History

Along with the reality of the Mexican Silicon Valley, another truly revolutionary concept for the history of industry in this city has arrived on the scene. I am referring to the Parque Integral. The differences between Silicon Valley and the Parque Integral are quite clear. The Valley is a regional, geographical concept while the Parque Integral is, to put it succinctly, urbanized. It deals with a very clear and sharply defined order of industrial buildings within precisely marked limits. While there are different industries within the Valley, certainly related to the field of electronics, they are scattered freely about a geographic space with regional dimensions. The industries located in the Parque Integral are related to each other not only for the benefit of public utilities but for very clear economic advantages. Although these industries are independent and each has its own interests, goals and objectives and may form part of large, global business projects, in many other ways they form one unit within the space and concept of the Parque Integral.

An executive recently interviewed expressed this idea with a familiar Mexican expression, "We're all together but not mixed." He went on to explain, "We are on a campus but each one has its own separate business, monetarily independent but not so as far as the policies we follow."

The name "campus" is very suggestive; the general public will associate it with a college or university campus. This is because the Parque Integral keeps the general orderliness and clean design of a college campus but instead of students hurrying from one class to another, teachers on their way to give classes, workers, technicians, customers and executives, all belonging to the electronics industry, hurry about.

This campus environment was absolutely intentional because we thought it was needed precisely to favor an atmosphere of excellence. The Parque Integral provides companies working in it a series of advantages, the most obvious ones being infrastructure and environment shared by all. One executive using a very practical English word hard to translate into Spanish calls these installations and services "facilities", and they certainly facilitate everyone's work. The basic idea of the Parque Integral project is self-sufficiency. This is why it has been equipped with a water treatment plant for watering green areas, a well, a 69 Kva Electric substation, Telmex facilities, automated security system, access control, fire prevention systems, and sensors that perceive pressure and temperature changes. It offers everything essential for any industrial project of excellence including personnel transportation, a travel agency and a bank. We have added other refinements to these basic services such as a 450 capacity open-air theater, a copy center and even a multiple-use auditorium. The Parque Integral also performs a function of utmost social importance such as education; it offers training programs, English courses, and junior high and high school curricula open to all personnel. There is also a program to hire the handicapped.

We can add external features to these internal ones: communications with Guadalajara, with the Silicon Valley region as well as the outside, that is, literally with the whole world, this globalized world connected through technology, markets, and today's very complex business organization. The Parque Integral is connected by a road system to one of Mexico's busiest airports. This is exactly one of these basic "facilities" found at the Parque Integral, this space for electronics technology where all the businesses share a common interest. Some of the companies in this Parque Integral concept may be suppliers or customers of other Park neighbors but not necessarily so. The main thing is that they all belong to the world of electronics and are part of Mexico's efforts to become a world powerhouse in this business in the future.

The original idea of the Parque Integral as a corporate objective was conceived almost a decade ago by Michael Marks, CEO of Flextronics International, who realized that in a global market it was absolutely indispensable, if they wanted to be near their customers and respond to their demands in a timely fashion, to open production facilities throughout the immense geography of the new electronics industry: Hong Kong, China, prodigious Singapore, a model state of Asian economics, and Malaysia in the Orient, and in Europe Austria, Hungary, Poland and Scandinavia. Then suddenly the possibility of Mexico emerged.

Our country had many clear advantages, the first and most obvious of which being its geographical location, its long border with the United States, the possibility of transporting anything in a short time through its adequate highway system as well as via its growing airport network. Besides this initial advantage was political stability, the national interest in integrating the North American market, an educational system providing adequately prepared hand labor as well as first class professionals. Moreover, there is the quality of the people, their human values, an imponderable difficult to measure but also definitive.

And so Horn's vision continues. In 1995 Governor Alberto Cardenas named Sergio Garcia del Alba as State Secretary of Economic Promotion. Garcia del Alba, a distinguished businessman, perceived the enormous future the electronics industry would have in Guadalajara and became its most enthusiastic supporter. Garcia del Alba along with the Electronics Industry Chamber whose president was Alfonso Alba called on several industry leaders such as Jaime Reyes and Franco Arias to plan the future of electronics in Jalisco. At the first promotional event where the American Chamber of Commerce and the Metal Industry Chamber also collaborated, the need to open a forum named "Development of Large Industry Promoters" was proposed. Sixty-two companies went to this forum including Flextronics International with the presence of its CEO Michael Marks. That was where Flextronics made its decision to establish itself in Guadalajara and build the Parque Integral.

So Brad Knight came to Guadalajara on September first, 1996, to make the idea of the Park reality. The land where the Parque Integral was to be built was covered with corn which seemed like a good sign to Knight. They soon began to build building number one which would house the essential: plastic injection, a warehouse, a couple of production lines and a distribution center. But this building would also be the model to lure and give support to future partners. It was the first step.

Flextronic's large resources came to Guadalajara to push the project, resources such as experience, a wealth of international experience. Guadalajara on its behalf offered also a series of other features such as its microclimate, one of the best in the world with 320 days of sunshine a year, its attractive residential areas, but above all, the traits of its people, its society deeply rooted in the city. "Tapatios" want to continue being Tapatios and hope their children will too.

Nevertheless, and in spite of all the positive factors and Knight's constant optimism about the venture's feasibility, some very real difficulties were found such as the specific nature of the Mexican mindset, an old culture which US education had not prepared them for their first encounter. Nevertheless, Brad Knight, who did not speak much Spanish, had the sensitivity to understand and respect this culture and the Mexican way of life. This top American executive, by necessity a man who must make rational decisions and manage the strictest of logic, is also an intuitive man whose interests are much more widespread. A lover of nature and adventure, Knight is happy sailing or practicing extreme sports. It is hard to translate an "out-of-doors man" to Spanish, a man who necessarily appreciates what only solitude can offer. But paradoxically he is also a man who relates easily to people, at times leaping over the language barrier. This is how he managed to understand and value the special uniqueness of Guadalajara and to understand these Tapatios who he now works and does business with. Tapatios soon learned that Brad was the kind of American one can understand and could cordially collaborate with. Like Adolf Horn.

The idea of the Parque Integral became reality with partners who appreciate the project's unique advantages such as its specializing in the electronics manufacturing industry where suppliers and customers come together. While businesses that have little to do with each other coexist in other industrial developments, all businesses in the Parque Integral share a common interest: the electronics industry in all its different stages. Metal presses, plastic injection, cable and harness manufacturing, card impressions, assembly and many other processes work here in an industry that is not only complex but in a process of transformation so fast that no parallel exists in the history of technology.

As always happens with new ideas, the Parque Integral was observed by prospects for the Park with great care. Nobody, of course, rushed in and all tried to solve certain questions such as Guadalajara's capacity for the electronics industry and high technology. Great curiosity was shown in the project that little by little became a reality. Businessmen had their doubts about establishing themselves in the Park but soon one company, Bermo, decided to join the venture and then others followed while others that had to be turned down because they did not belong to the electronics industry, did not fit in with the basic idea of the project. The Parque Integral continued building and a series of strategic purchases increased its land reserves, adding 30 hectares on to the original 21, giving it a definitive, extensive space for future growth.

The Parque Integral was inaugurated on April 5, 2000, in Guadalajara. This was a very important event where the President of Mexico, Ernesto Zedillo Ponce de Leon, and the State Governor, Alberto Cardenas, attended along with a sizeable group of 500 guests from the business world. Finally the long awaited moment arrived, the ribbon cutting ceremony of the Parque Integral. General Managers of Park companies such as Manuel Santana from the Bermo Company, John Flannagan from Lodan, Jaime Morales from Insight, Peter Bensen from Flextronics Plastics, and Brad Knight from Flextronics International were all there. Mr. Knight addressed the crowd with an opening message underlining the fact that the electronics revolution is another industrial revolution that is changing the world at a very fast pace.

Brad Knight estimates that eventually 15 to 20 thousand workers will work on campus but they will do it in the same environment enjoyed by those working there today. It is a logical, orderly, friendly space like a college campus, with a sense of a community that shares the cluster's large cafeteria, that wanders about its green spaces, and has recreation on the soccer field that is as good as the famous Jalisco Stadium, one of Guadalajara's prides. The Park's field today services several very privileged teams who enjoy this facility worth bragging about. The cafeteria is an example of friendly efficiency that can serve up to 15,000 people a day, 5,000 per shift. Its environment is well lighted, clean and at the same time friendly.

Sergio Garcia de Alba, visionary and catalyst of the large growth of the electronics industry in Guadalajara, considered the Parque Integral to be a very positive idea, an example of modern Jalisco, a field of economic efficiency where the best program of industry related education was to be found.

The Parque Integral belongs to Flextronics who, as Brad Knight says, is the landlord but a landlord concerned that the "house" he rents has complete quality services. It also requires the lessees to share a basic interest in the success of the electronics industry in Mexico and Guadalajara. From here we jump from a very local perception all landlords hold to a global vision of an industry with explosive growth. When we think at the global level and at the industry level, traditional approaches are left behind. The Park per se is a separate business with its own administrative staff and 15 million dollars in resources to be able to offer common benefits enjoyed by its lessees, companies that in another context would be simple competitors. A series of relationships are being established, networking goes on between companies and the outside world. If we could use a key word to understand what is happening, perhaps it would be "flow", the movement and connection of know-how, technology, and business of an industry that was born under the sign of innovation and, we could add, speed.

Although much has been done at the Park, Brad Knight also says that "the vision has just begun." The future is open.