In an period the place firm tradition is usually mentioned in boardrooms and technique decks, Portuguese entrepreneur Fernando Gaspar Barros has taken a radically completely different method: turning it right into a dwell, world cultural motion.
His firm, Manufacturers Like Bands, isn’t any unusual pageant. It’s the world’s solely music occasion devoted completely to bands fashioned inside firms, and in 2026, it’s getting into its most bold part but, with a significant enlargement into Brazil.
What started as an revolutionary concept in Europe has developed into a world phenomenon. Constructed on the straightforward perception that many musicians are additionally full-time professionals, the corporate is faucets right into a hidden layer of creativity inside firms. Engineers, consultants, bankers, and builders (by day colleagues, by night time bandmates) take the stage to precise a special aspect of themselves.
Barros first noticed this dynamic throughout his time at Microsoft, the place he helped lead revolutionary cultural initiatives, together with collaborations with Abbey Highway Studios and European inventive packages. That have helped form his perception that creativity is just not separate from enterprise—it’s important to it.
In 2026, Manufacturers Like Bands will journey throughout seven nations and eight cities, together with Porto, Lisbon, São Paulo, Florence, Barcelona, Berlin, London, and Oulu.
Amongst these, Brazil stands out as a key milestone within the pageant’s world enlargement.
The arrival in São Paulo is extra than simply one other tour cease—it represents a strategic and cultural leap. Brazil’s deep-rooted musical id, mixed with its dynamic company ecosystem, makes it an excellent stage for the pageant’s mission. In a rustic the place music is embedded in on a regular basis life, the idea of office bands resonates naturally.
By getting into Brazil, Manufacturers Like Bands isn’t just exporting a format, it’s also integrating right into a vibrant cultural panorama the place rhythm, collaboration, and expression already thrive.
At its coronary heart, Manufacturers Like Bands challenges conventional notions of office engagement. As a substitute of team-building workout routines confined to workplaces, it affords a shared, emotional expertise on stage.
Through the years, the pageant has hosted performances alongside main world acts resembling Muse, Duran Duran, and Publish Malone, together with appearances at Rock in Rio. These moments reinforce the concept company musicianship can stand shoulder-to-shoulder with mainstream expertise.
However the actual influence lies past the stage. The pageant creates connections that transcend skilled boundaries. Tales like that of two individuals who met on the occasion in Lisbon and later returned as a household illustrate how creativity fosters real human bonds.
The enlargement into Brazil comes at a time when firms worldwide are rethinking find out how to interact staff and construct significant cultures. In more and more hybrid and fragmented work environments, shared inventive experiences have gotten extra invaluable than ever.
Brazil affords fertile floor for this imaginative and prescient. With its robust emphasis on group, music, and collaboration, it supplies the proper surroundings for Manufacturers Like Bands to develop—not simply as an occasion, however as a motion.
For Brazilian firms, the pageant opens new potentialities: a technique to strengthen inner tradition, encourage creativity, and join staff by way of one thing deeply human.
