

The Brazilian professionals enjoyed the trip and said that it was very important in understanding a little about the subject of innovation from the perspective of the top global players. Nobody here is talking about process, factory efficiency or productivity. Companies here have really resolved these issues and emphasize real matters of innovation and sustainability. There is a balance in this distribution of efforts,” says Marco Antonio Branquinho Jr., President of Cedro.

“This type of learning model, like the mission, which literally pulls people out of their reality and puts them together in an inspirational trip, enriches the quality of exchanges,” said Rodrigo Cabral, of Audaces. For Fabricio Tardin, of Dellas Lingerie, the meetings were transformative. “In these last two weeks, we have seen the intensive use of technology; but I believe that the main think is really the person. Because only he can think, re-think, question what exists, and always try new and different things, since this is how innovation should be. Encouraging people not to be afraid to try, because it is the little actions that can achieve major positive impacts in society,” he said in conclusion.