You can't save the world.
It's shocking how much the Covid pandemic has affected our lives; what has impressed me most is that it affects us all—it's a democratic pandemic; all countries, rich and developing, on every continent. There are countless efforts by so many people trying to remedy this situation; I think about it carefully and I'm aware that I can't do anything to save the world. Of course, I'll wear a mask and follow all the experts' recommendations. I can't save the world, I can't eliminate Covid, I can't help children and young people return to school soon, I can't change the situation we're all living through. The only thing I can do is decide how I'm going to face the most serious and complicated situation my generation has ever had to endure. The only thing we can do is decide how we're going to face this situation. This is what I think as a person, and it's what we at GDI Uniforms think: With this thought in mind, we are confident that if we take care of ourselves and apply best practices to protect ourselves, we can survive and benefit from this impactful event. At GDI, we continue to build comprehensive image and security solutions for our clients through uniforms and workwear. We want to continue working with the best companies in Mexico, Central America, and the United States. Dear reader, I invite you to get to know us; we would be delighted to offer you our support and experience. I hope you continue to take care of yourself. Best regards, Fermín Pérez Márquez – Commercial Director of GDI. Get to know us!
The chef's filipina, the best reflection of your restaurant.
One of the most internationally recognized uniforms is the chef's uniform. For cooks worldwide, choosing their work clothes is a crucial process, as the garments must meet high quality standards, reflect the best of each establishment's cuisine, and preserve a centuries-old tradition. One of the most important pieces in any chef's uniform is the chef's jacket. But do you know the history of this garment? In 1822, the celebrated French chef Marie-Antoine Carême was portrayed in an illustration wearing a chef's jacket. Marie-Antoine's influence on European cuisine was fundamental in popularizing the jacket. From there, its use spread throughout the Old Continent initially, and later gained a place in kitchens around the world. At the end of the 19th century, this garment began to be mass-produced in the United States, leading to its complete dominance in chefs' uniforms. Now, the safety and comfort of the users are paramount when selecting the best chef's jacket. The materials must be suitable to protect them from burns or splashes; there is a wide variety of fabrics that can be used depending on the specific tasks of each chef. At GDI, we will guide you through this process, analyzing your staff's work with you to select the best materials. Furthermore, the garment's design is essential for several reasons. The jacket's characteristics can vary depending on the chef's role; for example, if they work near the fire, long sleeves are essential to prevent accidents, while if the work doesn't involve contact with fire, short sleeves are appropriate for greater mobility. Additionally, the corporate image of each restaurant and kitchen, and the message you want to convey through the chefs' uniform, also come into play. Our Design department will work with you to create the best garment and image for your restaurant, from the colors to the placement of your logo and the various features of the garment. At GDI, we have extensive experience providing uniforms to companies in the food and restaurant industry. Throughout our history, we've outfitted the kitchens of many of your favorite restaurants across the country. If you work for a company in this sector and would like to start projecting your corporate image and give your employees the best work tools, contact us and together we'll find the perfect solution for you. We look forward to hearing from you! Octavio López Rios – Executive Chef of GDI
Blind CVs, a measure in favor of diversity.
If you work in Human Resources, you've probably asked yourself repeatedly, "Is gender, location, or age really more relevant than a candidate's professional experience?" Or perhaps, as an internal client, you've been more influenced by these factors when selecting a new team member. I'd like to tell you a little more about this topic, which, although not widely discussed in Mexico, seems to be gaining popularity. The Blind Resume is a measure implemented primarily in European countries in late 2006, where, even within their equality legislation, a clause was added stipulating that the candidate's resume information must be presented anonymously, eliminating personal details such as name, gender, age, place of residence, and including a photograph. This new resume format aims to focus solely on what's most relevant when applying for a new job: the candidate's skills and competencies. Furthermore, using this document anonymously facilitates the hiring of women, older adults, immigrants, and members of minority groups. Thanks to the diversity of our staff, high-performing teams are forming. Sharing experiences with people from different cultures, ages, professions, and even preferences enriches and strengthens our knowledge base by discussing diverse ideas and experiences to solve problems. Knowledge management theory posits that knowledge is a human act based on interpreting information to act in a given situation. Therefore, it resides primarily in people and is enriched the more it is shared. Working in an inclusive and diverse environment will contribute to achieving the organization's objectives. At GDI, we have improved our recruitment and selection strategies by focusing solely on candidates' competencies from the very first interview, fostering a better work environment and organizational culture. Would you like to work with us? At GDI, we value extraordinary effort and are always looking to work with the best people. Contact us! Sydney Velázquez Mendoza – Talent Acquisition Analyst at GDI
October, Breast Cancer Awareness Month
Did you know that breast cancer is the leading cause of death among women of working age in our country? Every day, between 10 and 12 Mexican women die from this disease. Although the incidence is higher after age 55, there are increasingly more cases of women between 35 and 45 years old suffering from this condition. The number of cases in our country has grown alarmingly in recent years, so, as we do every year, we dedicate a month to raising awareness and emphasizing the importance of prevention. Early detection is essential to receive the right treatments and care and to overcome this terrible disease. To detect breast cancer early, it is necessary to be attentive to different signs and symptoms in our bodies. Remember, the earlier it is detected, the better your chances of fighting and overcoming this disease. The most important signs are: To this day, the specific cause of this disease is still unclear. However, some studies show a link to smoking, poor diet, lack of physical activity, obesity, excessive use of contraceptives, and above all, a person's genetic predisposition. This is why it is extremely important for all women to be aware of the signs and maintain constant communication with their trusted doctor. At GDI, we are confident that each of us can be a spokesperson for the breast cancer prevention message. Therefore, committed to this fight, we support and strengthen this global awareness initiative through information and education on fundamental topics such as early detection, diagnosis, and appropriate treatment for this terrible disease. Through early detection, together we can save thousands of lives.
Retail, adapting to change
The Covid-19 pandemic caused an unprecedented economic crisis at the regional, national, and global levels, but it also fostered and accelerated the digitalization of many commercial and industrial activities. As a result, paradigms in the functioning of the economy are changing, creating opportunities for efficiency, cost reduction, and increased productivity. In these uncertain times, the concept of "creative destruction," developed by the Austrian economist Joseph Schumpeter, seems particularly relevant. This concept suggests that the process of innovation and technological development must prevail to adapt to changing consumer behavior. Companies that fail to adapt or make changes will simply disappear. The economic situation of businesses and consumers in the retail sector has been significantly impacted. At the beginning of the current health crisis, this sector was affected by panic buying, which disrupted the inventories of many supermarket chains and, in turn, the production cycles of many consumer goods companies. In the retail sector, most companies have already undergone a digitization process, a fact that, despite the current crisis, has undoubtedly allowed them to stay afloat to a greater or lesser extent. But what has the coronavirus pandemic caused or taught us about the consumer? This pandemic has changed our daily lives and, therefore, how we shop and make decisions. Companies must find new ways to communicate with their customers, maintaining their loyalty and facilitating the purchasing process. Given this scenario, the retail sector must rethink its commercial strategy and update it based on consumer preferences. Considering that users will interact with different channels and forms of communication (online store, point of sale, email, etc.) throughout the entire purchasing process, omnichannel retailing is essential for brands to offer the best customer experience. As consumers gradually return to physical stores, retail companies will need an effective communication strategy to maintain customer loyalty and improve sales. To achieve this, an effective and successful corporate image is essential, and uniforms are an excellent tool for achieving it. At GDI, we are experts in this industry, having provided uniforms for the most important retail chains across the country in recent years. If you belong to this industry and would like to develop a successful corporate image strategy through your employees' uniforms, contact us, and together we will design the one that best suits your operations. We look forward to hearing from you! Karla Vanessa Mojica Valle – Account Executive at GDI
Staff turnover, a risk to your corporate image
You may have seen people wearing a uniform—a t-shirt, jacket, or garment with their company logo—on your way to work, on a weekend outing, or simply going about your daily activities. The use of uniforms is a positive thing since employees are one of the main assets a company has to differentiate its identity and brand, being a factor that helps the company stand out from the competition and build trust with the customer. Now, imagine seeing someone on the news or on social media one day who was arrested for committing a crime while wearing your company's uniform or a t-shirt with your logo in the trash, polluting the environment and taking more than 50 years to be absorbed by the environment. Before you know it, it's trending, memes and criticisms appear about the poor management and control that the brand and/or company has over this very important element. An event like this can severely damage the reputation and image of any company, regardless of its size or industry. But what can be done as an organization? Employee turnover is one of the biggest problems for the Human Resources departments of any company, and keeping track of the uniforms of each employee becomes an extremely complicated mission. In Mexico, employee turnover reaches a rate of 16.75%, the highest among Latin American countries. For example, in our country, the restaurant industry alone has a value of close to 250,000 billion pesos. According to data from the National Chamber of the Restaurant and Seasoned Food Industry (Canirac), the food sector generates around 700,000 million direct jobs and nearly three million indirect jobs in Mexico, but it is also one of the sectors with the highest staff turnover. Where do all those uniforms that are being left behind end up? What happens to those thousands of garments? Doesn't it make you nervous? Currently, despite these high turnover rates, there are still organizations that do not ensure the proper disposal of their uniforms after their useful life, potentially becoming victims of misuse of their corporate image or being involved in an inconvenient and regrettable incident due to not having taken the necessary measures with a uniform that was incorrectly discarded. That is why at GDI Uniforms, committed to the environment as a Socially Responsible Company and taking care of our clients' corporate image as their best business partners, we offer our clients the Controlled Destruction and Disposal of Uniforms Service, where our business partners protect their brand and have the assurance that their uniforms will only be used to create recycled products and in favor of the environment. Our service ranges from the collection by GDI or shipment by the client of obsolete uniforms, the destruction of garments ensuring that the misuse of obsolete uniforms is avoided, photographic evidence and document certifying the destruction of all garments and the recycling. The resulting material is reprocessed to generate new by-products: carpet fabrics, upholstery yarns, new garments, and so on. Get in touch with us and together we'll develop a program that protects your corporate image and the environment! Vanessa Orendain García – Account Executive at GDI
The intangible benefits of a Quality Management System
In recent years, we have heard in various forums about the benefits that a Quality Management System (QMS) brings to an organization. GDI Grupo Diamante Internacional is a relatively young organization; however, our growth has been exponential in recent years, and a fundamental part of this sustained success is largely due to the implementation of this system. It is generally mentioned that the benefits that a QMS brings to organizations are increased customer satisfaction, an improvement in the organization's processes, a reduction in internal or external quality costs, entry into new markets, and differentiation from the competition. All these benefits have been tangible for the organization, as we have been able to measure their impact over time and without a doubt, they are of great value to any company. However, have you ever wondered what the intangible benefits of a QMS are that a QMS brings to the organization internally? At GDI we have found that one of the greatest benefits is the sense of belonging that employees feel towards the processes where they interact. By implementing a QMS, our procedures or technical guides are developed in conjunction with our collaborators with the support of their leaders, thus documenting all the know-how and enabling continuous improvements. In addition, another intangible benefit is the Motivation and Collaboration that exists between the different work teams. This is reflected in the fulfillment or improvement of the different indicators that exist in the organization as the QMS has become established in the company. The sum of all these efforts is reflected in the achievement of our Quality Objectives annually. The last intangible benefit that the organization has detected is the Innovation and Creativity with which employees find the solution to the daily problems they face within their operation. This has allowed for improved job performance in all operational areas. Furthermore, to ensure that the innovation generated is adopted in our QMS and that we remain at the forefront of the market, we align everything to the requirements of the International Standard ISO 9001:2015 that governs our organization. The result of all this effort and teamwork is that we achieved the Recertification of our QMS in September 2020. At GDI we are always committed to our clients and other stakeholders, so many of our efforts are focused on continuous improvement. Constant innovation in our services and products makes us the best Business Partners for our clients and keeps us at the forefront of the market. Our Quality Management System supports us in our mission to offer image and security consulting services to our clients. We look forward to starting your project together! Roberto Martínez Calderón – Coordinator of Comprehensive Management
Innovation in times of COVID-19
Turning a crisis around opens doors to opportunities. That's why, in a time like the one we're living through, we're seizing the COVID-19 pandemic as a great opportunity to innovate. Now, when we talk about innovation in this critical era, where the health emergency has practically brought the world to a standstill, affecting companies at all levels—small, medium, or large international corporations—we find ourselves on high alert. Faced with this situation, many questions arise. How can we maximize the value we contribute to society? What are your differentiating competencies and how could they be used in new ways, creating competitive advantages? What will the future look like? These are just a few examples. In response to all these questions, at GDI we work as a team, seeking to integrate our clients' needs with the demanding requirements of a resilient environment, with our primary objective being to retain our clients. Understanding this as a significant investment in the future, we sought ways to support you, maintain active communication, listen attentively to your current needs, and pay close attention to feedback on the products and services you've already received, as well as the new ones we're offering. This allowed us to identify the ideal environment to work, renew, and innovate on technological platforms that will enable us to stay at the forefront and achieve greater market share. The evolution of these integrated platforms will allow us to automate most business practices related to the operational and production aspects of our company, facilitating and centralizing information with our strategic partners. At GDI, we've implemented several digital updates for you, our business partners. We at GDI are confident that these innovations will streamline our business relationship with our clients—our strategic partners—and strengthen it for future challenges. Now, let's remember that this crisis will end, all of this will pass. Therefore, let's not lose sight of the bigger picture and keep in mind that, while not everything is under our control, our attitude and our decisions are, and it will be up to us to make something productive out of it or not. At GDI, we aim to emerge stronger from this and be part of the solution.
How do we do mass production in a textile company?
If we were to ask someone outside the clothing industry how they imagine a company that produces clothes is structured, they would most likely answer that there is a group of tailors and seamstresses developing garment by garment. This model worked in the early 20th century; however, nowadays the most advanced companies develop garments in series, optimizing operations. A modern clothing company like GDI Uniforms is more like a company in the automotive sector, where there are different production lines, each dedicated to the development and manufacture of a specific model. But in a context as diversified as the textile industry is today, is it still possible to execute a production plan effectively? Is it still possible to organize production plans for one or more production lines simultaneously? Or could those plans be thwarted? Mass production has been transforming over time, especially in recent years. For example, in the 70s or 80s, it was common to talk about large orders, while today companies find themselves managing thousands of micro-orders at the same time and an infinite number of models, some even unique and not to be repeated. Because of all this, the complexity of production management, whether internal or external, has multiplied exponentially, and everything seems to indicate that this trend will not stop. If yesterday production planning consisted simply of standardizing each line for a certain time, with models and colors that changed very occasionally, today proper planning involves agile vertical and horizontal integrations between the various production units. So, what needs to be done to plan and organize productive resources? An effective Production Planning and Control System must: Efficiency and effectiveness in these activities depends, above all, on having reliable data readily available, promptly filed, classified, and on the instruments used to collect them, for example, histories, time and motion studies, etc. Now, the production area has to be integrated with the commercial area and vice versa, managing to communicate in the same language and with the same timing. Integrating production with the commercial function usually means: Finally, optimizing production is a complex and constantly changing argument, depending on the lines where it is to be implemented. However, there are established and improvement routes, which include well-identified actions. Small lines are easier to work on and allow for faster and more effective intervention. Meanwhile, the larger and more complex lines have to be broken down and each of the following points addressed: Conduct a thorough analysis of the method and the resources available: Labor, Machinery, etc. Provide timely feedback to the production line, helping to plan in the most effective way. At GDI we have evolved, improving our processes to become what we are, a world-class textile company. Our Production department consists of a group of Human, Material and Intangible Resources that collaborate in synergy to achieve all our goals. The main function of the production manager is to lead all these resources, with our continuous focus on satisfying each of our business partners. Our Production Area is ready to start projecting your corporate image to each of your clients. Come closer to us and together let's build the best project for you! Roberto Moro – Production Manager of GDI Grupo Diamante Internacional
GDI, one of the Best Mexican Companies
For the past 10 years, Deloitte, Citibanamex, and Tecnológico de Monterrey have promoted the Best Mexican Companies initiative, or MEM. MEM seeks to recognize and support medium-sized private companies in our country that stand out for their high level of performance in business management. Furthermore, Best Mexican Companies is part of the global “Best Managed Companies” program, which aims to recognize the operational excellence of private companies worldwide. Since our inception, at GDI we have been convinced that companies are one of the most important drivers of change in our society and our country. In Mexico, there are more than 5 million companies distributed throughout all the states of the Republic; of these, more than 4 million are small or medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), contributing 52% of the GDP and employing nearly 30 million people. Today, we are very proud to share that for the third consecutive year, GDI Grupo Diamante Internacional has received the Best Mexican Companies distinction. As with every edition in which we have participated, MEM was a collaborative effort across all our departments and involved a thorough analysis of our entire business model. From preparing all the necessary documentation to receiving feedback from our coaches at Deloitte, Citibanamex, and Tecnológico de Monterrey, MEM helped us reaffirm our strengths, mitigate existing threats, and develop future plans to capitalize on all the opportunities available to us. This recognition keeps us excited about the challenges ahead. In the coming years, we will continue expanding our reach and improving every day to continue offering the best corporate image and security consulting services through uniforms and workwear to the most important companies in Mexico and Latin America. Finally, in a year as challenging as 2020 and given the uncertain economic and political landscape we are experiencing, this distinction reaffirms the excellent work we have done in recent years. Being recognized as one of the Best Mexican Companies of 2020 is the result of the tremendous work and outstanding effort of each of our employees, who every day contribute their part to provide a better tomorrow for their families and build a better Mexico together. To each member of the GDI family, to our people in Mexico City and Tehuacán, congratulations on this distinction! Without you, the journey we have undertaken would not have been possible. Award ceremony video: https://youtu.be/X167Smy7r-A Fermín and Miguel Ángel, Directors of GDI Grupo Diamante Internacional