Today, the average lifespan of a company on Standard & Poor’s 500 Index is 21 years, down from 32 in 1965. Entretelas Brinco (Brinco), meanwhile, has been around for more than half a century. Lasting the distance – and indeed, being successful for so long – is quite a feat, but it comes with its own set of challenges. How do you keep an organization motivated and dynamic 60 years after surviving more than half a century? How can you ensure your business keeps evolving, rather than falling back on conventional and traditional ways of operating?
For Brinco, this meant rethinking not only how its people work, but also where they work. It meant leveling their old offices and replacing them with a workspace that promotes collaboration and fosters innovation.
Headquartered in Mexico City, Brinco is a family-owned business specializing in textile solutions for a range of industries – from interlining (lapels, pockets, small parts for reinforcing clothing items) for the fashion industry, textiles for the automotive industry, and disposable scrubs for the medical industry. Brinco has built a reputation for expertise over its 60-year history: it now has a presence throughout the US and Central and South America.
Last year, Brinco formed a new association with Tesca Group, a textile and seating manufacturer for the automotive industry. The alliance made Brinco realize it needed a workspace that reflected the company’s intentions to keep growing and innovating. It also needed an office that nurtured its family-style culture of collaboration, honesty, and dedication.
For Victor Mizrahi, General Director of Brinco and the third generation of his family to run the company, the new offices needed to be comfortable, first and foremost. “The workplace is essential. It’s where we spend most hours of the day,” says Mizrahi.
For Brinco, this was especially important: given the fact that the office is located in an industrial district, with no restaurants or cafes around it. The new workspace therefore had to make space for people to work in, eat in, and relax and interact in.
Brinco also wanted to “boost the productivity of a diverse and growing workforce,” explains Daniel Ordóñez, Workplace Consultant with Herman Miller, who came in at the start of the design process to work hand in hand with Brinco and Archetonic, the design studio responsible for the interiors of the new workspace.
The choice to work with Herman Miller arose out of a problem Mizrahi noticed in their former facilities. Looking at the chairs people used, “I would see people who were sitting for long hours and I would say: ‘How does that not break their backs?’ So I set a goal then that if I had the opportunity to redesign the company office, Herman Miller would be my first choice,” says Mizrahi, adding that he wanted to offer his staff much more comfortable furniture in the future.
