First phase of Texbrasil Innovation Mission in the USA comes to an end

First phase of Texbrasil Innovation Mission in the USA comes to an end

The city of Portland, Oregon, is the stage for the Texbrasil Innovation Mission in the USA, which started on November 3 with the participation of 11 executives from various Brazilian companies in the textile industry, who travelled to the ‘City of Roses’ in search of insights, trends, innovations and inspirational management models, based on sustainability and that can serve as a reference to enhance their business environments.

Representatives from Santista, Cedro, Textil Farbe, Audaces, Moovexx, Dellas Lingerie, Bia Brazil and Rhodia were in the group that took part in an intense agenda of talks, meet-ups and meetings during the week in Portland; next week, they will be in San Francisco. The executives will be welcomed by the main spokespersons for economic planning and development in the Portland region and will visit the offices and stores of the most innovative apparel brands in the two cities. The best representatives of the most advanced processes of creation, innovation and sustainability are showing the Brazilians that being innovative is a reflection of maintaining an active daily mix of creative people, attaching the company’s history to the brand concept and promoting an appropriate environment for innovation to effectively occur.

On Tuesday, November 4, visits to the offices of PDC, Textil Hive, Pendleton and Wieden + Kennedy were on the Mission’s agenda. One of the important points mentioned by the hosts of the delegation of Brazilian executives was the issue of keeping the best creative and innovative minds at companies. This is a mix that involves providing great professional challenges, along with the low cost of living, products and services provided by the city, in addition to its unique geography, which naturally leads to quality of life, making this an essential motivation for the best professionals to set up shop in Portland. The textile area companies keep an eye on people and are attuned to maintaining this positive atmosphere, aware that this is the path to sustainable growth in their bottom lines without forgetting to contribute to the success of the region’s economy.

“Be open to new ideas and to different consumer desires and needs. In addition, develop relationships with trustworthy people in every market the company comes to. Maintain truly positive relations, enabling joint creation of new products and, especially, valuable concepts for the brand,” said Mort Bishop, CEO at Pendleton Woolen Mills.

Meetings held on Wednesday focused on important issues that promoted in-depth reflection by the mission’s participants: appreciation of the experience that the brand provides to consumers, removing the absolute focus from the product and including the company’s history in working to consolidate the brand. These observations were reinforced in all of the day’s presentations.

Charlie Hales, the Mayor of Portland, welcomed the delegation early in the morning and told them a little about the government’s experience with fostering the participation of citizens in building the city’s urban and social planning. “The government should create ideal conditions so that creativity has room and should promote achievements. It isn’t an effort to be the best and most sustainable, but rather on how to do things the best way every day. Portland is a place where people want to build futures and, therefore, experience their values focusing on sustainability and on true environmental awareness. The city attracts a group of creative people that share the same principles, harmonizing the city’s atmosphere. “Next, representatives from ZIBA Design, PIE and Nike welcomed the Brazilian textile industry executives for an exchange of experiences and benchmarking.

Day four included a schedule filled with meetings with entrepreneurs focused on innovation. First thing in the morning, a presentation by Pensole showed how it is possible to create a community geared towards the authentic design of footwear, benefitting the growth of the industry as a whole. “Our overriding goal is to train highly creative people, capable of transforming the future of design in the industry. We are building a living community, geared towards innovation and totally focused on growth as a whole,” said D’Wayne Edwards, the founder of Pensole.

Karmic Marketing and Murmur Creative discussed trends in communication and marketing for the companies. Krista Stovel, of Make it Good, showed her studio to the delegation of Brazilian executives, discussing her production processes. Ending the day’s activities, representatives from Icebreaker, a pioneering company in the development of wool sportswear, met with the mission’s participants at the brand’s store to talk about how innovation works at the company.

After the meetings, the mission held a dinner to hand out “First Stop Portland” certificates to the innovation mission participants at Portland State University. In attendance were Charlie Hales, Mayor of Portland, Linda Keppinger, of Nike, and Caleb Sayan, of Textile Hive.

The final lesson came from Scott Welch, Director of Global Affairs at Columbia, which reinforced the company’s positioning on Friday: “Trying stuff since 1938.” Trying in a different and innovative way, always and again.”The creative process doesn’t just consider technology; it also considers the relationship the user has with the item. We not only held studies with high-performance athletes, but also with consumers to understand all of the possible usability relationships in which the product is included,” said Scott.

In the afternoon, all of the participants met to share perceptions and lessons learned, taking ideas for inspirational sustainability innovation management models with them in their baggage, along with encouragement to be pragmatic.

In Portland, nobody wastes time managing the past. The goal of the city’s creative community is to advance more and more towards the future. “Here we see the balance between authenticity, longevity and value. The society is sure that their values will not be diluted, causing the citizens to believe in the full implementation of urban planning spanning 50 years. This strong feeling of confidence in values is what moves the creative community of Portland,” said Mauro Preti, of Santista.

“The pragmatic vision of innovation was one of the most surprising points. They are not interested in looking for excuses that justify not doing a project, but rather they want to put ideas into practice with creativity and strategic planning. In Portland, no idea is left on the paper,” said Elizabeth Namour Haidar, of Rhodia.

“Synergy in positions with distinct interests. We see the Mayor, the community and companies here working together to achieve a greater objective that benefits the city of Portland. Oftentimes, at companies with traditional models, people work for their success, but they are not able to achieve a synergy of this size,” Renata Iwamizu, of Moovexx, noted. “It was a very intense week and the first measure is to get the innovation committee going. That way, a process of change will start so that we are truly innovative in the future,” said Fabricio Axte, of Textil Farbe.

The group continued on to the city of San Francisco on November 9, where they will see local innovation processes in the technology area.

Source:Regiane Tosatti