O Totem do Fouet

A handcrafted object transformed corporate transition into a ritual of memory, inheritance, care, and collective reinvention.

In 2020, O Boticário — one of Brazil’s most beloved cosmetic companies — underwent a profound transformation. After decades as a family-led business, the company began a new chapter under professional leadership. Yet the challenge was not merely organizational; it was emotional. How could a company preserve its soul while reinventing its future? Conceived as a four-act transition ritual for nearly 4,000 employees, “The Transformation Journey” sought to create symbolic bridges between past and present, founder and newcomer, memory and possibility. Rather than communicating change through corporate language alone, the project approached transformation as a human experience — something to be felt, inhabited, and shared.

At the center of this first act was the creation of an anchoring object capable of carrying the origins of the company into its next era. To understand the gesture, one had to return to the story of Miguel Krigsner, founder of O Boticário. Born in La Paz, Bolivia, to Polish and German Holocaust survivors, Krigsner inherited a family history marked by displacement, resilience, and reinvention. In 1977, he opened a small compounding pharmacy in downtown Curitiba, where he began formulating the first products that would eventually become O Boticário. Using a kitchen mixer gifted to his sister for her wedding, he manually whipped together creams, shampoos, bath foams, and the now-iconic Acqua Fresca cologne. From this intimate domestic gesture, an empire quietly emerged. The mixer — or as it's called in french, the "fouet" — became the symbolic heart of the ritual. Reimagined as a handcrafted object in wood and gold, it was gifted to the new leadership team alongside a handwritten letter welcoming them into the company. More than a commemorative object, the fouet became a tactile narrative: a reminder that behind every institution lies a fragile beginning, shaped by hands, care, improvisation, and persistence. Through this gesture, corporate transition was transformed into an act of inheritance — one capable of carrying memory forward without losing its tenderness.