Crystal maker Swarovski aims to re-invent itself

Wattens, Austria

A GROUP of millennial programmers swapped jokes recently in their office's kitchen while preparing salads for a weekly barbecue. Others mingled around a new foosball table. The budding entrepreneurs had arrived at the space - replete with fridges crammed with craft beer and a US$3,000 coffee maker - only late last year.

"When we moved in, we weren't sure this place was for us," said Valentin Schuetz, 24, a founder of Gronda, a smartphone application for hotels to use when recruiting staff members. "I mean, we're literally in the middle of nowhere."

Here, in this bucolic village nestled in the Austrian Alps, a co-working space sits in the original 19th-century manufacturing compound of a decidedly old-school manufacturer - Sw…